Thanks joepyeweed and soccer dad, I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I didn't want to add too much information in the first post and overwhelm. Cultural Practices: Yes, I mow at the highest setting and water deeply and infrequently. I am still learning how to measure fertilizer in #/1000sqft instead of using Scott's rotary spreader and throwing it on the lawn, but I think the lawn has plenty of Nitrogen. Using the Scott's 4 step program in the past, I've started with step 1 in late April/early June when the ground temp is 50-55F and I see Forsythia bloom. Other Scott's steps have followed 6-8 weeks after the previous one. As I read more on this site I find steps 2 and 3 are not so good and my constant use of fungicide in the past has probably killed the good fungus too. After reading up on healthy soil I'm betting mine is lacking at this time. While I know it is great to mulch I have bagged since my fungal problems started and, very unfortunately, mulching simply spreads the lawn diseases. I may mulch my leaves this fall. I pull weeds by hand or use weed-B-gon to spot treat. pH: The pH has been a long issue and I'm not sure why. I've had several tests from the local Coop Ext as well as my own solution tester. The back yard has been between 5 and 5.6 for the last 5 years and the front has dropped from 6.8 to 6.2. I do test before I apply lime but I don't know why I can't keep the pH up. This is one reason that the organic method appeals to me - less pH testing and liming. Fungus: I agree with your assessment that N is too high. I should go test that with my solution tester. This is another reason to not follow Scott's program to the letter and go with organic or something hybrid for my lawn. In the past I was uneducated regarding NPK/ compost/ microbes/ bacteria/ good fungus/ and simply followed the steps not knowing if I was putting down a 30-2-4 or a 4-15-10 (just throwing out numbers). Grubs: In year 3 when I applied 24hr control I did have a problem and the grass came up like a carpet. Since then I have used the 3month control (July/Aug/Sep) every year. I don't want to go through that issue again. My area is notorious for grubs and moles and I'm reluctant to skip grub treatment for fear that they will return and I will be unaware until it is too late. Overseeding: Aside from re-seeding small and large(30'x40') patches I haven't overseeded the lawn. I've seeded over some thin areas with some luck by hand and am considering renting a slit-seeder this fall to try and fill out the thin areas. I may wait until next year for this if it takes some time to amend the soil before seeding. Organic: I've been reading lots of posts here about organics and the FAQ is great too. I am going to search my local big box stores and feed stores for corn gluten meal, soybean meal, corn meal and alfalfa meal. And maybe even Scott's organic lawn food (I have lots of gift cards to Lowe's). I understand corn meal is for disease and I'd like to apply it now. How will it affect my current year schedule: Late April: Scott's step 1 Mid June: Scott's step 2 I don't want to over N the lawn again. I don't know much about compost and will read more. 1td/1000sqft sounds like a lot. I have a bad back, is there any way to spread compost other than by hand? A drop spreader? I've read how great compost is but I haven't seen it in any annual schedule. Is that because composting is a one time shot to get microbes and bacteria back in to the soil? How often should one apply a layer of compost? I definitely realize this isn't a quick fix but I'm looking to take the lawn in the proper direction. As long as my practices are good, I'm confident the lawn will respond in time.

Ed- Almost no palm likes full sun immediately, although W. filifera would probably take it if you did give it. Leave it in partial shade until it is about a foot tall, then you can give it both sun and fertilizer. You really don't even need to give it fertilizer, these guys are so fast.

What kind of grass seed did you use? Some grasses don't need to be reseeded, but you should have some fescue in there. Fescue often needs to be reseeded. Spring is definitely a worst case. You could be worse yet if you started in June. THIS is the time of year for you, so let's be positive. Can you post a pic close up of the weed in the back? You need to control that ASAP before seeding this month. I would not worry about a soil test at this point. You could take the samples now, but I would not wait around for the results before doing something. Get the herbicide on (light mist only on the weeds). That can take 3 weeks for the plants to die. Read the label about reseeding after spraying.

I just want to clarify a point gg made above, because it would appear to contradict things I've been saying for decades. She said, "No lawn needs to be fertilized 'every few weeks'." I do agree with that; however, what I have been saying, directed only to bermuda obsessives, is that bermuda loves to be fertilized every 4-6 weeks throughout the growing season. What that means is that bermuda might become slightly yellowed without continual fertilizer. 3x per year is adequate, but for those who must have the best lawn on the block, then they would want to fertilize every few weeks. To the OP, lawn service companies only provide fertilizer, herbicide, insecticide, and fungicide. On the list of lawn management to-do items, these come far behind timely seeding, proper watering, and mowing. If you have a service but you are not pulling your weight on seeding in the fall (cool season grasses), watering (most important), and mowing (slightly less important than watering), then the lawn service is not going to work for you. However, if you are already doing the seeding, watering, and mowing right, your lawn is going to look pretty good from the git-go. There are cool season lawn care gurus who do not water their lawns in the summer...or possibly ever. We cannot get away with that in most of the south, but for northern style grasses, it happens. Since these gurus have fairly nice lawns even though they don't water, a casual, or new lawn owner might think they can get away with not watering. I would suggest that the newer lawn maintainer do not take the watering shortcut for a year or so while they learn proper watering, mowing, and fertilizer methods and materials. I'm not going to go through my typical essay on watering. You can search this forum for "deep and infrequent" and find it hundreds of times. Mowing should be at the mower's highest setting for cool season grasses, especially in the summer. I have seen some lawn gurus stop mowing and let the grass grow up as tall as possible beginning about now. The reason for that is that taller grass can grow deeper roots which penetrate to lower levels where the soil temperatures are cooler and there should be some moisture. There are also a reserve of untapped nutrients at the deeper levels. All this helps the grass survive both unwatered and unmowed in the heat of summer. Then when the summer heat breaks sometime in late August or September, you can bring the tall grass down with a string trimmer before mowing with a regular mower. There is a general rule against mowing more than 1/3 of the grass off at one time. If the grass is 9 inches long and you try to mow it back to 4 inches, that could be very bad. Instead trim it back to 6 inches with the string trimmer, give it a few days to recover, then run the mower. I hope gg dissuaded you from seeding. Of the 12 months of the year to seed cool season grasses, July is the worst. Also, rather than killing off the weeds, I would suffer through the weeds and bare spots until September. If weeds come up there, fine - at least they are green. Their roots are also good for the soil. Mow them like they were the lawn. You can take care of them in September (for New Jersey). Then you can seed and move forward to a much better 2022 season. By seeding early after the summer heat, you have a chance to evaluate the new seedlings. If you need more seed, you'll have time. If you wait until October to seed, you don't have that window for more seed if it needs it.