Mike, you are right that the best time is fall. Then is the time to use broadleaf weed killer and after the proper time stated on the label, reseed. The problem with seeding in spring is that the soil is cold and then when the new grass does sprout, our weather heats up so high in the summer that the poor little things fry. In the fall, the soil is warm and the temperatures are cooling down. That is what grass likes. I see plantain, dandilions and I think, dead nettle (lamium) or it could be ground ivy. Spelling may be off. I would practice good lawn care like first getting a soil test. You can usually purchase kits from your county extension office. Fertilize in May and September. Mow high and never take off more than 1/3 of the length of your grass. Adjust the PH in fall, if it needs it. Be patient and don't expect a perfect lawn!

It appears that you want to overseed. You can literally find hundreds of pages on overseeding if you type the term into Google. You can also find a ton of conversations on this forum if you just search back a bit. In fact, there has been a lot of talk about it as of late. Here is my take, but take it for what it is worth since I am by far not one of the resident gurus around here. However, since I have been reading the board and other sites religiously for the past year, while nursing my own lawn back to respectability, I have a somewhat good handle on it. - I have a feeling that most people would recommend starting from scratch. Here is why...If you are going to overseed, you need to start by killing the weeds. Judging from the pictures, you probably won't have much left anyway after that. It doesn't really look like your lawn is salvageable. - If you do decide to salvage it, one problem you will have is matching up the grass type. Since it is old and pre-dates you living there, odds are you will have to guess. - Once you see some of the photos of other people's lawns on this forum, my guess is that you will be itching to start anew with some premium seed. - Lastly, if you are going to nurse this one back to health, my guess is that you will end up spending more money on weed killing chemicals and spreading MORE of them (more harmful for your family) than if you just killed the whole thing and started from scratch. A thick, new lawn requires much fewer chemicals than a patchy lawn that is in the process of being nursed back to health. Of course, you can always try my route and nurse it back to health. I have been doing that for the last year. I have had my battles with grubs, weeds, bare patches and mismatched seed...but I am winning the battle. The best part is that I am slowly moving towards going organic.....Judging from the look of your lawn, if you really want to avoid a total renovation, it is going to take a few years, with the fall months devoted to overseeding and overseeding again, and with the spring months dedicated to applying preemergent and weed control. My best guess: - It will take you 1 year to have an awesome lawn if you start from scratch in the fall. - It will take you 3 years if you try to work with what you have.

I'm going to sidestep the cultivar discussion and get back to lawn care in general. You do not need to aerate every year...or ever. You can if you want to, and sometimes there is a good reason to, but many high quality lawns are never aerated. Some lawns need more water to stay alive than others, but all lawns (with just a few exceptions that don't pertain to your situation) require about the same amount of water to look good and stay healthy. On a mature lawn fertilizer is not needed until May. If you fertilize in February or March (like the TV commercials will encourage you to do), that will encourage over growth of the grass once it comes out of winter dormancy. The grass will use up much more of the stored resources than it needs to use and, by May, leave the grass looking very weak. Normal grass will come out of winter dormancy with a vengeance. It will grow so fast you might need to mow 2x per week to keep it down. If you fertilize early you might need to mow it 3x to 4x per week. The point is it will be fine until May with no fertilizer. The reasons not to seed in the spring are, as mentioned above, spring seeded grass is weak and often cannot take summer heat stress. By July the new grass will have died and been replaced by crabgrass. That is not the end of the world but it does seem like a waste of time, effort, and money. Also spring is the time when weed seeds, like crabgrass, are germinating. When you water 3x per day to germinate the new grass seed, the weed seeds love that and will germinate at the same time. The weeds are more aggressive and will dominate and crowd out the new grass seed. So fall is the best time to sow new cool weather seeds. Cool weather seeds can make it through a normal winter and toughen up the roots for the next summer; and the spring/summer weeds are not germinating in the fall. Here's something I put together a few years ago to help new lawn owners. Hope it helps you. Basics of Lawn Care After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at nine 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.

Sounds like Turf Type Tall Fescue is the way to go, I'm not sure that's enough sun for Kentucky Bluegrass. But seeding time is not until Fall. In the meanwhile, you may want to read up on NTEP tests for your area and check out seedsuperstore.com, see which one of the cultivars does best in NJ. Getting good seed makes a huge difference in the end result, though it costs more upfront. When you do seed, the seed will need to be watered 5-6 times a day 5-10 minutes at a time for the first 6-7 days, so unless you have an irrigation system make plans for that. Get a soil test done - people around here recommend Logan Labs - and see if there's any deficiencies that you can address in the meanwhile. Once it's time to seed all you will need is seed - ~8 pounds/1000 square feet, seed to soil contact, a bag of starter fertilizer and water to keep the seed moist.