In 2006 you wrote; "Layman's tip: Let the frost kill off the crabgrass this fall, and make preventive applications to your lawn in the spring 30 days apart. Once around the third week in april, and again around the third week in may. You should also maintain an adequate fertility level as this will help your lawn fill in and compete against the crabgrass intrusion."
Anything new to know? I have had crabgrass and spurge in my front yard, soil is very compressed, and needs to be aerated and aggressively thatched. Have some moss too, which is new, so need to sweeten soil acidity. Want to do first pre-emergent treatment as soon as snow is gone. Eventually add some topsoil and overseed. Am I on the right track? What order and when? Still have 6-8 inches of snow (and road salt) on half of it, but it is melting fast. I have been known to overdo the lawn treatments, (fishermans fertilizer) which resulted in a brown lawn that did not take time away from fishing....

The best timing for crabgrass prevention is making your first application one to two weeks after the last spring frost. From my experience any sooner and your wasting time
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in NE crab grass preventer can be applied mid-May (unless unseasonably warm Spring :) :) :) ), the ground temp needs to be 65d for the seeds to germinate. I have been doing it that way for 30 yrs and no problems with crab grass. The chemical only last in the ground for 90 days so IF you apply too early can have problems with late season crab grass. MOST IMPORTANT: this is a physical chemical barrier that can be broken by activities such as raking the lawn, so do not disturb after applying.

I plan on putting down my 2nd bag of Scotts Winterizer this week with snow finally being gone. I buy 2 bags in the Fall, 1 goes down in Oct/Nov, 2nd in the Spring. You want to stimulate root growth this early season not greem blades, yet. Lawn will better survive dry summer with strong roots.