Reddit reviews Soil Savvy - Soil Test Kit | Understand What Your Lawn or Garden Soil Needs, Not Sure What Fertilizer to Apply | Analysis Provides Complete Nutrient Analysis & Fertilizer Recommendation On Report

Hey! I'm in Denver too. I'll give you my plan which has worked well so far.

Your lawn isn't terrible its just dormant. It won't come out of dormancy for another few weeks. Here is what you can do in the mean time. First check http://frontrangeweather.net/wxsoil.php often. As long as the average soil temp is below 50F you really aren't going to have much growth of weeds or grass.

Until you hit that temp if you want you can water the grass but it won't grow much until probably next month. Most places suggest 1" a week, but in Denver depending on what kind of grass you have you won't need quite that much.

In Mid-late April throw down an application of fertilizer. You can use the step 1 Scotts stuff since it has crabgrass pre-emergent in it. Once you throw down some fert You'll want to probably overseed in Late april-early May. I like Turf Type Tall Fescue blends and I go to a garden center(not homedepot/lowes) to get them. The Scotts seed is mostly coating by weight so you don't as much grass seed per bag. If you want you can order seeds online and get lots for cheap. https://www.unitedseedsonline.com/main.sc is a good one. Pick a seed that works with your sun/shade levels. Certain seeds need full sun, while others need a mix. You'll have to figure out how much yard space you have and put down the right amount of seed for that square footage. You can use google earth to do that or there are websites where you can measure out your yard from google maps. Put down some seed in mid-late april, but make sure soil temps are above 55F and water water water until your overseeding starts to pop up. Once they pop up you can go back to watering once a week with deep watering or twice a week. Remember long waterings once a week >>> watering a bunch of small times a week.

Planting in the spring is not optimal but you're mostly just doing repair work here so even if you don't get full seed germination its fine and a lot of it will be repaired over the spring/summer/fall by itself.

Now that you've made it through spring the rule of thumb is a fertilizer application on every major holiday: Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor day and then if you are going to reseed/overseed in the fall do it in late September for Denver. I am going to use milorganite to fertilize on Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day. You can't really fuck up milorganite since it's organic and you don't have to worry about burning your yard.

You may also want to send a soil sample to a lab so you know what your soil is lacking otherwise you'll just be guessing on fertilizing. Normally in Denver you'll be lacking in Nitogen, and probably slightly acidic. Soil Savy is a really easy kit. You only need to test like once every other year or so but it isn't required, just helps guide your fertilizer applications.

Do not fret we are still really early in the season here in Denver despite it being warm we are still having cold cold nights and it's not quite growing season.

If you want a way to remind yourself when to do the fertilizer applications and the levels you can sign up for a site like https://www.scotts.com/en-us/my-lawn it can send you reminders.

I'd advise getting your soil tested, either by a local extension office, or by something like this - soil testing kit - that way you can see if your soil is deficient in anything.

Azaleas thrive in acidic soils, but it also takes time for them to grow. They're not notorious for growing quickly.

It’s soil savvy. They send you a kit, you put dirt in there and send it them them. then they email you the results. I had a question about my test and they responded with an answer and gave me their cell phone number to call if I had followup questions.

10/10 recommend.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GIMOG8A/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_.MZuDbTE5VR8D

Sorry for the late reply.

And, before anything else, congratulations on the birth of your child!

In terms of fixing your lawn, you have two options, both with pros and cons:

1. Renovate. This means, in short, kill your entire lawn - usually using glyphosate - then get rid of all the dead stuff and reseed* the entire thing. I am doing a full renovation this fall and am happy to walk you along with me as I do it - though I am in 7a so because of your cooler temperatures you'd be doing everything before, not after me. The biggest pro to a full renovation is that unless your house was previously owned by someone serious about lawncare it is likely that whatever grass you have growing is of low quality. Home builders almost never splurge on premium grass and most homeowners rely on big box stores for seed and those stores tend to offer pretty mediocre stuff. But with a renovation you can ensure that the entire lawn is growing from high quality varieties of seeds that are just right for the particulars of your zone and property. The cons to a renovation are time and to a lesser extent, money. A lot of this depends on how big your lawn is. Have you measured it? If not, can you venture a guess? Either way, even with a small yard like mine (1500 sq ft) there is a lot of work involved in a renovation - though, in fairness, it can be broken up into lots of smaller steps - and you just had a kid. You will also need to buy, at the very minimum: glyphosate, seed, fertilizer, a sprayer of some sort and a spreader. If you really want to nail it, you'll need to buy or rent some other equipment, and maybe some topsoil, and soil amendments too. (*Another option here that would save a lot of time but dramatically increase expense is to do all the killing parts of the renovation but then put down sod instead of seed. As many states limit sod production to high quality varieties, this is a way to get a good lawn quick, but again, it will cost you).
   
