Fall is the time to feed. If your turf was thin enough to allow crabgrass in, then you probably have a fescue lawn. You can either continue seeding with fescue to make it more dense or you can mix in some Kentucky bluegrass to make it dense. KBG is a sod forming grass while fescue is a bunch grass. Bunch grasses develop bigger bunches but the don't really spread like sod forming grasses. Decide what you want to do and do that as soon as the summer heat breaks. That will give the grass time to get up and growing before winter. Then it will have a better chance in the spring. Fertilize after you mow the new grass at least once. Fertilizing before you have roots is a waste of money. The fertilize again about Thanksgiving.

thanks to everyone for the comments. i posted this original item partially to help some beginners to avoid some of the pitfalls of lawn care (which this website allowed me to do) and partially to get some advice from the experts (i am no expect, me and my lawn are both works in progress). i am simply trying to fine tune my annual maintenance schedule and may post it when it is finalized. as far as chemical vs organic, i do have a 13 month old so am trying to transition to a more organic approach. but for crabgrass and poa control i will likely stay with pendamethalin (halts/dimension) and keep her off the lawn for a week or so. for antifungal, i will try to stay will fine cracked corn, but if major parts of my lawn are dying i reserve the right to treat with a more potent, target specific chemical (i realize then i will lose the option of using cracked corn/corn meal for 2-3 months). in the past i have been too quick to use chemicals for dollar spot/leaf spot when only a few small areas of lawn have been impacted, less than 1ft diam. spots turning brown/melting out.

It sounds like you and I share some common plants, don't know what types of arborvitae you have, I have Emerald Green, Dark American, and Green Giants. I can tell you that none needs any fertilization, they need to be watered initially, but after they are established, they thrive on their own. The only issue with these trees is that they taste delicious to the deers and they frequently come to feast upon them, you may come home one day and be shocked to see that all your beautiful trees have been turned into skeletal bare branches! In my area, they have to be protected with net or deer spray, it's too much work to have to spray and I don't like chemicals anyway, I used net, which looks ugly of course, but I've figured out a way to make it almost invisible at a reasonable distance. All my Green Giants are eaten bare this past winter because I was told that it's the only kind of Arborvitae that the deers don't like, so I left them unprotected. Now I have to replace them with spruce trees, but will keep my Emerald Green and Dark American under net. I have a lot of Boxwood of different heights from different sub species I guess, and have recently experienced bad cases of leaf minors, the yellow worms living inside the leaves. I have to compromise my no chemical preference by spraying a few gallons of diluted Orthenex Insect and Disease Control that you can get from Lowes or HomeDepot. This you need to do AFTER you spot the problem. I don't believe in preventive chemical they like to sell to us, they are totally unnecessary. Each spring, I saw companies coming to spray my neighbors' yards, all trees, all shrubs... without discrimination with stinky chemical that's supposed to prevent all things bad. I protested and was told although it smelled bad, yet nothing harmful to human, only to insects and bugs or any other bad guys out there trying to invade our civilization. Congratulations on getting rid of Trugreen, yes I was once their victim too and have escaped as you did. I spot treat my lawn as I do to my plants, if there is an area with weeds out of control, for example, I treat that area AFTER the problem shows up, but not globally and not preemptively. Also I learnt to do a bit of over seeding in early spring to suppress the weeds from coming. Then I still don't know how to deal with grubs, once their damage appears, it's already too late, and repairing the damage is expensive (it has happened to me once). Applying grub control globally seems to be over doing, they focus on one area at a time, but then you never know where they are. I've done quite a bit of research on the issue, found out Nematode might be an organic approach but won't treat all types of grubs either and it's expensive. I don't have a good solution to this problem. Good luck and I believe you will do fine without Trugreen.

The leafy weed in your 4th pic is creeping Charlie. You can probably kill that out with Weed-B-Gone Chickweed, Clover, and Oxalis killer. If that doesn't work after 2 applications (3 weeks apart), then move up to Brush-B-Gone. Those two are stronger versions of the regular WBG product. Creeping Charlie will completely cover the yard, so get it out. I like that you're mowing it high. You might have to get that tree raised up or taken out before you make progress in the back. I suggested using organic fertilizer. Usually you don't have to go farther than next door to find someone who doesn't believe in organic fertilizer, but it really works. It improves the green color, growth, and grass density. The end result is exactly the same as if you had used chemical fertilizer. The differences are that it takes 3 weeks to see the improvement (boo) and it improves the health of your soil (YAY!) So if you were fertilizing with chemicals on Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving, then with organics you would fertilize 3 weeks earlier. It's the same same but you get healthier soil out of the deal. Now which organic fertilizer is "the best." Pretty much they're all the same, but also pretty much they are made from animal feed like soybean meal, corn meal, corn gluten meal, wheat, cottonseed meal, and alfalfa. As it turns out you can buy these raw materials at your local feed store for about 1/6 the cost of the same weight of organic fertilizer. So that's what we talk about when talking about organic fertilizer. I like corn meal and alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow). Morpheuspa likes soybean meal and the commercial product called Milorganite. Both of those are more expensive for me in Texas, so I use what I can get locally. The application rate for all these is 15 to 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. If you have not used organics in many years, we suggest starting with 10 pounds per 1,000 square feet to reestablish the population of microbes in your soil. Otherwise you'll have excess food sitting on your soil and that can get stinky before it goes to work. Once you have the microbes going, then use the full rate. You can use organic any day, or every day, of the year without fear of hurting the grass or soil. The limit is more practical than biological - just don't smother the lawn under an inch of fertilizer. Here's a basic lawn care guide I put together after reading this and other lawn care forums for several years. Maybe it will help you get going. Basics of Lawn Care After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at seven houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct. 1. Watering Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an inch in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. Do not spread this out and water for 10 minutes every day. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. If that does not work, then you might have to water more than once per week during the summer's hottest period. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds. You will have to learn to judge when to water your own lawn. If you live in El Paso your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, temperature, humidity, wind, and soil type. It is worth noting that this technique is used successfully by professionals in Phoenix, so...just sayin.' The other factors make a difference. If you normally water 1 inch per week and you get 1/2 inch of rain, then adjust and water only 1/2 inch that week. 2. Mowing Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush. 3. Fertilizing Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it (unless you use organics in which case you may overdo it without fear of hurting anything). At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide. Oh and leave the weed n feed products alone. If you have weeds, spot spray with a liquid herbicide like Weed-B-Gone (not RoundUp). WnF products sound too good to be true...they are. It's always the wrong time to use them, and they just don't seem to work as promised. Plus it's a 2-man job to apply properly, so use fertilizer when you need fertilizer and herbicide when you need herbicide. My basic schedule for fertilizer is Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. Depending on where you are, these are close enough to perfect. They are easy to remember. There are reasons for not fertilizing before Memorial Day and for not fertilizing during the summer, so don't second guess these dates. If you have questions, please ask before you act.