You may be reaching a catch 22 situation here DK. If you spray the lawn for
weeds and other grasses and apply synthetic fertilisers, you risk damaging
the balance of the soil, structure of the soil and all the beneficial
elements that live within it. You need a good healthy soil to grow healthy
lawn. My advice is to encourage the soil to be healthy which should reward
you with good grass. I use sfa herbicides on my lawn in order to ensure I
look after the soil. If that means walking around with a knife crowning
weeds that is something I can do (though you may not want to go to that
affort). After a while you get an eye for anything in the lawn which looks
out of place, even when walking out to the garage or clothes line. Organic
fertilisers like blood and bone are good for the soil and fertilise the
grass. I doubt my approach would be too different with blue grass. I have
not grown it myself but it is fairly widespread here. Another thing, get to
like clover. I used to try and spray it out of the lawn but upon
understanding its useful functions I now let it be. From time to time I do
thin it out in some areas by hand however.

rob

"DK" wrote in message ...
I haven't talked with our extension office, but have checked out their Web
sites and recommendations on fertilizing schedule and all that.

I'd say, I have moderate expectations ... doesn't have to be like a golf
course, but I don't want half my lawn to be weeds neither, because they
tend
to take over quickly and fill in more of the lawn. My goal is to improve
the
conditions for the grass to grow, so thicker grass will prevent so many
weeds from popping up.

--
DK

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
It's possible (and more likely than you might imagine) that the growing
conditions on your lawn are more friendly to weeds than grass. This
means
that you may end up poisoning your land every year, which is bad because
the chemicals you need to use have not been, and cannot be proven safe.

Have you spoken with your state's cooperative extension about soil
tests,
and ways of helping the grass compete with the weeds? And, what are your
expectations? Perfection, like a golf course?