I'll ask you the same questions I just asked someone else...

Are you saying you already have crabgrass in PA? (it seems early to have it growing already, but maybe not)
What kind of grass do you have/want?
Did you reseed recently?
Is your grass very dense or do you have space between the grass plants?
How high do you mow?
How often do you water?

Are you saying you already have crabgrass in PA? (it seems early to have it growing already, but maybe not)

I can definitely confirm that crabgrass is germinating and growing in PA. I'm abolishing the first of it now.

Crabgrass - yes

I want a green lawn without any weeds or other plants growing in it.

It hasn't been reseeded in years and there is a new section of lawn that has never had grass on it.

Not very dense.

Very low.

Never water.

I realize that I've been doing everything wrong and that is about where I'm at right now. So I'm starting the correct regimen, and my question is if there is a certain type of grass that I would want over another? Will one be more suited for me than the others or should I mix?

Maybe morpheuspa can help with specific seeds. I will say that you get exactly what you pay for in seed. The more expensive seed really is THAT much better than the stuff you can get at Wal-Mart. You must insist on 0.00 weed and 0.00 Other Crop. The biggest danger is that you will get bentgrass seed in your mix. If so you can just settle back and learn how to handle a bentgrass lawn because it will take over. Bentgrass seed looks like dust so a very small percentage of it in your mix will be invisible but damaging.

We have monoculture lawns down here, but many people in the 'nawth' have mixes of fescues and maybe bluegrasses. Fescue grasses do not spread like a carpet. Each seed grows one plant and that's it. Bluegrass spreads out from the seed plant and will fill in where the seeds did not cover. Spring is the worst time to seed because spring is when the crabgrass first starts to sprout, too. You can do it now but please be patient over the summer. You will have some crabgrass (but minimized if you follow the lessons here (below)). It is not the end of the world. When the summer's heat breaks, you can reseed again in the fall and you should have a pretty perfect lawn for 2009.

So if you have been reading here, now you know to
1. mow at the mower's highest setting.
2. Water no more frequently than weekly (which it seems you have no trouble doing if you are not watering at all).

These two things will minimize your weeds and give you the plushest looking lawn. Then if you fertilize with something as simple as corn meal, or whatever you can find cheap at a feed store, you will have a deep, dark green color and improved density on the carpet type grasses. Corn meal used regularly will prevent most lawn diseases, too. That's why I use it.

If you really want a nice lawn, you should water it unless it has rained.

There was a very helpful person on here that maintained a list of grass seed suppliers, I saved that list in my profile if you're looking for contact info. Sadly I can't give credit where it is due because I don't remember who had kept the list up. I haven't been around in over a year and just found this 'new' forum recently, maybe that person is still checking in.

I ordered from Pawnee Buttes Seed last time I bought seed, but have no experience to compare them with others. They did give the option of mixing several KBG seeds from a fairly wide selection as I remember.

Here is a link that might be useful: anubis_pa profile page

Off the shelf? Rebel. Specialty...ask Bestlawn. We're close, so the Mag 3 (Midnight II, Moonlight, and Bedazzled) is an option for you as well...

1. Tell us what you want from your lawn - nice green grass or a showpiece? One is no more difficult than the other. The answer is based solely on your particular desire.

2. You want to identify the existing lawn. It isn't necessarily a good idea to answer your question, knowing you will be adding it to what is already there with no idea what is already there.

3. Or do you plan to start from scratch? If you do plan to start from scratch, what exists there now doesn't matter.

You can take samples of the grass to your nearest PennState Cooperative Extension Service for them to identify it for you (incidentally, they will also identify the weeds). The most common types of grass grown in your area are Kentucky Bluegrass and Tall Fescue. You have one or the other, or you might have a mixture of both. Perhaps even a mixture that also includes ryegrass. Take a handful of samples from various different areas to be sure you are sampling everything in case there are various ones.

If you don't get started on it right away, I suggest you wait until fall to reseed, especially if you seed bluegrass. The window of opportunity for spring is closing in. Fall works out to be the best time to seed anyway. In the meantime, begin watering, mowing, and fertilizing properly, as Dchall suggested. Once you do that, you may notice your need to plant seeds isn't so strong as you feel right now, but it is still a good idea to overseed (if you don't plan to start from scratch) every two years or so.

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Anubis, I am forever grateful to you for hosting the list on your member page. Here is last year's list if you'd like, and I am working on updating it for 2008.

anubis_pa, I have some more info on Burtch Seed for your member page. Their website is http://burtchseed.com/ They do not have their seed on their webpage though, but you can contact them via email through the webpage.

Thanks for the updated list, I finally updated my profile although I don't really remember why I thought it would help to do that originally =)

gratefulgardener3300 for what it's worth I'm also in PA, me and a neighbor went with KBG and are happy with that choice. I did not start over and after a few years of overseeding, still have patches of others. My neighbor has a smaller lawn and so went with sod, and it is like a carpet a year later.