First, you didn't flunk Lawn 101. You got a B in 2006, a C in 2007 (for late seeding) and an A so far in 2008. Nothing you did was wrong, but the timing for seeding was off a bit. 1) Round Up. We hesitate to mention specific chemical names for companies. The generic glyphosate works just fine and it's essentially the same stuff. Also, so many of us are organic and the R word stuff isn't. 2) Compost and peat moss will both decay away in about five years, so the soil is going to settle. Certainly you can mix either lightly (say, an inch or so every ten inches of soil), or skip it and use organic feeding methods. If your soil is really bad, I'd mix it. You can usually get compost from your local garden store, big box store, or delivered bulk from a supplier. The other option is to use 1/4" as a topdress for your seeding. Over time, the decay products work into the soil and enrichen it, plus you kill two birds with one stone and don't need to otherwise mulch the seed. Plus, the worms like it. :-) 3) Go right ahead and use it. If it was stored in a cold garage, it's completely fine. If stored in a warm house, you lose some germination but it's not that significant over six months. You can't wait too much longer for a spring seeding (and might want to consider using Siduron or Tupersan as a pre-emergent when seeding). So you probably don't have time to wait for the soil results. That's OK, you can work on correcting those issues afterward. Right now, get it sprouted--the seed has all the resources it needs for the first few weeks of its life. Once you get that test back you'll know what to add.

Wow...what a beautiful house! Well, esh and bullthistle both have great suggestions...I don't know if I can add much to them. I do, however, think that $150/month is kind of a lot for a mow/blow company. You didn't mention what all services were included, but I'm guessing they are just the standard mowing/edging. I agree that you would probably do well to get some more prices. Especially if they have not contacted you in two months. Dethatching is a good call and you can do that yourself, if you don't mind a little elbow grease. Aerating is another good call; however, the equipment is pretty hefty and a little awkward to use if you have never done it before. Anytime when it is not too hot is usually OK, I think. Spring or fall. (BTW, I just LOVE the pretty mailbox and gaslight and they go perfectly with the style of your home.) I think your porch just screams for some pretty hanging baskets (ferns maybe?) or pots of color or low window boxes for the bottoms of those front windows. Something that would peek up over or around the nice boxwood "frame". It's also a good way to indulge your inner gardener without having to water a whole lawn right now. (I know it's probably a little frustrating wanting to get out there and garden, with a water ban on.) Heuchera would be a nice choice for the shaded porch...and there are lots of great colors. Caladiums, begonias, etc. Those traditional shade plants would be just beautiful with your traditional house. I like the already mentioned ideas about top dressing and ocllecting rainwater. Also planning your beds. There is a LOT you can do right now, on paper, even during the drought (easy for me to say, right? I'm not there!) :) There are lots of great shrubs you could try if you are really ready to get rid of the boxwoods. Frankly, I like them with the house, but I can understand you wanting to do YOUR thing...not necessarily the thing of the previous owners! :) Just beware of anything that will grow up too high...you have those low windows and you don't want to cover them up. I know junipers seem sort of ho-hum to some folks, but you can't beat the variety and the drought-tolerant-ness (tolerant-ness?). Or, like esh...I agree...just try replacing the ends only with something a little taller. Maybe a mid-height conifer...maybe in a lime-ier (lime-ier?), brighter green...maybe...arbovitae? False cypress? Something not too, too tall. Then plan a curvy bed. (Make them the same on both sides since you have a symmetrical structure) out around those end shrubs. Maybe...add one other different shrub just to the inside of both conifers...to sort of bridge the height between the conifer and the remaining boxwood. Then some drought-tolerant flowers in front of the whole thing inside the matching curvy beds. Put the same flowers maybe out by your mailbox. How exciting to have just moved into your new home! Congratulations and welcome to Georgia! My husband and I are transplants also (he from Lousiana, me from Mississippi).

Some are overachievers and worse, morning people. I had germination on day 5 in absolutely terrible weather conditions. Some of your seed will be slackers and sit around playing their X-Box, finally getting around to sprouting sometime close to day 30. Cultivars vary in their sprout date as well. If memory servers, and it might not, the Compact-America grasses sprout a little faster while Compact-Midnight group grasses are notoriously slow. It's a great indication that you're providing good sprouting conditions, though, so you know you're doing everything right.

>> He reminded me about the migratory Junko birds that ate much of our bare April fescue seeding last year. You get those too? Around here, they're year-round residents (sometimes). The average Junko (as well as other sparrows) are incredibly lazy. If you scatter just a bit of peat moss atop the blank areas when you dormant seed, they won't be very effective at finding the seeds and tend to do the job of burying them for you. No protection is required when seeding into a partially sprouted stand of grass. You can certainly add KBG to the mix if you like, but keep in mind that it'll tend to take over the lawn over the very long term (many years). Personally, I liked the resulting Abbey/Kenblue bluegrass lawn more than I liked the tri-mix that spawned it. So much so that I renovated to nicer bluegrasses! Under normal circumstances, pre-emergents for incidental weeds go around the time the forsythia blossom (or, when soil temperatures rise over fifty degrees). That takes care of most oddball stuff. You won't be able to apply any pre-emergent at this time as your new grasses will still be sprouting and have to be three mowings old before you use any pre-M or herbicides. Crabgrass sprouts warmer, but may get started in any warm snap in April or May. For that, I'd apply pre-emergent (Dimension, Barricade, most of them work on CG) around June first and realize that it's not going to be perfect. Spot treat any sprouted CG with Weed B Gon Crabgrass Control in July or so when you see it--the lawn will be old enough by then and more.