What are you looking for in a lawn? I ask because most people who want a nice looking lawn use anything except K31. I am willing to help, but I don't want you to have great expectations from this variety of fescue. As they say you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.

So if you were starting from scratch, I would have suggested a mix of turf type tall fescue, Kentucky bluegrass and rye. You can buy that mix everywhere. These three grasses have different characteristics, but for most of the year it is hard to tell one from the other. The fescue would be expected to do better in the shade while the KBG and rye would do better in the full sun. But the owner would never know one was doing better because they look the same. KBG and rye might go dormant in the winter while the fescue remains green. Fescue and rye will grow individual plants which can thin out. KBG spreads like a carpet to fill in thin spots as long as its in the sun. For thin spots that emerge in the shade, you will have to reseed those.

Now is a terrible time to put down these types of seeds for 2 reasons. One is that now is the time when crabgrass seed wants to germinate. It loves the conditions set up for seeding new grass. In fact crabgrass will be the first grass to germinate if you start now. Ryegrass usually takes 5 days to start germination. Fescue takes 2 weeks. KBG takes 3 weeks to a month to germinate. Crabgrass is about 80% germinated in 3 days of continual moisture. All it needs is sunlight and daily watering. By July you could have a full crabgrass lawn. You would be ahead of the game if you ignored the weediness of the weeds and pretend they are lawn until about September. Then RoundUp the weeds and seed with K31 or the triple mix. The second reason that now is a bad time is the new grass will not have developed good roots before the summer heat hits. If you live somewhere where the summer heat is in the 70s, then no problem, but I think your heat is in the 80s with possible 90s.

The best time to seed or reseed these northern grasses is in the late summer after the heat breaks. That gives them all fall and spring to develop a root system and 'densify' to out compete the summer weeds like crabgrass. This lawn will improve every year if you keep up with the overseeding in the late summer.

I tried using CGM on a monthly basis one year to see if I got fewer weeds. I used it at a rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. The result was no change in weed pressure. I'm only one person, so this would be called an anecdote. Then I went to the University of Iowa website where the preemergent herbicide research was done. What I found there was that the best result they were able to get was 80% weed control under very specific circumstances. They seemed to get that result once and once only. They could not replicate that amount of success. And I don't call 80% a success - I call it an anecdote. That means 20% of their weeds survived. That's not success. That's marketing spin.

To the average triple mix lawn owner, K31 is considered to be a weed due to the coarse bladed nature of the plant relative to the more modern varieties of fescues. K31 is fine with me if that's what you want. Lets answer some questions.

What is your watering timing? How frequently and for how long do you water?

How high/low do you mow? If you work 24/7 are you home doing that or away?

When were the last two times you fertilized and what did you use?

And again, now is almost the worst time of year to seed a cool season type grass, so I'm going to suggest a little bit of suffering through some weeds this season until September.

What is your watering timing? How frequently and for how long do you water?

Last year I was watering for 20 minutes, every other day at 7am. But I think it was @gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) that told me to back off a bit, so I currently have it set to run weekly instead.

How high/low do you mow?

I set the mower to the highest height, which I THINK is 3 1/2 - 4". I have to level the mowing deck regularly, though, so it might be a tad higher or lower.

That's one reason that I really didn't want to mix tall fescue with something like KBG; I know they have different "preferred" heights. But I might not have much of a choice, with such different sun levels.

I have a leaf sweeper, so I started sweeping up clippings about 2 years ago to help prevent the propagation of weeds and to prevent large clumps of cuttings from killing spots. I'm seriously considering a robot mower, though, so it would be mowed more regularly but of course the robot couldn't sweep up or anything.

If you work 24/7 are you home doing that or away?

You're right, I mostly work at home. Now that COVID is slowing down I'm getting back to having meetings during the day, but my office is at home.

When were the last two times you fertilized and what did you use?

The first time that I ever fertilized the lawn was 2020, when I spread Scott's Turf Builder:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TYIJTWO/

After that I started spreading CMG which I think also acts as a fertilizer? I also spread coffee grounds, and last year I spread compost from Lowes in all of the dead areas.

I also followed someone's suggestions (yours, maybe?) of shampooing the lawn to help break up some super impacted areas.

I'm going to suggest a little bit of suffering through some weeds this season until September.

I gotcha :-(

The worst part is that the full sun area is the exact path that the dog runs to catch the Frisbee, and these weeds obviously hurt her feet! She runs through it anyway, but then curves down to the grassy areas to bring it back. She would usually run 6-8 times, but now she's only running 1 or 2 times. I can only guess that it's because it hurts her paws :-(

These are the dominant weeds in the back yard, full sun:

I think it's a mix of annual bluegrass and some kind of chickweed?

Weekly watering is so much better than every other day. That's great. If your temps are running in the lower 80s, you could probably extend from every 7 days to 10-14 days when it's not raining. Are you watering a full inch? Place some tuna or cat food cans around and see how much water you get when you water. Deep watering to 1 full inch seems to make a big difference in the longevity survival of grasses.

