New Home Owner - Lawn Maintenance

Let me guess…the back yard is shady with poor soil.

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I assume identifying the type of grass will be the first thing we need to do, to figure out a plan to keep it healthy?

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Yup. You won’t be able to do much in year one but feed correctly, maybe kill the perennial weeds like nutsedge, pull the crabgrass/dallisgrass, and get a preemergent plan for the late fall and early spring. If you were super serious, it’s early enough to verticut and level but you have bigger fish to fry when first moving in.
First thing, identify. Second, decide if that is even the type of grass you want given shade, expected traffic, and maintenance required. Then just feed/water to guidelines and get the weeds out. Be careful with chemicals. Some are OK to use in the summer and some are only ok in cooler weather.

Water when dry and mow regularly. By fall you’ll know if lawn care is a hobby or a chore.

Then you decide how much effort to put in.

Being that you are just moving in, your attention should be settling into the house and anything you need to do indoors. IMO, this is the year to simply just do the bare minimum, so your lawn doesn't look totally unkempt. Mow regularly, keep up with the leaves on a regular basis so it doesn't get too overwhelming. Sometime in late Sept or early Oct, get some pictures of the front & back (just the lawn) and post on here and the many experts will be able to guide you on type of grass, pre-emergent mix, when to apply.... Then sometime in February do something similar as you prepare to do your spring application then.

FYI, if you are doing a lot of renovations in your house now, no one will think much of it if you put off trying to get lawn of the year for another 1-2 years. It took me to year 5 before I started really getting mine in order. Then shortly after that Ida came through and ripped up some trees that helped me find some new weeds to attack. I have "managed" them but not eliminated because now we are looking into a new expansion plus planning to replace the cast iron pipes which will just tear up my yard again. This summer will be the summer of just making sure I keep the edges off of the sidewalk

So it looks like I have Tall Fescue in my lawn (per Reddit).

What’s the best place to look up a plan to maintain it?

So far what I’ve found is to generally keep it long, don’t cut it too short. And then there’s some overseeding and aerating periods throughout the year to keep up with. And in the summer water 1” per week. Also some fertilizer once per year.

Once the house gets settled elsewhere I would really enjoy I think trying to maintain a nice lawn. We have a ton of landscaping around as well so just getting this thing in order will be a big task.

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That's highly unlikely if you live in Louisiana.

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I’m in the Shenandoah Valley in VA. It gets cold AF here in the winter. Working on a pic.

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I’m in the Shenandoah Valley in VA. It gets cold AF here in the winter. Working on a pic. My bad. I saw louisiana on your profile and thought you might be in Louisiana. It very well could be fescue in VA. I'd still love to see a pic though.

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All good. I never updated that after the move

Pic should be there now.

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What’s the best place to look up a plan to maintain it?

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Your county extension office or the closest A&M college will have good resources. Probably Virginia Tech.

Just google “tall fescue + state you live in.”