On new construction it is typical to see the contractor installing a nice lawn in the front and leaving the back entirely to the new buyer. That might be what you see. Regardless of which it is, fall is by far the best time of year to seed new grass. For now you can just kill the broadleaf weeds and let the grassy stuff grow.

You will likely save a lot of money by caring for the lawns yourself. Fertilize at the end of this month. Do nothing but water it once every week or two over the summer, and fertilize again at the beginning of September. The last fertilizer goes down in late fall around the end of November. Wait for the grass to stop growing completely and then fertilize with a high N and low P and K value fertilizer.

You should not need insect control. Insect damage is fairly rare in the real world.

Broadleaf weed control has probably already been applied by your lawn people. If so then I would tell them, "Goodbye," and take over yourself. Broadleaf weeds include clover, chickweed, dandelions, dichondra, dollar weed. Normally you can spray Weed-b-Gon or Weed-b-Gon Chickweed, Clover, and Oxalis Killer once in mid April and again toward the end of summer when it cool off. Preemergent crabgrass control has also already been applied.

The only needs fertilizer 3 times all year, and you can do that.

Lawn care is fairly simple once you get oriented to it. We can help you all the way along the way. Here is some more general information.

Basics of Lawn Care

After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at seven houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct.

1. 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 daytime air 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.

2. Mowing
Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush.

3. Fertilizing
Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it (unless you use organics in which case you may overdo it without fear of hurting anything).

At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide.