What is your zip code?

Zip code is 54022.

thanks

Copy pasting with a bit of modification from a post I made in another thread:

For the seeding, ensuring good seed to soil contact is key. As dchall mentioned, you risk awakening long dormant weed seeds from below the soil surface by core aerating. However, that being said, many people swear by it because it still gives better results than just broadcast spreading seed due to the improved seed soil contact (especially if you use a dragmat or rake to break down the aerated plugs.

The recommended approach would be to scalp down the lawn as low as possible. You could use a dethatcher/power rake if needed to thin out the grass a bit and remove any excess thatch (again, slightly larger chance of awakening weed seeds, but nothing as bad as aerating as long as the tines don't penetrate deep into the soil). Rake up or use a mower with a bagger to collect all the thatch and grass you pull up with the dethatching.

Broadcast your seed using a broadcast or drop spreader. For KBG, you want to overseed at approximately 1.5lbs/1000 sq ft. If you do a full renovation, then you would seed at around 3lbs/1000sqft. Don't try to dump all the seed down in one pass. For KBG you will need to set the spreader to a really low setting as the seeds are tiny. Set the spreader to a low setting and make a few passes along the area till you run out of seed. This will help with a more uniform seed distribution. Use a food scale to weight out your seed correctly for your lawn square footage. If you are using KBG, you might even get away with a reno @ 1.5lbs/1000 sq ft. Definitely wouldn't recommend going over 3lbs/1000sqft.

If you have the budget and the patience/manpower to topdress your overseeded lawn, then topdress with a thin layer of compost or compost-peat moss mixture. Irrespective of whether you use top dressing or not, you should rent a roller and use it to roll the seed into the soil.

A combination of the scalped lawn and the rolling helps get the seed down to the soil and to make good contact with it. The topdressing is very beneficial in helping retain moisture during germination. You could also look into products like Penn mulch or Soil Moist seed coat to help in regards to keeping the seeds moist after seeding.

If you don't have access to a roller or can't find one to rent, you could do what I did, and use your riding mower (if you have one) to drive around the yard and press the seed in. Takes a lot longer to do, but it does work in a pinch.

Lastly, you should really look into using Tenacity during your seeding to keep the weed pressure down. This is probably even more important since your lawn probably has a lot of ungerminated weed seeds in the soil. If you don't have too large a plot of land and don't want to deal with using a tank sprayer and calibrating it, etc for spraying Tenacity, I'd highly recommend purchasing a bag of Scotts Starter Fertilizer with Weed preventer (active ingredient Mesotrione). This is the same active ingredient as that in Tenacity. One bag costs ~ $35 and covers 5000 sq ft and is supposed to have a residual of approximately 6 weeks for weed prevention. You could use a 2nd application after 5-6 weeks.

This post was edited by HamsterHuey on Thu, Aug 15, 13 at 8:54

Thanks for that Hamster. Very helpful. Anyone have a suggestion on seed for northern midwest overseeding?

Here are some useful tips for the weeding you might use. I am a beginner in this too so I can understand you :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Weed your garden