I've been in the process of overseeding the lawn at my house. Started 2 years ago, as it really takes a good year to really get the grass and soil set. I used a core areator and thatch rake to let the ground breathe and pull most of the dead grass from the soil. I wanted to get off the chemical fertilizer as much as I could, so when I added the new grass seed I used LeafGro (soil conditioner made in the DC/MD/VA area) as the fertilizer/top dressing around late August/early September. In the spring I used a corn gluten meal based fertilizer to keep the weeds at bay, then followed up with more Leafgro a few weeks later. Did the same thing a few weeks ago and the grass is already looking great.

I've got a bigger grass project at my parents house. Their entire yard was a mess. Some areas grew, some areas were just dirt. So last year I had to do the works: Topsoil for the bare areas, dethatching for the entire yard, malorganite on everything, a'' new grass seed and Leafgrow on everything. Took about 3 weeks to get the whole yard done, as I work full time and could only get by on weekends and evenings (and transporting all those bags of dirt in the trunk takes multiple runs to the nursery/Home Depot). Grass sprouted nicely over the fall and held on through teh winter. While I told my father not to do anything to the yard without asking me first, he went on and got some Scotts and put that down. Ah well. I'm still going to follow up with the LeafGro in the next few weeks, as the soil can use all the additional nutrients it can get. Looking forward to seeing how the grass does over the summer

Flower beds need mulch. There's never ever enough mulch. These small areas take 20 bags of the 3 cu.ft. stuff too... Pics from the work last year (or the year before, can't even remember now):

http://s557.photobucket.com/user/spenzalii/slideshow/Home%20Stuff