Originally posted by cruises8:

Thanks for the offers. I may take you up on them! Jay's "Mad Scientist" advice applies to lawn care too? I did not know that!



Yes, I am a landscaper by day and a mad scientist by night.

Leave the lawn alone for the most part until the early fall. Planting any grass seed now is a big gamble. If you keep the gound moist, the warm soil temperature will help the seeds germinate quickly, but the grass grows slow and will likely be taken over by weeds and most of the seeds will be choked out.

my best suggestion is to use a shovel and iron rake and level out the high spots into the low spots and leave it alone and let what ever grows grow. In early september go to a place like Home Depot and pick up some liquid Weed B Gone for use on lawns in a sprayer container you hook up to the garden hose and spray over the whole lawn to kill off any existing weeds and put down some Scots Turfbuilder fertilizer. (by itself, no weed killer, insecticide or anything) When the weather starts to cool down about 3 or 4 weeks after you do weed killer and fertilizer, if you need more soil contact a local landscaper to have them deliver some top soil so you can fill in any low spots that you aren't quite happy with. Then pick up some grass seed (if you have alot of big trees get a sun/shade seed, if your lawn is mostly open get a sunny seed) and rough up the areas you want to seed with a stiff rake, then lightly sprinkle the areas with seed, and lightly rake over the seeded areas with a leaf rake. Once the seed is down water the lawn every day for about 20 minutes in each area you run the sprinkler. Keep watering daily until its been down long enough to have mowed the new grass at least one time. Then around thanksgiving time put down Scotts Winterizer fertilizer and Lime. In March or early April after the snow melts put down Scotts Step 1, and from there on out use the Scotts Step system and water the lawn when the grass starts to look dry and the lawn should stay nice all year.

I feel sorry for the people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, thats the best they're going to feel all day - former President Lyndon B. Johnson