Question
We are in MD Baltimore/Washington/Annapolis area. We have an irrigation system and we had a professional lawn care company fertilize/aerate and seed our yard for about three years, we were not very pleased so we decided to start taking care of it ourselves.  In late July we applied Scott's summer weed and feed and when we came back from vacation we found a ton of crabgrass in the back.  We plan to aerate, seed and put down compost so my first question is do we first fertilize? If so what do we use? and secondly which do we do first, compost or aerate?  Our front yard looks pretty good except for a few spots of hard ground and dead spots but the back yard is the worst and we want to have a beautiful yard so any suggestions or guidance would be greatly appreciated.  

Answer
Pam, I am so reluctant to address this problem - although I'd love to help you with your lawn.  Trouble is, you are doing so much damage to the soil, and setting up so many problems, I have a feeling you would not be able to do what needs to be done to fix all this.

Starting with the Weed 'n' Feed, the microbes in your soil are damaged or even wiped out, along with the grass that you "weeded" with this stuff, leaving no microorganisms left to nourish your grass.  

That means now that you have to constantly add Nitrogen and other fertilizers.  There's no slow release Nitrogen being made in your soil.  And even worse, there's no way to stop renegade fungi from attacking - hopefully later rather than sooner.  

Same thing goes for every other evil thing that you are sprinkling on your grass.  If it says Scotts on the bag, I guarantee it is bad, badder or baddest for cultivating grass and building up your soil.

If you can pledge to me that you won't buy those bags of chemicals anymore, I would be delighted to help you with this whole project.  There are several experts here, though, who would just as soon give you the standard chemicals and procedures that grow most American lawns with satisfaction for the most part, even as they are oblivious to the toxic side effects and Silent Spring in the forecast.

Just let me know if you would like to try the Intelligent Homeowner's Guide to Growing Grass let me know and I'll provide all the instructions you need.  Don't bother composting if you're going to be using Weed n Feed, Roundup or anything else.  You'll kill everything underground and when you do that, you're wasting your money on compost. Consider finally that golf course greenskeepers are working furiously to disconnect from weedkillers and pesticides.  They don't like breathing and walking on that stuff all day.  And many are growing some very beautiful grass without it.