First: Give all your remaining fertilizer to an appreciative neighbor. Centipede only thrives in acidic, nutrient poor soil. Second: Get your soil tested to be sure it is acidic enough for centipede. If it is not, consider replacing it with one of the more normal southern turf grasses like St Augustine or bermuda. Third: If you care that much about how the lawn looks, consider replacing it with one of the more normal southern turf grasses. It is much easier to make them look good. Where do you live?

So I am concerned the "mulching" electric mower did not break up the leaves I expected it to mulch sufficiently. We have leaves here in New England that come off the trees in the fall and cover the lawn. I read several articles from "experts" that mowing them should provide good feed for the grass. I took more photos recently that show the comparison between my lawn and the neighbors. If you zoom into the "holes" you can see bits of leaves. I am not sure if its a cause or effect but can't imagine how leave chunks would help the grass? I was hoping they would decompose now some months after being semi-mulched and under snow/ice/rain but they still are there. west side of house view from second story, west side East side. The above photo foreground shows the area that was hyrdro-seeded. It has a weird radial lines thing going, not sure if that's from the way it was sprayed which was from the direction of the street by a truck in 15 minutes? south-facing side

The problem seems to be different kinds of grasses awakening at different rates. That is compounded and perpetuated by improper watering. You're watering is the worst second only to never watering at all. Also you fertilized too early, but that's not the problem with the clumpy look. Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. That might take 20 minutes for you or, for me, it takes 8 full hours with my oscillator sprinkler set on full sweep. You'll have to measure the time it takes for your system. Put out some tuna or cat food cans. Time how long it takes to fill all the cans. That is your new watering time, every time. As for frequency, it depends more on daily high temperature than anything else, but humidity can have a big effect on tuning this up. First of all here are the basics. With temps below 70 degrees F, deep water once a month. Mother Nature often takes care of this for you. I'm in Southish Texas and have not watered yet. Some years I don't water until July. With temps from 70 to 80, water once every 3 weeks. With temps from 80 to 90, water once every 2 weeks. With temps from 90 to 100 water once per week. I could go higher, but you won't need that for New Jersey. At this time of year you might be able to switch cold turkey to deep and infrequent watering. Watch the grass for signs of drying out. If it dries out before the temperature would indicate, deep water again and watch it. If you get a front that brings excessively low humidity, you may have to water earlier than than the guidance would tell you. Mowing: Your lawn should be mowed at the highest setting or one notch lower than the highest - your choice. Tall grass and deep watering will give you the appearance you're looking for. Fertilizing: Next year wait until late May to fertilize...unless you forgot to fertilize/winterize last fall. You're going to need to fertilize it again in late May even though you already fertilized. Normal fertilizing in your area would be late May, early Sept, and late November. You have to ignore all the advertising in the early spring. They are selling fertilizer. If they can convince you to apply in early spring, then you will need it again in late May. They get two sales per yard.

Your lawn fertilizer guy is hilarious. Fire him now. The problem is you. You're overwatering. See all those circles of dead grass? Those are typical of fungal disease caused by overwatering. When the disease shows up with circles like that, it is referred to as fairy ring. Your lawn fertilizer guy should know that, so since he doesn't, fire him. He's incompetent and should be in another business. If he's part of a large business, the business is inept in their training. I'm guessing they have already fertilized your yard once this year. If they have, be sure to fire them. They should have waited until the end of May to fertilize. You can recover right now by using a fungicide. I don't use fungicides so I can't help you select one for your area, but I can help you with proper watering. Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. Deep means 1 inch all at one time, not spread out over a week. Put out some tuna or cat food cans and turn on your sprinklers. Time how long it takes to fill all the cans. That will be your watering time, every time you water, from now on. My oscillator sprinkler on full sweep takes 8 hours to fill the cans. High flow inground systems take as little as 15 to 20 minutes to fill all the cans. You'll have to determine the time for your setup. As for frequency of watering, that depends (mostly) on the daytime high temperature. Of course Mother Nature will deliver Her dose of water, so you should be able to skip watering for at least a week after a soaking rain. There have been a few years recently when I did not water until June or July because of some well timed rain storms. This year is different for us. The ponds all around us are full, but my little area has been skipped over. Anyway, with temps below 70, deep water once a month. Rain almost always takes care of this. With temps between 70 and 80, water once every 3 weeks. With temps between 80 and 90, water once every 2 weeks. With temps from 90 to 100, water once a week. That should work. If you see the grass drying out at day 6 in the summer, set it for a 6-day schedule instead of 7 days. In NO case should you ever water established turf every day. Also make sure you are mowing the grass at the highest setting. Correcting the watering and setting the mower up will fix your issues. So the problem with the appearance was caused by you (overwatering). There's nobody else to blame as much as I would love to blame the lawn fertilizer guy.