Fertilization stories

I've got two stories to tell: one of the backyard grass and one of the front yard. I'll start with the front yard.

As mentioned previously the new grass in the front yard just hasn't been growing very quickly and as a result was getting diseased, so I thought perhaps it needed some nitrogen to spur some growth. So several weeks ago (I can't remember the exact date) I put down some fertilizer - .75 lbs N / 1000 sq. ft. on the whole front yard using the Scotts 32-0-4 that I've used several times in the past. I wish it had more phosphorous and potassium in case the grass needed some of those nutrients as well (who knows), but it's what I had in the garage, so I used it. Thus far after several rains, there has been some growth, but not a whole lot. I'm beginning to cut some of it when I mow so that is a good sign, but it wasn't the rapid growth that I was hoping for. At the same time, both diseases have spread, so hopefully the growth will continue and keep the disease at bay. I'm also planning to trim the trees a bit more allow more sunlight to reach those areas - one of these days (hopefully this weekend).

The backyard is a much more successful story. The problem I don't think I have mentioned before, but what I noticed was that the vigorous growth that was occurring seemed to come to a halt. I noticed that the supina bluegrass even started to yellow at the tips and die off some in addition to the lack of growth. But one day I made this observation near the area where we let our dog out to go to the bathroom:

Note the greener, happily growing grass near the edge by the fence. This areas has likely been fertilized by my dog's urine (high in nitrogen)! So I felt pretty confident that the lawn simply needed some fertilizer. I put down a combination of the remaining Scott's fertilizer that I used on the front lawn and the Endure Premium Lawn Food Plus that I used last summer. The scott's is mostly quick-release nitrogen and the Endure is almost 100% slow-release. This took a little bit of calculating, but I put down a little over .75 lbs. N / 1000 sq. ft. The result after a substantial amount of rain over a few days was a complete flip back to the vigorous growth of before! Yay! Here's a look:

This made my day!

The grass I planted earlier this year has also been doing well:

Young fine fescue

I've very happy with the backyard and I have hope for the new grass in the front yard! I'll soon be putting down the second half of the crabgrass preventer application.