I increase the amounts of leaves that I mulch every year and continue to do Dormant seeding every year. The thing about dormant seeding is that a bad winter(lots of cold and inadequate or timely snow cover) will generate less than optimal results.

What are "forbs"?

Forbs are a to my understanding, flowers. My goal was to have spring flowers that bloom before the grass begins to grow.

I've began to experiment more with bulbs in recent years and have planted Crocus and Hyacinth bulbs that are suppose to be up, as soon as the ground thaws. I suppose they would survive in the Lawn, but I have them in isolated locations.

Crocus does well in a lawn, as does aconite. I'm thinking that galanthus (snowdrop) would also do well, but I've never seen it tried and the flowers are rather plain. Winter aconite and snowdrop are some of the earliest flowers in the garden, usually flowering slightly before the early snow crocus.

All are short enough that they'll tolerate being mowed--the leaves will simply stay up longer. But you'd never be able to blanket spray an herbicide while the bulbs are active as it'll damage or kill the flowers. The bulbs are active during the green leaf season, through April, and again in October through December.

Hyacinth is a bit late and a bit tall for the lawn, plus the paddle-shaped leaves are definitely going to stand out as the lawn returns. But if that's your bliss, it's worth a shot.

Grape hyacinth would be a possibility if you can hold off on mowing until after the flowers bloom, and it'd be rather striking. I use it throughout the gardens.

I was actually inspired by Crocuses to try native flowers. My goal was pulsatilla patens, bloodroot, anemone patens, and few others. Will see if it works. My hope is it will mix well with streambank wheatgrass, path rush, and sedges I am adding.