Lawn Care forum seems very active, try there if no one chimes in here.

Liming is often at the top of everyone's list for lawn care - not at all sure why as it is very often not necessary. Soils here tend to be only on the slightly to moderately acidic scale - exactly what PNW cool season lawn grasses prefer. You only need to lime your lawn if it tests at a pH of 6.0 or lower.

Here's the sequence:

1) Remove any weeds

2) Lime if necessary

3) Dethatch if necessary

4) Core aerate - arguably the most important thing you can do for your lawn

5) Apply a thin layer (upto 1/2 inch) of screened compost over the entire lawn (or area to be reseeded)

These can all be done a couple of weeks before overseeding.

6) Mow the lawn using the shortest setting on the lawn mower.

7) Overseed with a PNW suitable blend of grass seed. Purchase at a nursery, not a box store, as nurseries more often have seed blends formulated specifically for this area.

8) Cover the seed with a thin layer of good soil or more screened compost to protect the seed from birds and wind and to keep moist.

Once the newly germinated seed is tall enough for the first mowing (at least a couple of inches), you can do your normal fall fertilization.

This may be of interest.

http://www.co.thurston.wa.us/health/ehcsg/pdf/lawn_care.pdf

Thank you for the info .... it is very helpful. We're hosting a wedding reception in early July and I'd like a lush lawn. :D

If you are prepared to pay a hefty water bill, it can be done :-) The PNW is not known for having lush lawns in July.

I rehabbed a neglected lawn for an early August wedding this past summer. We started last fall (right around Labor Day) with weed control, aeration and overseeding. My contractor did two fertilizer applications in late fall and we did the same overseeding/fertilizing routine again in spring and once more in early July. Not an ideal time for it but that's what the clients wanted!! And the lawn was routinely deep watered from May on. It looked gorgeous on the date of the wedding - maybe the only lush green lawn in all of Kitsap county - but it was time consuming and costly.

On public television tonight they talked about how it is becoming critical for people to cut back on the water use - including the watering of lawns - if fish stocks are to be retained.

I wasn't necessarily advocating that practice - personally I am not of the pristine, lush lawn camp and do not devote any resources to my own lawn's care other than mowing. PNW lawns want to be summer dormant and I am fine with that. But from time to time, occasions do arise where this is not the desired result, as in the summer garden weddings referred to above. If you want a green lawn here in the Puget Sound area in July or August, you have to be prepared to water and that watering costs, both in terms of dollars and in terms of the environment.

This year it was amazing how the August rains brought my lawn right back.

My backyard stays pretty green, except for a few spots, during the summer because of the alders behind me. I've never watered it in the 9 years we've lived here so think I'll be forgiven for giving it some TLC next summer. ;)