"= at this point should I rake up all of the remaining hay?" Nope. Leave it. It will break down and provide nutrients and organic matter. "= shortly my yard is going to be in a lot of shade, trees are budding as we speak and my lot is mostly "wooded"...any advice for dealing with the shade?" I'd plant fine fescues (creeping red, chewing, hard fescue) in the shaded areas. One mix I've read good reviews about is Bonny Dunes. If you google on Bonny Dunes grass seed, you should find a number of places on line that carry it. "=should I put more seed down now? if so what kind of grass seed should I be looking for?" I'd wait until fall to see how the grass is doing. If it needs to be reseeded, use something like Bonny Dunes for the shade. "= and to top it off, we have dogs that use that portion of the yard. " Oops. The grass will probably suffer no matter what, unless the dogs are small and/or the lawn is large. I've got a pretty good sized dog and she doesn't tear up the lawn too badly, but I've had to learn to live with a dirt track around the back yard where she likes to run around the lawn sometimes.

Congratulations on the great start. Manual weeding really doesn't take as long as it looks once you get started. Was your Boston timing questions specifically for lawns? Then fall is the best time to seed. For the rest of the garden it depends on the seasonality of what you're planting. Grass seed planted now will struggle with the summer heat, so don't expect full coverage of your target turf in August. In fact you should expect a very healthy stand of crabgrass. Don't worry too much, though, because you can seed again in the late summer to get your turf the way you want it. It will likely be June 2011 before you're really happy with it. You don't need to till and if you did, then yes it would kill the grass you tilled up. That's what tillers do, among other things. You don't need to till the rest of the yard either. If the foliage is mostly gone, then scatter the seed on the bare soil, roll it down to make good contact between the seed and soil, then start watering for 10 minutes, 3x per day, for 2-3 weeks. If you have a bumpy lawn, wait until the grass is growing like crazy to do something about that. You need the grass growing fast to come up through the sand/topsoil you would be putting down.

I'm sorry I must have only previewed the previous message & not posted it! I live in Indianapolis, zone 5 B. Most of the residential grass here is a combination fescue/bluegrass, which is what I will probably use. I only have a couple of trees at the back edge of the lawn, so the only shade is from the house, which faces east. I did the jar test last week, & it still hasn't all settled. It looks like 5% sand, 10% silt with 10% clear water at the top leaving the remaining 75% clay. Also did the rolling test & had a strip about 4" long before it broke. I sent my soil samples to Purdue's extension & am waiting on results. In the meantime I just used a test kit from the hardware store. The pH color change was considerably darker than the color indicating an 8. Nitrogen & phosphorous had barely any color, indicating very low amounts of either & potash was right in the middle. Another indicator is drainage. There are a number of holes in the yard from where the previous owner removed the scrubs. When it rains they fill quickly with water (about 6") and take a good 10-12 hours to drain. Its sticky when it's wet & like trying to dig into concrete when its dry. I'm still raking up the left behind rubber mulch, but it hasn't rained for 4 days & it's still wet under those areas. I'm not opposed to clover & mulch in the back yard for this year, but would like to have grass in the front. Thanks for your responses.

Wow! Big difference with the photos! I agree, this forum lacks some features. Your lawn actually looks really nice, and it looks like it took the summer pretty decent other then the couple of dead spots. Those really shouldn't be a big deal to fix. Fertilizer from the seed super store is expensive. For your situation, almost anything will do. You could have the soil tested but it doesn't look worth it. To clarify on the aeration, I would recommend renting an aerator, and running it over the yard 3-4 times before overseeding, especially focusing on the dead areas. Before you do that cut the grass super short at roughly 1"-1.5" and bag it as well (this is part of the overseeding). Let me caution you that those aerators are extremely heavy and awkward. After seeing the larger pictures, don't till the dead patches up, there's enough good grass to save. If you really don't want to do the short mowing and aeration, I think you can probably skip it, and try it without. However, I think you will have best results if you do. You're right about the small lawn! That's smaller then I thought. 10lbs. would be an ample supply to you and your neighbor. :) Honestly, after seeing the larger pictures, every picture I see looks like you have fescue. It's too thick bladed for bluegrass. It is a short cut for fescue. Having it cut taller may help the water problems next year. Your yard looks like it's in pretty good condition. You can make seeding just as complicated or as simple as you please. It doesn't look to me like it needs tons of help to catch back up. If it were me, I would cut it short, aerate (I have an aerator, which makes it easier for me), seed (fescue), fertilize, then water, of course. Should take a morning, or less. Stick with it!