Thanks - Will give it a whirl. I don't want to pay some lawn people $50 to do 8 treatments or something but would pay them once to do a difficult part.
buying a pump sprayer like KSU_W and $100-ish drop spreader makes the fertilizing and weed control pretty easy.
Renting verticutters and aerators is much more of a pain in the ass and you can get pay & get it done cheaper if can get a HOA deal or even a couple of neighbors together since you have a what I assume is a 1/3 to 1/4 of an acre yard.
That said, if your yard hasn't been verticut in years and you are going to seed this fall you should rent them and do the following:
1- mow as short as you can without scalping the yard.
2- verticut fairly deeply to get as much of the thatch (old grass & leaves left over from not bagging) displaced and loose
3- rake up and/or mow & bag as much of the thatch as you can.
4- aerate
5- put down your grass seed - I personally just seed the hell out it, turn the bare & thin spots yellow with seed and thoroughly overseed even the good area. My thinking is grass seed is relatively cheap and easy compared to the rest of this process and all the watering to come.
6- verticut again but adjust the blades to a shallow setting so they are just pushing the seeds in to the ground for good seed to dirt contact with the added benefit of speeding up the breakdown of the little turds left over from aerating
Ideally you would do steps 1 thru 4 in late fall/early September so you can be ready to seed right before a September cold front that brings both rain and lower temps for growing the new grass.
Of the top of my head renting a verticutter or an aerator is around $50 minimum so the above is going to cost you $150 + however much grass seed you need. You can prolly get a guy to come do all of it but you won't be able to control the timing.
