What are you doing about weeds? Have you used a selective weed killer? Are you planning to use glyphosate? Are you doing an overseed or a renovation? What is your seed down date?

Move the "mow short and bag everything up" to right before seeding. If this is an overseed, you should gradually reduce your mowing height. You may or may not need to dethatch. The aeration earlier may be enough. You want the aeration holes to fill in before seeding so the seeds don't fall down too deep.

It's best to keep lime and fertilizer apart. Also good to do the lime well in advance of seeding (several months ago would have been ideal), so the sooner you can do that, the better. I have used lime before at seeding and nothing terrible happened. But it's better if the pH has been adjusted and is in a good range before putting seed down. Lime takes time to work. I would do it today. The aeration, when you can get that done, will push the lime further down into the ground, having about the same effect as if you applied the lime after aeration. Just get it down.

Hi Becky,

This is an overseed. I did use weed killer about a month ago and it did kill a bunch of them but I still have some. I was planning on figuring that out after I seed since it's getting to be the ideal time to seed.

Thank you for the advice, I will be putting lime down today and hopefully Aerating this weekend.

For the few weeds left, you can spot spray them with glyphosate. You can seed soon after using glyphosate. So you could do that now or wait until closer to seed down.

Light peat moss is a waste of time. Do you have a sprinkler system? If so, you do not need topdressing at all...especially not for an overseed.

Hi mishmosh, I do have a sprinkler system.. Thanks for that tip!

Scott's has a starter fertiizer with mesotrione. That is the active chemical in Tenacity and it prevents weeds for about a month without harming the grass, giving the grass a head start against weed seeds. Very useful at seeding (either the starter with mesotrione or Tenacity). It needs to be applied evenly and accurately across the lawn. Tenacity (it's a thick liquid) is mixed up with water and sprayed with a pressurized sprayer. If you decide to try it, practice with plain water in your sprayer to see if you can spray evenly over 1000 square feet. I have marked my yard off in 1000 square feet sections so I'll get the correct amount down. Use all the protective gear recommended and read the directions several times. The starter is just spread with a spreader like any other fertilizer.

Skip the topsoil. Topsoil does not go away like compost or peat moss does. It will change your drainage unpredictably. What you really don't want to happen is to build a dam that captures water up against your house. It happens.

Topsoil is fine to fill holes and ruts, as Amanda intends to do.