I'm not familiar with your part of the country, but the soil is mostly clay in my area as well. So I'll give my 2 cents. I'm glad you decided to go organic.

Skip the dolomite/lime. Everything I've ever read said PH 6.5 - 7 is perfect for a beautiful lawn. Organics will over time, naturally cause the soil to move towards neutral (7) anyway.

If it is hard to get your clay soil to absorb water, then core aerate will help. But instead of alfalfa, I would apply a good quality compost after aeration. If you can do this before you re-seed or re-sod, even better. Do it once, and you'll reap the rewards of good moisture and nutrient absorption for your lawn long term.

Pay attention to your soil test, and report back here if you are deficient in any nutrients. The compost will help make available the nutrients that are already in your soil. Your clay soil is probably deficient in organic matter, which is another reason you need compost.

Seeding after a rain is good. Be careful about seeding before rain as a good rain could simply wash all of your seed away.

You've got the right idea, I just think it sounds a little wasteful to try to plan everything without knowing what your soil test is going to say. A good quality compost will fix most of your problems, but you need to give it some time to work before commencing with additional fertilizer.

All fertilizer / amendments take about 3 weeks before they are available to the grass. CGM is unique in it's ability to prevent seed germination. Corn meal and cracked corn do not have this property.

Finally, I would carefully watch the amount of water you apply. Fungus is commonly a problem on grass that is wet most of the time. Again, compost will help the clay to absorb more water, so you should be able to water less, once the grass is established, and still have a great looking lawn. Compost will also introduce or aid the production of microbes that will prevent fungus altogether.

Good luck!

Thanks, Dogwind. I'll definitely hold off on doing anything till after I get my soil test results.

What ballpark application rate am I looking at for compost to be ideal? I've seen 3/4 yd per 1000 sqft before.

regarding watering: I actually don't water my lawn, unless we've gone 2-3 weeks without a drop. In the summer I let it go dormant on it's own. I don't have an irrigation system, and watering 15k sqft with hose end sprinklers in short durations so that I don't get runoff (as you mentioned soil doesn't absorb well) takes time, and it's hard to fit it into the hour or two I have in the morning before work while juggling kids, lunches, breakfast, etc.

The fungus issue is mostly based on the fact that our nighttime temps have been 70+ since the beginning of June with humidity that's typically 60% or higher. The grass is always dewy till 10 AM.

I tried cutting it shorter once June started, as I had read that might help it dry out faster in the mornings, but I think it really only weakened the grass and made the roots shallower and contributed to the overall demise of my lawn.

I've read some of the articles about planting a thinner stand of grass and I might consider that this time around. Just need to find time to research.

1 cubic yard per of compost broadcast over 1000 sq feet would normally give you between .25 and .5 inch deep of compost. However, I suggest you spread your compost after you core aerate, to help increase the amount of organic material in your soil. So the compost hopefully will be falling into the holes that your aeration creates. Again, I'm making an assumption on the equipment and material used. I would add as much compost as the budget allows. 1 yard per 1000 is the minimum I would apply. This will be a very thin layer for you and, a nice starter bed for your new lawn.
Since you can't control the amount of moisture mother nature applies, corn meal broadcast at 20# per 1000 sq ft will definitely help control fungus. The corn meal causes a type of fungus to grow (after 3 weeks) that will actually prevent the fungus that shows up on the grass blades. It's really great stuff, especially if you can find the whole ground from a feed store in 50# bags. Cracked corn doesn't work nearly as well IMO.
I'm not very knowledgeable about fescue lawns. Other people that post here mow around 2 or 3 inches. What is best is dependent on the amount of sunlight available (longer grass can tolerate less direct sunlight than shorter), and to a lesser extent, the amount of traffic the lawn receives. One rule of thumb to follow would be to never remove more than one third of the total grass blade during any one mowing. In my experience, longer grass blades do lead to deeper roots and more drought tolerance. Also, mulch mowing or leaving the cut grass on the lawn will further help improve OM in the soil.

Get that soil test from North Carolin State University so you know for sure your soils pH and nutrient levels and alos dig in with these simple soil tests,
1) Structure. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. For example, a good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top.

2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up.

3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart.

4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer your soil will smell.

5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy.

Any soil that needs mechanical aeration is very low in organic matter.

In raleigh, the tractor supply company sells cracked corn and pelletized alfalfa. I know there is one just east of the city on business 64 between 440 and 540. They sell it as animal feed and will probably give you a strange look if you ask about "foods" for lawns. The pelletized alfalfa swells up when you water it - kinda like the expensive seed starting "mulch" products.

