Well, I don’t know anything about Scott’s products, or where in the world you live, but here in Missouri I never mow low. I mean Never. Bare ground is a weed’s paradise, my DH says.

Here’s what else I do: I never spread grass seed without preparing the ground in advance or least “scratching it in.” You must have good seed-to-soil contact for a strong germination rate. And water water water daily for 2 weeks after sowing.

Where are you located? The best window for seeding cool season grasses has pretty much closed for most northern areas. You might be able to dormant seed or even overseed in early spring but when one should attempt these practices is location dependent.

Hey! Thanks for the responses you guys. I live in western Washington state just outside of Seattle. I’m starting to realize I should have used some type of herbicide or weed killer prior to using the weed and feed. Still, willing to buy and use what I need to have at least a nic-er lawn come spring. We just have so many of those very flat, round, broad leaf weeds and it makes the ground feel uneven even though I know it’s not. once Again, I appreciate the feedback!

OK, knowing location helps a lot!

First, let me encourage you to avoid ANY weed 'n feed products. They contribute very highly to pollution and at one time were under consideration of being banned in WA state for that reason. Too many salmon spawning streams were affected. They are also an extremely inefficient way of dealing with weeds. And to be avoided if you have small kids or pets.

Second, the little round leaf rosettes of weeds are most likely Cardamine hirsuta, aka shotweed or hairy bittercress. This is an extremely common annual weed in this area with both a fall and early spring seeding season. But is easily controlled with virtually any broadleaved lawn weed herbicide. And I would do so now as they grow fast, flower in quite cool weather and produce an enormous seed bank. Weed B Gon will work as well as anything.

If you have already applied the weed and feed recently, I'd question whether you need additional fertilization this season. Also too late here for good germination for any overseeding and dormant seeding is not advised because of our very wet winters (seed just rots before soil warms sufficiently for germination). So you are looking at spring (early April) for overseeding or seeding.

Right now, just getting the weed issue under control and keeping on top of it is your best bet. Then plan on spring for doing the bulk of your rejuvenation work.

I would also encourage you to mulch mow if at all possible (most power mowers can be retrofitted with a mulching blade if not already with that capacity). That will eliminate as much as 75% of your fertilizing needs. And when you do fertilize, look to organics first. And as noted previously, mow high - leave the lawn at 2.5-3" to shade out much of the weed competition.

Agree with the previous...it is very important to know where you live. I'm going to assume it's a northern area with northern grasses.

Does the front yard slope to the neighbor? Do you have to deal with the slope?

Too bad you didn't come here before buying the weed n feed. First of all, wnf is a poor choice for any landscape. It's one of those 'sounds too good to be true' products. It's a poor fertilizer with a poor herbicide. Secondly, it's too late to apply either herbicide or fertilizer. Fertilizer should have gone down 6 weeks ago and herbicide 4 weeks ago. wnf is supposed to be applied to wet grass, so if you did that, then you might get some herbicide effect.

Normally your lawn should stop growing in the next few weeks, but since you just fertilized, it might get a growth spurt. I guess I'm also assuming, since this is a rental, that this is the first fertilizer product of any kind the lawn has seen in years. It should really pop with new growth; however, this is a bad time to get new growth, right before frost time. I don't think I would apply anything else for this year. You might see your neighbors winterizing their lawn after the grass stops growing, but since you just applied the wnf, I'd just sit it out until April. You can water. It is best to water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means 1 inch all at one time. Infrequently, this time of year, means once every 2 weeks. Assuming this lawn was involved in the repeated summer rains this year, it should be fine to stretch out watering to 2 weeks. When the grass stops growing, you can go to monthly watering unless it rains or snows. Watering dormant grass is more for the soil than the grass.

Also since you mowed it low, you might not have to mow it again until April. As was mentioned, mow high. Reset your mower for the highest setting and mow if the grass gets that tall again.

If you feel like you really have to do something, you can apply organic fertilizer any time of year even though you applied a chemical fertilizer recently. The chemical ferts feed the plants almost directly. The organic fertilizer feeds the microbes living in the soil, which, in turn, feed the plants eventually (3 weeks). Gosh, the timing on this is bad. I guess I would wait until the grass stopped growing even to apply organics.

NEXT SPRING:

First thing is to apply preemergent herbicide. Put that down when the forsythia are blooming in YOUR neighborhood.

April: in mid April you can spot spray the weeds with something like Weed-b-Gon.

May: in late May (Memorial Day), apply fertilizer for the first time. Don't get suckered in by the fertilizer and seed advertising starting in February. Stick it out and fertilize in late May.

SUMMER:

Just water and mow.

NEXT FALL:

September: in early Sept, Labor Day, fertilize again. In mid Sept you can spot spray weeds again with Weed-b-Gon.

November: in late Nov you can winterize with something like uncoated urea. Do this AFTER the grass fully stops growing but before the frost really hits.

WATERING: The single most important part of lawn care is proper watering. Deep and infrequent is the mantra for lawn watering. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Time how long it takes your sprinkler to fill some tuna or cat food cans placed in the yard. That is your watering time from now on. Infrequent means no more than once per week in the hottest heat of summer and no less than once a month when temps are less than 70.

"It is best to water deeply and infrequently. Infrequently, this time of year, means once every 2 weeks. "

Where the OP is located - as stated, just outside Seattle, WA - there will be no need to water until sometime late next spring :-)

And the application of organic fertilizers is also pretty time sensitive....or at least temperature sensitive. Once soil temps drop below 50F, the vast majority of soil biology is pretty inactive so the fertilizer is not really processed and therefore unable to be accessed by the grass roots.

Oops! I started typing my previous reply yesterday when there were only two replies. So you probably don't need to continue watering.

I used to think the microbes were asleep all winter, but I have seen that magic does happen to the soil. Without doing anything, the pH of my soil changes in the root zone. Iron which had become bound to our calcium soil in the previous season becomes available in the spring. Yellow spots become green. I can only attribute it to microbes. Do you have any ideas on that, GG or morph?

Tons of ideas, but it does depend on a soil test, and some things the homeowner simply cannot control like soil temperature and soil moisture. Colder and wetter soils just don't release iron very well and grasses tend to be less green.

I trick that here in PA by spraying late in the season (once) with ferrous sulfate to deepen the grass, but it's strictly optional and there are other ways to handle it, including simply ignoring the whole thing. In my case, I manipulate my whole microclimate to keep everything awake and active right into February, though. You've seen the photos.