dchall... Yes... I know and have read all about the cons of W&F but I'm not sure what else to do. I live in the burbs with the lawn the size of a postage stamp and all I want it a nice lawn that doesn't break the bank and I don't have to drive all over town looking for specific products that I have no clue how to use... LOL If there are alternatives I can use that I can find at Home Depot, Lowes or WM.. then I'm all for it. Gas is $4 a gallon and I keep telling myself "It shouldn't be this hard or complicated. To answer your questions I haven't even turned on my sprinklers yet as mother nature has taken care of the watering needs so far this season. With TX being TX... I'm sure we'll be in a combo heat/drought wave soon enough and I know not to over water and let the grass tell me when it needs watering. Right now my mower is set one up from the lowest setting. If I take it down to the lowest setting.. I'll be hitting dirt in some places. Grass type... I'm assuming it's typical Bermuda... like I said I live in one of the new subdivisons that pop up overnight so I'm sure the builders just put in basic bermuda. I also wanted to say.. if my posts come off as mean or offensive... that's not my intention. Just getting really frustrated with this lawn thing. One person says the Scotts 4 step plan... another call it the devil...

Thanks for your reply. However, your psychic senses are wrong. I do tend to analyze things, especially when it's regarding a new endeavor/field I have no prior knowledge/experience of. It has yielded outstanding results for me in the past and so I continue to approach things in this manner. Regarding seeding too late - well, first off, I just took possession of the house so I couldn't seed earlier. Also, I live in Edmonton, Alberta Canada and if you've ever lived here, you would know that our summer is pretty much about 2 weeks long. lol Anyway, When I did the overseeding, it was about beginning of June and temperatures were about 10 C - 20 C and we've been getting a lot of rain lately. In fact, we're just starting to go up to highs of 20 C - 25 C and in about 5 days is the first day we're supposed to hit 29 C, as per the forecast. I know that Spring and Fall are the textbook times to overseed but our weather/termperatures here does not conform to the norm. Our temperatures in October are already winter temperatures for a lot of places in the States. Also, I did not want to wait until fall because I wanted to get started on thickening the lawn asap. I was confused with this statement though: "But you are just now coming into spring...and fall is just around the corner." Spring is technically done..did you mean, "just coming into summer"? I usually mow at around 4 -5 inches and only take a bit off. I know all about the "only take 1/3 off" and "mow high" recommendations. I only scalped it this one time to prepare for overseeding to facilitate better seed to soil contact. I've read about the roller thing but decided that it wasn't needed. I did not want to compact things any more either especially since I was core aerating. I ran my rake through the soil and seeds to enhance seed to soil contact and this is a technique that has been recommended in several articles and videos. I also did not want to bury the seeds too deep. In fact, I already have baby grass growing to about heights of 2 inches now. I only noticed them yesterday and they are even much taller today. I like your idea of sowing KBG first, then fescue then PRG but here's the thing - I have not found any stand alone seed packages in my local Walmart/Home Depot/Canadian Tire stores. They are all blends. I haven't gone to garden centers though but that's also because I do not want to pay more for something that sells less at Home Depot. Also, I think this says something.. I think that for our climate and grass types, the seed blends probably tend to work better. I think this is evidenced by the fact that I primarily see Scotts Sun and Shade being sold in all these places and not the other types - i.e. high traffic, high heat etc.. Also, this blend tends to get the best reviews on Canadian Tire.com. The other thing too is that I've read blends were made so that the PRG can germinate first and help establish the turf while the fescue and KBG are taking their sweet time to germinate - helps with thickening up lawn quicker and crowding out weeds. If I wanted to wait (or had the luxury to do so - i.e. lawn isn't too bare) the full 21-28 days, then I would probably just seed with pure KBG and not worry about blends. I've decided to wait with the dandelions. I've emailed Scotts and they said to wait after mowing the new grass 3 times before using Killex as it destroys grass seed and new grass. Just wondering why you say spot spraying is far better than broadcast anything. I just feel that if Killex is safe to use on an established lawn, it would be more efficient to just broadcast it, in terms of time and coverage. Regarding my neighbor's lawn - I'm not worried that her lawn looks like crap..I just feel that her dandelions are invading my lawn and I can see that most of the dandelions on my lawn are on the side close to hers. Anyway, I'm just gonna keep mowing high and hopefully it gets thick enough to crowd out weeds and hopefull I won't have too many dandelions and I'll just deal with them as they come.

Temps were in the low-mid 70s during day and low 50s at night when applied, only applied it in test areas, followed directions that stated to water down lawn before applying, lightly applied only in test areas (e.g., 2' x 2'), did not water for a couple of days after that (if I recall correctly it stated don't water after that so the granules stay stuck to the weeds). Believe me, I followed the directions. The only clue I had on the packaging about what may have happened is the fescue isn't established enough, although at least some of it should be considering it was planted from seed and thriving the summer of 2006, just some overseeding to fill in spring 2007. I think the packaging says don't apply until you've mowed new grass at least a few times but my lawn had been mowed many times more than that.

You have centipede in California? Is that a new trend since the drought? 99% of all the centipede is in Florida and still that's not very much centipede. It grows best in terrible soil with terrible care. It needs almost no fertilizer. People say that once every other year you can drag an empty fertilizer bag over it and that's enough. It loves the acidic soils like they have on the east coast. I would think St Augustine and bermuda would be the main go-to grasses in the Central Valley. Some water restrictions are fairly enlightened and some are guaranteed to kill everything if you follow them. Ours are horrible. We can water from 7am to 9am and 9pm to 11pm on one day per week. Well, who's around in the morning from 7-9??? You'd have to be retired. I suppose you could use timers (and I have a good one). But timers don't work for veggie gardens and plants located around the yard. That leaves 2 hours in the dark to get your watering done. In San Antonio we could water from midnight until 10am and from 8pm to midnight on your day. Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall.