Spring lawn care. What to do?

[yugin]

It's official I guess. Its spring here in the North West. Snow melted, nights are no colder than 30-32 F.
My lawn is still mostly brown. I wanted to know what I can do to start it good for summer.
I seeded it last year with mostly TTTF and some KBG. How long does it take to green up?
Should I put some fertilizer or wait till later in the spring?
As I had a little bit of weeds (mostly pigweed), should I worry about preemergent?
I guess I would need to reseed/thicken bare and weak spots, should I reseed first and than put preemergent?
What is good preemergent for homeowner? We don't have lesco around here.

[bigslick7878]

It's official I guess. Its spring here in the North West. Snow melted, nights are no colder than 30-32 F.
My lawn is still mostly brown. I wanted to know what I can do to start it good for summer.
I seeded it last year with mostly TTTF and some KBG. How long does it take to green up?
Should I put some fertilizer or wait till later in the spring?
As I had a little bit of weeds (mostly pigweed), should I worry about preemergent?
I guess I would need to reseed/thicken bare and weak spots, should I reseed first and than put preemergent?
What is good preemergent for homeowner? We don't have lesco around here.

Cant imagine why your lawn is still brown if you have TTTF,although Im not familiar with your climate.I guess you are pretty north and are a little behind.

1.Wait until it does turn green to see how it fills in, and all the dormat grass greens up.

2.After your first mow,dethatch and get all the dead grass and debris out of there.

3.Aerate,and over seed again,laying it heavy in the spots that are really thin.This is the step most people skip,you cant seed just once and think it is going to fill in perfectly.It usually takes a couple times or even three to get it to the point of just general maintenance.

4.DO NOT put down a pre-emergent until the lawn is thick and full in every spot.Once you put that down,you are pretty much SOL if you need to seed for a long time.Honestly,if you get the lawn thick you wont need a preemergent because the grass will crowd out any weeds.

5.Make sure it gets water after you overseed for at least 2 weeks.

6. About a month after you seed use a postmergent herbicide for the weeds that will inevitably come up in that time here and there.

6.About a a month and a half after you seed put down a good slow release high nitrogen fertilizer,and you should be good to go.

[Smallaxe]

I too favor reseeding rather than, pre-m, especially if your main concern is broadleaf. It is simpler to spot spray a few weeds than to prevent an opportunity to seed. Overseed until there are no more places to put it.

I would only aerate if there is a reason too. Some people now connect aerating with seeding , but aeration creates more obstacles to a good seed bed than do, anything helpful. Covering seed with compost is about the most perfect seedbed you can create.

Fertilizer later - rather than sooner is also wise. Having the subsurface roots come out of dormancy and be the actively growing roots is the ideal. Surface standing, water soluable N starts the plants making their surface roots, the actively growing roots. This is quickly becoming thatch.

Don't worry about fertilizer hype... Scare tactics are used all the time to get people to 'overfertilize and overwater'... It's a sales gimmick, not a horticultural reality...

Recommended Fert apps for Wisco are May/June and Sept-Nov. 2 apps. a year. But many lawns can get by with the 'winterizer' app only, if they leave the clippings on the lawn and water sensibly. So take it easy... growing grass is about the simplest thing in the world. :)

[yugin]

Cant imagine why your lawn is still brown if you have TTTF,although Im not familiar with your climate.

It's Eastern Washington and today we got like 4 inches of snow!! But starting tomorrow it's gonna warm up to mid 60s. Does TTTF suppose to stay green over winter? I thought it KBG.
I seeded my lawn last summer so I don't think I need aerating or dethatching.
As far as fertilizer goes I put down some winterizer in November.
Ok, so I guess I will put down some more seed first. Should I go with TTTF or mix in some KBG? Do I have to add starter fertilizer for that?

[bigslick7878]

It's Eastern Washington and today we got like 4 inches of snow!! But starting tomorrow it's gonna warm up to mid 60s. Does TTTF suppose to stay green over winter? I thought it KBG.
I seeded my lawn last summer so I don't think I need aerating or dethatching.
As far as fertilizer goes I put down some winterizer in November.
Ok, so I guess I will put down some more seed first. Should I go with TTTF or mix in some KBG? Do I have to add starter fertilizer for that?

I have found that true quality TTTF does not handle cold weather too well,and will struggle out of the gates after winter.

I am considering overseeding in the fall this year with a better suited cold tolerant type grass for this specific reason.

I dont see what seeding your lawn has to do with the aerating/dethatching unless you started the lawn from scratch and it is very young and thin.(thats mainly referring to dethatching)

I aerate at least once a year and over seed,it helps the germination rate as the seeds that sit in the plugs just suck up moisture and are almost guaranteed to come up.......and quickly.

As far as KGB,it is OK but I would stick with the TTTF.The KBG is more disease prone than the TTTF,and the way it spreads contributes to high thatch conditions.I will not plant anything else but TTTF these days,it is just a fantastic grass except when it gets really cold like I mentioned earlier.