Fixing my lawn - Best Attachment

[Sportsman762]

I would start off by using a pre emergent / fertilizer in the early spring,after a week of 50 degree soil temperature this will kill the crab grass. Then in mid spring I would spray a broad leaf herbicide on the lawn to kill any weeds that had popped up. Two weeks later I would top dress the lawn with a compost mix. Advice For Top Dressing Lawns This will add organic material to your lawn. After this I would core aerate the lawn. Try to get at least 2-3" of penetration. A rented walk behind aerator will do a better job than a cheap one from a store. After aeration overseed the lawn. I would then top dress later that year. This is a routine I would use for a couple of years. You never have barren ground that could wash away.
Here is an attachment I used in a previous job to aerate and overseen lawns. It works great where people have walked over a lawn to the point of severe compaction. We had it on the back of a Kubota BX 1st Products Seed-A-VatorFirst Products

The other option is to do a major renovation. Spray the entire lawn with round up then wait 2 weeks. Make sure that everything is good and dead. It is critical to eliminate anything that might compete with the new seeds you will plant in the future. If you fail to kill everything then you are just fertilizing weeds. The waiting period is to make sure the roundup is gone and that everything is dead. Bring in compost and add a 1" layer then till everything up down at least 4" below original grade. Then drag the soil and plant grass. Make sure you cover the soil with straw to prevent erosion. Do not use hay as it will introduce weeds.

There is no single attachment that will get the lawn to look great. A good looking lawn is the result of hard work. A tiller or an overseeder will help make the job easier.

 

[tractchores]

The problem with this approach is that weedkiller only kills the growing weeds and not the seeds. THis is the same thing tilling does. Without some sort of pre-emergence application that prevents the weed seed from germinating, you will do the same thing by tilling only. Starting with dead vegetation will make it till up easier, but just making a few more passes with the tiller will accomplish the same thing as applying expensive weed killer

Depending where you are if you do it in the fall you can end up pretty weed free, you want to time it just before weeds drop seeds in the fall. Here i did the spraying in late august and the work in mid sept. then the grass was established before winter and able to outcompete any surviving weeds the next spring. That section is still amazingly weed free after 5 years.

 

[Roxburyeric]

Thanks for all the advice. It gives me alot to think about as the cold winter in CT continues. We do have many rocks in our soils here in CT. I don't plan on doing the major work until the fall as I have had too many issues with water, weeds and heat when trying to plant in the spring. My other big problem is my well. It is not good enough to do any major watering. I can water for only about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes before I really worry about running the well dry. It recovers, but only at 1/2 gallon per minute. I have 600 feet of well for reserve. Thanks Eric