I want a lawn that only needs water from nature. That's exactly what you have. The beautiful, highly manicured lawns and turfgrasses you see in golf courses and some residences are the generally result of "lawn geeks" (like me) or lawncare professionals who work to make that perfect looking lawn without any weeds. I (we) make that extra effort to remove the weeds & fertilize the turfgrass (and using good cultural practices) to make it look it's best. Having said all that however, you can still have a fairly decent looking lawn without fertilizing & by using only the irrigation mother nature provides (that would exclude drought years) if you mow often & at the highest setting on your mower. But it wouldn't be that perfect weedless picture perfect lawn. One more thing, if your lawn is fescue, it requires periodic overseeding to combat the thinning. Even if you only want mother nature to do the watering & you don't want to add any fertilizer, you still should overseed every 2nd or 3rd year, (some fescue folks do it every year.) The best time to overseed is in the fall. Can it be saved or do I have to kill it and start over? Save it! If you kill it you wouldn't be doing what you said you want to do. Just overseed in the fall & forget herbicides, pesticides & fertilizers. My 2 cents, Dan (My opinion, as always, is worth exactly what you pay for it.)

Are you going to be happy with the results? Overseeding into an existing stand will result in a hodgpodge lawn of different shades, textures and growth rates. A complete reno may be your best recourse. For best overseeding results: Scalp the lawn. Run a verticutter over the lawn and rake up the debree. Spread your elite KBG seed and then run the verticutter set at a 1/4" depth over the lawn twice at 45 degree angle to each run. This will cause almost as much damage to the lawn as a complete kill and reno, but will result in very good germination of the new seed. Optionally topdress with peat moss. Drop a starter, water appropriately and mow carefully to keep any surviving extablished grass from out-competing the new seed. Good luck.

An update: First, thanks for all the suggestions. I ended up blowing off some of the contractor's seeds with a leaf blower. Then I put down a thin layer of compost, re-seeded with my quality blend, and put down starter fertilizer. The contractor said he seeded with "Tri blend Rye". I guess this is a perennial Rye blend? Will PR die in NJ (zone 7) in about a year? I have my fingers crossed that my TTFF/KBG outcompetes his Rye. How can I tell the difference between TTFF, KBG, and Rye seedlings?

Glad to help! I have an infant and dog at home too and prefer not to take chances. The organic feeds take effect more slowly. During active growth season, I see a difference after about a week to ten days. The grain fertilizers are broken down by microorganisms in the soil, which create available nitrogen in the soil for the plants to use. Chemical fertilizers deliver nitrogen in a form that the plants can use directly. The feed-based fertilizer has to go through the step of being broken down. These microorganisms also help improve the quality of the soil. Agway should have this available. I am actually buying and applying my first soybean meal feeding this weekend. The cool temperatures will mean that it will take longer than the 1 week to green up, but the grass will use the soybean as soon as it's ready. (Warm enough, grass comes out of winter dormancy.) The soybean meal is ground up soybean particles, more coarse than regular lawn fertilizer. I use a broadcast spreader rather than a drop spreader. You'll be applying a lot greater volume of soybean meal than you would synthetic fertilizer because it's a natural product, rather than the very concentrated chemical product. The best way to apply the soybean meal is to apply half going back and forth in one direction, then to apply the other half criss-crossing 90 degrees to your first path. It's less important to spread the soybean meal evenly than it is with chemical fertilizer. You can't burn the grass by applying too much. However, applying too much soy CAN cause a little bit of a smell as it's broken down. Applying 14 pounds per 1000 square feet should have no smell. Doing more may cause a mild odor for a couple days. Until the meal gets wet, the breakdown process won't begin. Not watering it in immediately won't hurt anything though. I usually feed about 4 times a year, about every 60 days. Unless your grass is long enough it needs to be cut, I'd just drop some Soybean meal on it soon and wait for it to start growing, then cut as necessary. On watering, you can always change the schedule slowly rather than going cold turkey to the weekly watering. Tall Fescue roots can go down a couple feet into the soil. Here are a couple photos. First was the lawn's state when I bought my house in March of '06. Second photo is from October of '06 after overseeding in September and using the organic fertilizers. (Full disclosure, I did also use a little synthetic seed starter fertilizer in September)