With that amount of organic fertilizer I would suggest the only difference might be water and the type of grass. Are you mowing high?

That looks like a good schedule. Did you really put down that much SBM in September? Probably not a bad idea.

Thanks for the feedback. As far as maintenance, both neighbors practice frequent, shallow watering and cutting low. I try for the inch per week and I cut my TTTF at 4 inches.

And I actually increased my fall sbm app b/c I felt maybe previous years I was light, and maybe that was causing the winter paleness.

If you don't have concerns about urea, and some do in the organic arena, you can apply a small dose of it after the first hard freeze. About one to one quarter pound Nitrogen per 1000 sq ft.

It has had a big impact on the grass staying greener and greening up faster in the spring for me.

Just an update to my original post about a pale lawn:

The color of my TTTF lawn has surpassed one neighbor (Scott's DIY guy) and is equal to the other neighbor (chemical lawn service guy). So in the span of one month, it has gone from woeful hay-like color to a respectable, fairly uniform light green. And that is all with the temps barely breaking 55 degrees. This next week has a lot of 60 degree days forecast so we'll see what happens now.

My first feeding (alfalfa) is planned for around 5/10. I want to see what impact my increased rate of SBM last fall has here in spring.