I'd clear the deck with Round Up or glyphosate, and keep clearing it for the summer as weeds re-sprout (and they will!) That'll help reduce the weed seed bank in the soil considerably.

When the summer weather just starts to cool off at night, plant seed and water three times daily. For Minnesota, that's probably early to mid-August.

While the area isn't huge, spring plantings require a lot of tending their first summer, and losses tend to be pretty high in the heat no matter what you do. The grass doesn't have time to grow roots before the summer hits, so very late summer as we move to fall is the best time to establish a new section of lawn.

Thank you for the info! This is exactly what I needed to hear!!

I am completely fine with waiting until August to seed, the last thing I want to do is work hard to establish a new lawn and have it not work. I am located in Edina which boarders Minneapolis, so not too far north.

I have a sprinkler system so the lawn gets watered every other day. I don't have any other lawn care besides Scotts which has done a great job keeping my lawn weed free. The reason I say it does a great job keeping weeds out is because my house boarders the Minnehaha creek so I do have a lot of woods back there that are full of everything and nothing has creeped into my lawn.

We just had a pretty big thaw here so most of the snow is gone already. I was curious, do I need a special type of weed killer besides normal round up? Or will that dissipate in time to not affect the grass seed? Also what type of organic fertilizer should I get? When it's time to seed the lawn should I till the area first?

Thanks again!

Round Up is only effective when sprayed on green. When I renovated, I actually took out a few remaining small areas of grass the same day I seeded.

Do. Not. Till. If you have to flatten some sections by shoveling them into other ones, so be it. Tilling will render the soil of varying heights, plus destroy the natural water channels. Plus the bacteria, fungi, and micro-arthropods that make homes in the soil and help clean and maintain your grasses don't like being disturbed.

There are only a couple of supposedly reputable places that tell you to till. One is the Scott's website, but don't do it. If you'd like more explanation than morph gave we could go into it, but if that works with my seconding his motion, then fine.

That's not what I expected to see about your watering. You may be the exception which disproves the rule. The watering rule is "deep and infrequent." Deep means water as long as it takes to get a full inch. Measure how long that takes with cat food or tuna cans place around the yard. Infrequent means no more often than once a week when the temps run in the 90s. No more than once every 2 weeks with temps in the 80s. Why is this important? There are a couple reasons. Deep watering will develop deep roots so those roots can obtain water from deeper in the soil. If you watered every day, for example, the roots would be only at the surface because they get water all the time. Deep roots are much more heat and drought tolerant. Secondly dry soil, which is what you would have most of the time if you're not watering every other day, will not support the germination of weed seeds. Weed seeds, just like grass seed, need nearly continual soil surface moisture for them to germinate and take root. If you deny those seeds the moisture they need, then you won't need herbicide. Frequent watering is why the crabgrass seed germinates first when you try to seed turf grass in the spring. Thirdly frequent watering can allow some fungal diseases to get started in your lawn. Infrequent watering almost completely shuts off the disease. Fourth, deep water penetration helps moderate the soil temperature and sets it up for deeper populations of beneficial microbes. They need the moisture and cooler temps to thrive. There are plenty of spoken and unspoken testimonials on the lawn forums as to the validity of deep and infrequent watering. The spoken ones come unsolicited from people writing in to thank the forum. Unspoken come in from people who learned the lesson and are writing to ask about some rare nuance with their lawn, and they're always careful to mention that they water deep and infrequently. A couple years ago I ran an experiment at a new house I bought in a small town on the edge of the Texas desert. I wanted to see how long I could go without watering if I allowed the grass to grow up tall. There is still one area of about 1,500 square feet that has not had irrigation water since October of 2011. Before California stole all the drought headlines, Texas was in a drought. Well, we're still in a drought, and that tall grass is doing just fine on the occasional rain. Just for reference the grass grew to 32 inches high. I don't recommend you do the same, but it demonstrates that tall grass and infrequent watering can work together to seriously reduce turf water usage. In fact my water board secretary called me to ask if I had moved out because I was using so little water. They suspected I was stealing water somehow and replaced my water meter. So take that for what it's worth - one case does not make a research study, but it worked well for me. All the gurus on the forums will tell you to water deep and infrequent.

Hope this helps.

Wow Guys!! Thank you so much for all the information! This is exactly what I needed to hear. I will change my sprinkler system to once a week and make sure it runs long enough to get a full inch down. I will plan on killing all weeds until late August hits then seeding due the advice from both of you. Do you think I should put anything down to prepare the area? Scotts Turf starter seems to work well for people, a few of my neighbors have used it with great results, necessary or no? Is is just a giant boost of nitrogen? I've also attached some pictures for you two to see incase you see anything that I should pay special attention to. I started cleaning the area last summer and we just had a thaw here so thats why it looks so bad. I'll have to decide on what type of seed to use as well. This area receives about 4 hours of direct sunlight a day the rest is shade but not heavy shade so any advice on that would also be appreciated. I used Scotts dense shade mix in my front yard where I do have a lot of shade and it worked great.

You may find that the grass doesn't respond well initially when you go to once a week. If so, you can step down by adding a day between waterings every two weeks through the season.

Even so, particularly hot weather might require that you water twice a week to keep the grass nice. Since root growth and development in very hot weather is zip, that's not a major problem.

Those trees might be an issue there as the roots suck water and resources like mad. It's worth a shot, but figure you'll probably have to mulch close to the trees as the grass will fail. Still, you can get back more than half of that without any problems.

You can certainly use any good starter fertilizer when you seed, but it may or may not be necessary. The nitrogen will be long gone before the grass can use it, but the phosphorus will stick around. Whether or not you need the P is another question!

I used organics when I seeded (Milorganite most heavily due to the P and the slow-release N), following up with more two weeks later, and more two weeks after that. The grass established quickly and well.

My recommendation: put mulch around the trees under the tree canopy, install sod on the part outside the canopy. Those look like sizable trees. I don't see how there could have been a garden under the trees because of the tree roots and the shade. If you kill the weeds and mulch and install sod you can have a finished project this spring.

It was more of a berry patch than a garden which turned into a weed garden. I plan on planting some Hostas around the tree and mulching there then doing grass.