Why do you think the grass is not taking off?

Is there any shade on the area? KBG needs full sun, all day.

You don't need more topsoil and likely don't need more seed. You just need to get the grass you have growing again. KBG will fill in if it is getting enough sun, water, weekly mulch mowing at the highest setting on your mower, and fertilizer 3x per year (May 30, Sept 1, and November (early for you in Ont).

Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall.

Thanks for the input and water info. I do believe I screwed up in the past as I used to water two to three times a week. I don't think I cut the grass high enough as well. The lawn is bare and over grown with weeds.(clover, dandelion etc). The fact that it's bare and not full, and many weeds why I thought topdressing and overseeding would help. I just put down Bayer weed spray and ortho weed b gone. I attached some photos.

I had a guy come look at it. His suggestion was aerate, dethatch, throw some seed down and topdress and then more seed again ontop of topdress. He said I should try and kill the weeds especially in back as there were many. Also said he would roll lawn(before or after he topdressed not sure)

Anymore input would be great.

I think you need to understand why the lawn looks the way it does before doing all sorts of things to it. What makes you think you won't be in the same situation again if you don't know what is happening? Watering too frequently and mowing on the low side probably isn't solely responsible for your problems. Lots of people water too much and mow too low and still have nice lawns, though they may be susceptible to problems at some point.

Also shallow watering will promote thatch, but if your lawn is only a couple of years old then thatch probably isn't an issue. It looks mostly like bare ground. I do understand that he might want to dethatch just to get better soil contact, though, if he is going to seed. Be aware that seeding with KBG isn't easy. If you have a large bare spot, why not just resod that area? It doesn't look too big of an area. But again, you need to figure out what went wrong in the first place. People in this forum will help you figure that out.

Also, everybody thinks they have clay soil, but almost nobody does!

The pictures in back where you see the fence and bigger bare spots are mainly because we had a contractor in here with a bobcat digging up a grade entrance to my house. That is mainly the reason there why the lawn is so bare in that area. The lawn got damaged there. However the other thinning areas are not large like that just not full and seeing weeds and clover. Not sure if you can see the large patches if clover that just blend into the grass. Hope I can figure this out. The lawn was put in ten years ago with seed. I never really overseeding after I did. Few years later we put in landscaping and ended up resodded the front yard and back. It originally was thick and great when the sod took. It just got worse over time. The front has stayed better but not as good as needs to be. Thanks again for any ones input.

Pic 1 is my lawn. So, dethatch, and seed? My boulevard is south facing, slight downhill slope. Full sun. Very dry. Neighbor has identical setting and his edge is 100% nicer.

Another thing, I get that I should water once a week or so an inch or so of water and early in the day. However if I do end up aerate and dethatch then overseed again how often should I water for the first three weeks or so waiting for the seed to germinate. Should new seed not be kept wet moist all the time?

stoveguyy, are you posting to the right thread? Also, what pic?

His lawn is thin. So is mine. U said aerate and dethatch and reseed. Works for him, works for me

Stoveguyy actually I didn't say that, and you didn't post any pic... confused.

Update as I started another thread too. I sprayed ortho weed b gone and Bayer's weed killer on Saturday some weeds are browning and waiting to see how that works probably fertilizing soon and may shampoo until seeding in the fall.

What is this and it's taking over the lawn. Comes every summer it's KBG. What gets rid of it. Thanks

It's a weed, it really doesn't matter which one. When you kill one weed another will replace it until you have a full healthy lawn - 2017 hopefully. You can drive yourself crazy chasing weeds on a dirt patch in the Summer. A plan has been outlined for your situation. It just takes patience to get to the point when you can actually begin. There is really nothing you can do other than improve your soil with organics while you wait. The more weeds you kill the more will replace them. Continuing to kill weeds puts you at risk of completely ruining your soil.

Crabgrass. Once you get your lawn going, make sure to apply pre-emergent in the spring every year. It's one of the most important things you can do to keep a nice lawn.

If you want to kill it, you can use roundup, or you can use quinclorac if you wish to save the grass around it.

j4c11, do you have a pre-emergent that you recommend and when do you apply it?

This fool has a pretty good easy 101 to follow video on crab grass https://youtu.be/lwCWFpwJfqM?t=37

Thanks j4c11. This stuff seems like the real deal. So if I overseed early September is it best to wait until early spring 2017 to put it down or should I put it down say October November as well this year. Live in Ontario so I would have to cross over to Michigan to get it. I also still have some Scotts crab grass pre emerging fertilizer I take it I should just go with this instead and use my alfalfa.

Would it be sold at Lowe's or home depot? Or is online just a better deal.

Thx

You can put it down for winter weeds 60 days after seeding. If you have a Poa Annua problem, that would be highly advisable. If you don't have a winter weed problem, then maybe just wait until spring. However, do read the label, there's maximum yearly amounts that can be applied.

You cannot find this stuff at HD or Lowe's. SiteOne (formerly JD Landscapes) should have it, and they're everywhere. Or you can buy it online. You will also need a sprayer of some sort, it must be dissolved, sprayed and watered in within a few days. I just spray it when I know there's rain coming.

I was expecting pictures of dirt. This is a lawn already. I would start watering deeply, mowing high, and fertilize as much as my budget would allow (monthly??) with soybean meal, alfalfa pellets, corn meal, or corn gluten meal at a rate of 15 pounds per 1,000 square feet. KBG should spread to fill once you get on a good maintenance program.

If it doesn't look significantly better by the end of August, then send a soil sample to Logan Labs and post the results here.

The weed in the pic is crabgrass as someone mentioned. The reason you have that is the grass is so thin and the watering was wrong. Once the grass becomes dense, tall, and the soil is kept relatively dry, it will not get started. Crabgrass is a summer annual plant that will only get started if it has bare soil, no shade, and several days of fairly moist soil in the mid to late spring.

Well since I posted a little over two months ago I have done the following. I applied alfalfa meal twice (10 pounds per 1000 and 15 per 1000 the second time), I have been watering only once a week deeply. I applied ortho weed b gone and the Bayer's with crab grass killer back in late May.

On a positive the grass has stayed green as many others have somewhat yellowed. It's been hot summer here this year. The clover is gone and some weeds are as well but the last few weeks the Crabgrass is here.

So my question is two things here.

1) Should I wait a week or two before applying the Bayer's

http://m.homedepot.com/p/Bayer-Advanced-32-oz-Ready-to-Spray-All-in-One-Lawn-Weed-and-Crabgrass-Killer-704080/202019073?,

2) would it hurt to fertilize with Scotts as well or is no need or benefits of this. Still not growing that great or filling in KBG.

Reason I ask is because probably weekend after labour day I want to reseed/overseed my thin lawn and bare spots.

Thanks