Thanks. Yes, I added the lime because of the soil test recommendation, but they did recommend calcitic lime, and none of the ones at Home Depot said calcitic, so I just assumed they were all calcitic. I still don't know if they are or not, but I went to Agway recently and saw virtually no magnesium in their lime, and the cashier told me it was calcitic lime. I bought a bag, which I haven't yet used. I figure I'll wait until the next soil test. I'll do the structural test you mention. I'll gather it from different areas and test each. I do already notice some bumpiness in the new lawn area, so that's not a comforting thing after what you've told me can happen over years. It seems very sensitive to the lawnmower. At nearly every mower turn, I feel I disturb at least some of the grading that I did before seeding. It was dead flat then. I also pulled a lot of weeds, which made it even more bumpy. I'm a bit concerned now about potential amendments. Am I understanding you correctly that you don't believe it's possible to repair the areas of your lawn and your neighbors because of the addition of topsoil over the years? I want to believe there's a solution for everything. Core or liquid aeration maybe? Different seed variety? Digging up the soil and adding a deep layer of good soil? There has to be something, right? BTW, a sprinkler system was just installed here and talk about bumpy! The sprinkler guy recommended getting soil and feathering it out around the bumps. But yes, this lawn is going to need some real work to get it flat again. Now you're making me wonder about topdressing, which I was planning on doing later on this year. This is becoming quite a project. I really should have sodded, and I'm thinking that careful cutting down of the high spots might be better in many areas than feathering with more soil.

If you want to just patch that small area then you kind of have to match it with approximately the same seed mix as the rest of the yard. Why would you want a small patch of grass that looks different from the rest? I'm no expert but if you get some detailed photos (not in full sun) maybe the experts here can tell you what kind of turf you have. This is also a great place to learn how to really improve your whole lawn tremendously. Good luck!

Wow... that was a lot of information! Dmt gave good information and probably knows a lot more than me. I live in JAX area also, and had my yard trenched for AT&T. Those areas usually die b/c you would have to water it like new sod. Half of mine survived, half didn't. When I moved in last fall all my neighbors had decent looking front yards. Now almost all of them near me have what looks like extensive damage from something. My back yard has issues, not sure what, but so far my front yard, seemingly in danger from whatever is ailing my area of the street, is holding on strong. Sites like this rescued my front yard (HOC, watering, bug damage, etc...). Can't see your sprinkler head you mention. If the sprinkler head is above the ground level you could reposition it to be level with the ground (may need a taller pop up if you do that). You may have tried, but you can usually adjust the spray radius of the sprinkler heads so maybe you could even out that wet spot by adjusting the nozzles. Organic is noble, but I can't help you there. I do use milorganite (greenedge is the local almost equivalent in our area), although my wife complained yesterday about the smell of both. Oh, weed #2 looks like surge to me. Celsius will kill it I think... Bottom right of the bare spot #3 picture looks like maybe some kind of sedge or kyllinga seed heads. It looks suppressed, possibly from the previous weed treatment company. A couple weeks after you think it was treated last you could try treating it again. I think Celsius kills kyllinga but not nutsedge, and sedgehammer kills nutsedge but only 'supresses' kyllinga. So there's a conundrum-proper weed ID would obviously help. You could try each but make sure to space out apps by at least a couple weeks to make sure your grass isn't stressed from the app, probably don't want to apply the herbicide if your grass is stressed. You could probably get away with using sedgehammer on anything nutsedge like, hand pull the rest (as a general rule you don't pull up nutsedge) as they come up, and apply a quality pre-emergent in the fall. I say that b/c honestly your yard looks pretty decent. It's not that bad, at least not in the photos. Of course it doesn't' compare to the lawns of the experts on these forums, but us normal people have to keep our expectations in check. You may of course evolve into an expert... Have you checked for chinch bugs? Hopefully the experts chime in if I misspoke...

Taking care of your own lawn will result in a nicer lawn that you have confidence in. You'll know what's going on and why. Also you won't waste resources or damage your environment. Sod is a good idea in the spring. When you seed in the spring you get a lot of weeds coming in with the new grass. Further, new spring grass does not develop good roots before the hot weather hits. The end result is you have crabgrass in those spots by July. If you want to begin mixing Kentucky bluegrass into your lawn, that will help keep the bare spots to a minimum. KBG spreads to fill thin areas whereas fescue and rye grasses do not. Apply preemergent when the forsythia begins to bloom in your neighborhood. Spot spray weeds in April. Fertilize in late May (Memorial Day) Fertilize in early fall (Labor Day) Fertilize again with a high N (low to 0 P and K) fast release fertilizer after your grass stops growing in late fall but before the frost takes it to complete dormancy. The idea is to get nutrients into the roots without stimulating new growth that late in the season. This is "winterizer." It will help the grass come out of dormancy in the spring. In addition to, or in place of, one of the fertilizer drops, I would use an organic fertilizer. Organic fertilizer works differently from chemical fertilizers. The organic will improve the health of your soil as much as helping your grass green up and grow. Mulch mow at your mower's highest setting for your lawn. Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall. You should not get a disease following this plan. Most bugs you see in the lawn are beneficial. There is always a chance of getting bugs that are not good. Usually you would see the damage in August, so the time to inspect the lawn for them is in late June. If you don't see a lot of Japanese beetles swarming your porch lights in May or June then you probably won't have a grub problem. Good luck taking this on. As you can see it is fairly straight forward and not hard.