If you read one university report about mowing height they will suggest different mowing heights. The grass does not have an opinion on how tall you mow it, and I maintain that the difference between 2.95694575967 inches for one grass is not significantly different from 3.235698575394867 inches for another. Furthermore your mower doesn't have that ideal university approved, peer reviewed, double blind test of thousands of test plots average setting. That's why I suggest mowing at the mower's highest height. Don't get hung up on mowing height. Taller grass provides more shade to the soil thus cooling the soil and slowing evaporation.

Congrats on the fertilizer choice. I don't think you can improve on corn gluten meal.

Given your situation, you could spray out those weeds and try planting K31 seed. The very worst think that can happen is you get a lot of crabgrass, which is fairly soft underfoot. Then in the fall you can spray out the crabgrass and plant more K31.

I think the initial problem with the sunny area was not enough deeeeeeeep watering in the summer and then not following up on reseeding in the fall after that happened.

I know what you mean about dog paws. We use a lot of mulch and there are some parts of the yard where mine avoids or walks through quickly.

Place some tuna or cat food cans around and see how much water you get when you water.

I tried that when it was suggested a few years ago, but the impact sprinklers I have hit it WAY too hard and end up splashing the water out! LOL I keep meaning to buy a heavier duty gauge, but time gets away from me :-/

I think the initial problem with the sunny area was not enough deeeeeeeep watering in the summer and then not following up on reseeding in the fall after that happened.

Last year, you might remember my discussion on here about this. My beagle (Bane) was dying and wanted to be outside, but he couldn't walk or stand on his own. So I would carry him outside and sit with him, and that's when I started pulling weeds by hand.

It became a kind of meditation for me, and before long I had stripped half of the ground! In this pic you can see a light red line where the weeds start back; I was using a small rope as a guide to help me clear off sections at a time:

After he passed, I kept on hand pulling weeds. My other dog (Katy) is a bit older, too, AND the back yard is close to my veggie / pepper garden, so I never wanted to use chemicals back here.

At this time I was running sprinklers for 20 minutes every other day in addition to rain, and spreading CMG until August. And then I sowed new K31 in late September.

I forgot to aerate the soil, but I did use baby shampoo like was suggested.

You can see that, at the time, the lawn was seriously 90-95% weed, and it all would die out over the winter. Now it's closer to 50% weed, so a significant improvement!

So when I sow new seed in September or October, what do you recommend to pair with the K31 that's already there? What do you think about this?

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Scotts-Turf-Builder-Landscapers-Mix-South-20-lb-Mixture-Blend-Grass-Seed/4067918

Remember that:

1. Softness on dog paws is important

2. It needs to be tough enough to handle urine, feces, and a dog running like the wind on it

3. Water isn't a major issue since I have sprinklers

4. I'm in a long running war with black ants, moles, and voles

5. The grass needs to be able to handle 100 degrees in the summer, and 10-15 degrees in the winter

How did the middle section do last fall after you seeded K-31 (as regards germination rate and vertical leaf growth)? And what was the state of the middle section late last summer just prior to seeding?

I'll answer those in reverse, @rifis (zone 6b-7a NJ):

And what was the state of the middle section late last summer just prior to seeding?

It was more or less waxed! LOL I had gone through over a period of months and hand-pulled all of the weeds, so 90% of the yard was just dirt.

I had shampooed the lawn about a month prior to sowing new seed to help with some heavily impacted areas, and then spread a thin layer of compost from Lowes about 2 weeks before sowing. I was also running sprinklers for 20 minutes each week, so it seemed like relatively healthy soil; at least, on top.

How did the middle section do last fall after you seeded K-31 (as regards germination rate and vertical leaf growth)?

That's a little harder to answer, because I was never 100% sure what the K-31 was supposed to look like! I had left small patches of thick bladed grass that I thought was the K-31 from the previous year, but after I sowed new seed I had a lot of this thin wispy growth that could have been weed, but could have been the real K-31 and I was wrong about those thicker blades.

So I had growth, I just don't know for sure whether it was K-31 or a seeded weed.

Last fall, after seed germination, was that thin, wispy growth the same grass growing in the more shaded areas of your yard which ”…are thick and full this year”?

You did mention that after hand pulling weeds, 90% of the yard was just dirt.

I'm afraid that I don't know, @rifis (zone 6b-7a NJ). I don't have any pictures from after I sowed, and it's hard to remember exactly.

After I had been hand-pulling for awhile, someone on here mentioned the concern that I was inadvertently spreading seeds and actually making it easier for the weeds to grow without competition. I lack the experience to look at it and say, "oh, that's so-and-so grass" or "that's a weed", so I truly have no idea what I have now.

Photos/text here may help w/identifying K31

https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=5875

@rifis (zone 6b-7a NJ), I read the thread and it does have some good tips! At the very end, "Mozart" stated:

if you run your finger tip up and down the edge of the K31 grass blades it should be quite rough in one direction (going towards the stem if I remember correctly)

I tried that, and the thick blades I have definitely match that description! So I'm pretty sure that the K31 is the thick grass that I don't hate, and the thin wispy stuff is just something else.