2. Overseed. This is what you brought up in the original post and pretty much what it sounds like - planting seed right on top, or, more literally, right around the grass that you currently have. This is easier, cheaper, and less time-consuming, but might not give you the results you want. The main reason for this was explained above: if the grass you have now is of low quality, adding even good quality seed could be like putting makeup on a pig, if you will. But, despite just using that simile, I should add that it is very possible that overseeding WILL give you the results you want. It really depends on you and what you are looking for. Some people in this sub want to have the sort of lawn that could compete for Lawn of the Month. Others just want something that won't embarrass them. There's not really a simple and far-reaching right or wrong, despite what the guys yelling about "domination" will tell you, there's only what's right for you and your family.
   
   I hope that helps frame your decision. Feel free to ask other questions and I will try and get back to you a little quicker.
   
   Lastly, to return to the original subject of this post: before you get into aerating, you need to do a couple things. First, a soil test. Your county extension office may offer this or you can purchase one online but if you have moss, it is likely that the pH of your soil is off. This is something that can be fixed, but you don't just want to guess. Second, even with out your soil test results, you'll want to get that moss out of your lawn. You can kill it easily with this and then rake it out. Third, if you are going with overseeding instead of a renovation, you'll want to start fighting your weeds now. There are a billion ways to do this and they are constantly discussed on this sub so I'll refrain from giving specific recommendations right now but if you need them, just ask.

Check out the soil savvy test kit from Amazon. Soil Savvy - Soil Test Kit | Understand What Your Lawn or Garden Soil Needs, Not Sure What Fertilizer to Apply | Analysis Provides Complete Nutrient Analysis & Fertilizer Recommendation On Report https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GIMOG8A/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_15OjDb486EAS9

What part of the country do you live in? If it’s really bad I would also suggest nuking it,
But if there’s a little bit of grass at least 30% I would use a weed killer like speed zone. Then when my soil temperature hits 70 I would over seed it

No you want it professionally done.

If your local AG extension office doesn't do it, you can buy a test kit from the US and just mail it here...just make sure you choose one that provides online results.

Soil Savvy - Soil Test Kit | Understand What Your Lawn or Garden Soil Needs, Not Sure What Fertilizer to Apply | Analysis Provides Complete Nutrient Analysis & Fertilizer Recommendation On Report https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GIMOG8A/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_hMWpDbGY422DA

Western Indiana, sandy soil within a hundred year flood plain, my soil test should come in the mail in the next few days.

https://www.amazon.com/Soil-Savvy-Understand-Fertilizer-Recommendation/dp/B01GIMOG8A/ref=zg_bs_3480689011_12 is the easy button for soil testing.

The theory behind fertilizing as I understand it on a mild consumer level is as follows:

Your lawn wants 1lb of Nitrogen every 3ish months as a generalization. If you do a soil test, it can give nat's ass numbers.

Visit http://agebb.missouri.edu/fertcalc/ and use these numbers/this product as a good fertilizer to use. That link will also direct you to a good site to find your exactish square footage.

I'm doing a soil test next year maybe, but for now on my 7000sq ft yard, I'll be throwing down 1/2 a bag of that fert 4 times a year and calling it close enough.

I'm not telling you what to do, but I wouldn't guess at it when a "Soil Savvy" test is $30. It's a solubility test, it will tell you what is locked out.
https://www.amazon.com/Soil-Savvy-Understand-Fertilizer-Recommendation/dp/B01GIMOG8A/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=soil+savvy&qid=1557107818&s=gateway&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1

If you want an easy kit this is a decent one https://www.amazon.com/Soil-Savvy-Understand-Fertilizer-Recommendation/dp/B01GIMOG8A

I had the same experience with it. It seems like it helped, then it just came back. I have to agree about the watering. I'm currently doing it for a short time twice a week. Everything I've been reading about St. Augustine is against that method. I'm going to try, and sweet to the longer run like everyone says (but I'm pretty sure that's what helped spread it in the first place)..who knows. I also think the city water I have isn't great for the water. Like you, the rain makes my grass way better than any watering I've been doing. I think it's a mix of the city water fluoride or whatever else the filter out (or add) vs. the rain water. I also saw the same thing with mine when I pulled it up (I put some fresh pieces down to get some new runners out there). Haha, yeah the grass is still trying to learn who it is. It's currently in the rebellious phase, and it's winning. I think I'm also going to try this Soil test kit, I'm hoping that one magic ingredient is missing and everything will get better once I figure that out.

Logan Labs provides the most comprehensive test but they don't provide recommendations. Alot of people on here use Soil Savvy and they do provide recommendations.

Get a soil test done asap. I like this one on amazon, it's pretty simple... Soil Test they also give you a recommended fertilizer and it will also tell you your soil pH/Ca levels for applying lime and gypsum....

The first weed is a type of thistle, the second weed pic looks like either speedwell or chickweed (both can be eliminated with a herbicide with Trifloxysulfuron or Chlorsulfuron)