K. Kly wrote:
Just trying to get the lawn here in NW Ohio in better condintion.

The lawn has various bare spots and lots of crabgrass. The bare spots are
not big enough for sod - so I am thinking some type of patching mix might be
best. And there are a bunch of areas too. Is it possible to attack both
problems at one time? I know I need to apply a pre-emergent in the spring
for the crabgrass, but will I be able to grow grass at the same time? I
could start trying to patch this fall, but it's so mixed in w/crabgrass that
it seems like I will have bare spots in the spring regardless where the
crabgrass is heavy. Any suggestions on the best way to go about this
project?

I've spent 2 years building a lawn out of a crabgrass patch, and it now
looks pretty good. So my advice comes from that experience.

You cannot reseed and use pre-emerge crabgrass preventer at the same time.

The best approach is to reseed this fall. You won't see all that much
grass, but a lot of what you plant will come back and grow strongly in
the spring.

Put down the crabgrass pre-emerge preventer in the spring.

Then overseed again next fall.

If you have spots that are always bare, try loosening the soil and maybe
putting some more soil and compost in that area before you seed.

I also notice that I'm getting crabgrass in areas where I had killed
strangling amounts of invasive clover with weed killer. So I plan to
lime my lawn again this year to make the pH better for grass.

If you haven't checked your lawn's pH, do so now, and add lime this fall
(or add sulfur if you need to go the other direction.)

When you do overseed, be sure to keep the new seed watered for a few weeks.