As for compost, yes, it is wonderful stuff and would be great to spread around they yard. However, for 15,000 sq ft, you will need about 15 yards of compost. That is going to be somewhere around 20,000 lbs of material that you are going to spread over your property... by hand .... in the August heat, so you are ready for seeding in September? No Thanks!

As for testing your soil structure - forget it. You have clay. It isn't a mystery. Don't bother digging a hole in your clay, because it won't drain. Don't bother squeezing your clay into a ball, because all you'll get is a wet ball of clay.

Anyway, it sounds like you are on the right general track. I'd get some corn out there prior to seeding to help control any remaining fungus. To start, I'd double up on the application rates of the meals for the first year to jumpstart the soil. If you aren't already, mulch mow. In the fall, get as may leaves as possible and mulch mow those in too. You want to continually be adding organic material back to the soil.

Corn doesn't prevent crabgrass and is fine to use when seeding. CGM is marginally effective in stopping crabgrass germination. For an established lawn, it works fine. In your case, I would spend 1 more spring using a chemical preemergent to control the bumper crop of crabgrass you are going to get, and then be essentially 100% organic after that.

Well, I've submitted 3 soil samples. They're free and I'm a sucker for excessive information in any situation. I took one from my garden and two lawn samples that were each a composite of three holes. The two lawn samples are from two very different areas of my lawn: area 1 which was mostly wooded areas that were timbered and grubbed when my home was built, and area 2 which was also wooded but was additionally disturbed by the installation of my septic system and traffic from when the house was built (I'm assuming). Area 2 lawn has consistently performed poorer over the last few years and is always the first to go. It also receives more direct sunlight, from about 10AM till 4PM in the hot NC summer.

I always mulch my clippings with the exception of a few times when the lawn got out of hand and I had to either rake them up or blow them into the woods so they wouldn't suffocate the lawn. I do not have mulching blades, but am looking at getting a pair for my mower to try out on the leaves this fall.

Responding to above:
structure: haven't had a chance to do the jar test, but the soil appears to be mostly the B1 horizon of a cecil sandy loam soil. Most of the characteristic Ap horizon is absent, likely due to lack of agricultural use of the soil given that it is on the wooded slope above a drainage. The soil balls and crumbles well when moist, forms very hard chunks when baked and will form a short ribbon. Soil is laced with gravel and occasional cobbles. (it's bliss to try and till, took hours to carve out my garden)

drainage: I haven't tested. Suitable drainage was a major issue when they put septic systems in, due both to topography and poor soils in some areas..

smell: earthy soil smell, pleasant.

Life: 0 earthworms for all the holes I dug, including a huge one in the garden for my son to play in with my 30 yr old metal Tonka trucks while I was working.

I don't know if I have the time or funds to do compost this fall. I might have to get by till the early spring on what I have out there currently.

I did find a source for corn/soybean meal in the area.

Should I go with corn and try and start building up my good fungi now, or go for the added kick that soybean meal reputedly has?

When do I apply relative to my seeding? I've read it takes several weeks for the meal to break down. I don't want to feed the crabgrass.

Results from my recent soil samples.

I'm assuming anyone who can interpret these results on a level higher than "wow, look at all those numbers", will probably know what they mean... if not, please ask or open this:

http://www.ncagr.gov/agronomi/pdffiles/ustr.pdf

Lawn#1 - fescue full sun - poorest performance over last 4 years.
HM% 0.27
W/V 1.03
CEC 8.1
BS% 85.0
Ac 1.2
pH 6.1
P-I 12
K-I 107
Ca% 51.0
Mg% 27.0
Mn-I 639
Zn-I 86
Zn-Al 86
Cu-I 82
S-I 44

Lawn#2 - fescue sun/shade, good performance till this years brown patch epidemic
HM% 0.18
W/V 1.06
CEC 6.5
BS% 82.0
Ac 1.2
pH 5.9
P-I 2
K-I 65
Ca% 44.0
Mg% 32.0
Mn-I 336
Zn-I 49
Zn-Al 49
Cu-I 65
S-I 61

Verant Knight, I have a question for you -
you said you are seeding clover.
How did you find a clover variety appropriate for use in lawns? I ask because every kind of clover seed I have purchased in recent years has been too tall to work well in my lawn. I think I'm finding seed that folks might use as a cover crop or green mulch sort of thing, rather than seed that would be a good lawn plant. (I'm talking about white clover - but - the white clover I have grows to 6 or 8 inches tall, if I'm remembering correctly, not the 2 to 4 inches that would make it integrate well with mown grass.)

I'm in St. Louis, so not able to use in-person suppliers out where you are, but if you gave me a varietal name, or even a description of the sort of approach you used to find the right kind of seed, I'd greatly appreciate it!!