Well is sounds like your lawn was seeded in spring. Not a terrible time to start a lawn, but fall is best. The crabgrass could have been surpressed with an application of Tupersan when the seeding was done, but that is a moot point now. It's good that you are doing a soil test, because if you want to seed this year Sept. 1st is a good time for Long Island (maybe a few weeks earlier if it's cool enough and you use KBG). Tossing seed down occassionally, and at all times of the year is akin to throwing money away. Seed needs to be wet continually until it germinates, and then it still needs plenty of water. Seeding in summer is a bad idea. Mowing high is good, too high is not. How high is your mower set? If you are going to seed in late summer, then you might want to kill off all existing grass about a month before you do so. Crabgrass will die in the fall, but it is a gradual process, and it will get in the way of you seeding efforts. Also corn gluten meal has some preemergent activity, but it's no where near as good as Dimension, Halts, Barricade etc. I realize you have children and dogs, but after watering in it shouldn't be an issue. Mulch mowing is good, but if there are a lot of seedheads from poa annua, crabgrass, or other weeds it would be better to bag until seedheads aren't present. Again, seeding should be around Sept 1. Cool season grasses are best to start when daytime temps are in the seventies, nighttime in the 50's. Also if you plant KBG you might want to start a little earlier as KBG takes longer to germinate than TTTF or PR. You can grow mostly everything in full sun. For sun and shade you could try TTTF which does well, or a blend of KBG and FF. Seed selection is a long topic, so I won't get into it here, but most people will tell you to look elsewhere than the big box stores for your seeds. Ringers Lawn Restore is fine to use on an established lawn, but it would be better to use synthetics when establishing a new lawn. Coffee grounds are fine to put down as fertilizer, or you can put them in the compost pile. Preemergent timing is variable, a rule of thumb is apply when the forsythia is in bloom. Many people use a variety of organic fertilizers, Milorganite, Soybean meal, alfalfa pellets, etc. They all work, it's just important to supply you lawn and soil with the appropriate levels of nutrients, so let's see what the soil test says.

I don't honestly know exactly what I want to do in the yard - I am new to the whole owning a home thing. I have an active dog that really enjoys running around the yard as it is, but I don't enjoy going out there because I sink up to my ankles in bog. I want to replace the upper deck and build another deck underneath it to make a workshop/storage space; I would like to build an enclosure for the cats that leads from the house out into the garden so they can get fresh air and exercise without being in danger; I want to build a small chicken coop/shed so I can keep a couple dozen quail and a couple chickens (max chickens is 4). I just want it to be a private area where I can do my own thing. I am not a huge gardener per se, but I enjoy plants and nature and would like to make the yard usable and look nice. The property is on a slight decline sloping away from the back of the house. and the street is also on a hill - one neighbor is higher than me, the other lower. The higher neighbor has put multiple levels in his yard with landscape ties and filled it all in with crush. The other neighbor has a slightly more dry yard than mine, but then their yard has been taken care of. The person who owned this house before me was a very elderly man who did not do any yardwork anymore. A lot of people on my street have converted their yards to crush and/or used landscape ties to make different levels since the neighbirhood is on a hill. Perhaps I should do a tour of my yard and put it on Youtube!

Actually, that was the side I didn't do anything to other than cut a few of the larger berry bushes at the bottom of the hill. That birch is in rough shape and without staking it up and waiting several years, it won't survive. I would just assume take it down since it's not really in a great location anyway. I hate to do it since they are becoming relatively scarce due to disease and insects. This picture http://minus.com/lbx4OfKnwRF4xc shows what are definitely blackberry/raspberry bushes. I wouldn't mind having them, in fact I would welcome having a ton more, just not here. Being on the slope they will not be easy to get to when the mature and have fruit. If there was a way to transplant them or something I would love to hear it. I had tried it in the past, but the only way I have ever seen them grow was by accident and negligence. Based on the size of a few of the lower bushes, I would bet they may produce a limited amount of fruit. The smaller ones at the top of the hill however are definitely not mature enough from my experience. Going off on a tangent... I loved having berry bushes growing up and we had a large sandy area on my parent's property that they grew like crazy in. They eventually began to die off and my dad chopped them all down. The began to come back by the time I went to college, but it took a while to get any amount of fruit from them. My last year at college I rented a small cottage on a back road that had the biggest patch of black raspberries I had ever seen. I started picking as soon as they began to ripen and then ever couple days for the next 3 weeks. I stopped for lack of room in the freezer for 1gal ziplock bags. I made at least a dozen pint jars of jam and a few quarts. I gave a bunch away but i'm hoarding the last few of the "good" batch for myself. :) So in other words, I would love to have berry bushes, just not where they are. A lot of what you see on the ground on the left side (looking from the house) is debris and not much in the way of live plants other than some weeds. Obviously it is still very early here and not much has come up yet though. The tree shown in the background of this picture http://minus.com/lbwhVJrx76OE9d appears to be planted from what is left of the mulch/preparation around the base. This shot http://minus.com/lvFny84VUSjeW shows a rock swail that comes down from what is left of the last owners fish pond sort of thing. There is a reddish low lying plant growing on either side that I failed to get a close up picture of. It appears that it will look nice later in the spring but needs some weeding and/or mulching. I will take your advice and try posting some pictures on the "name that plant" forum. In the meantime, would I benefit from getting some sort of tall meadow grass mix to put down in a few weeks? *whoops, I wrote a book

Really cool house, and what a fun project! I took a chance and bought used off of Craigslist, but I got an insane deal. All Thermador and stainless, 30" double oven (convection on top), 36" gas cooktop, and hood for $700. For everything. Only a few years old (the woman was upgrading to Wolf and Subzero for her kitchen and just wanted the stuff gone). I was able to play with the appliances while they were still installed in her kitchen, and knew they worked. Buying from a family friend would give me similar reassurance. If you like the appliances, I think it's a smart move. The only one that gives me pause is the dishwasher. Maybe I've just been unlucky, but dishwashers don't seem to have a life much past 10 years. And if it fails, you'll potentially be dealing with water damage to your lovely new kitchen.