You'd end up with a lumpy, bumpy pasture of Bermuda rather than a lawn, once it settles.

Too much organic material tilled INTO the soil can actually cause problems. The soil microbes multiply rapidly and become "net consumers" of Nitrogen instead of of suppliers for a period of time. Be careful, and watch for signs of any yellowing.

In other words, you're doing it wrong (if I may be more blunt than my friends above).

How do you lose bermuda over the winter? Do you have dogs?

By June your bermuda should be in full glory without doing anything but fertilizing and mowing. And coincidentally, June is the soonest you should be thinking about seeding. So you see, it is a self correcting system. If you know about bermuda seeding in the heat, you will never make the mistake of putting more seed into a bermuda lawn.

Tilling is the biggest mistake with bermuda. Bermuda must be mowed at the mower's lowest setting to perform its best. When you till in prep for a lawn, the soil will settle for three years. It is normal for the soil to settle unevenly; however, since you tilled in organic material, it will really settle unevenly. When it settles unevenly, the mower will chop and scalp as it moves from low spot to high spot. Most people solve this problem by raising their mower. That starts the cycle of thinning the grass and allowing weeds into the thin turf. Short bermuda will keep weeds out by itself. The bumps can be corrected, but most people wait until it is finally settled.

Thanks for your opinions. FWIW, I'm not doing anything. I just had a thought and sought advice. Dchall, to answer your question about losing Bermuda this winter, we had a unusually cold temps and I have light spots. I used NuMex Sahara (and a little Princess 77), which according to NTEP is not very cold hardy. I'm sure the lawn will be fine in June, but I'm not interested in having an ugly lawn during any season. I'm also quite familiar with the importance of a level seedbed. I have tilled, seeded, and rolled my last two lawns, and when possible, mowed with a manual reel mower. Unfortunately, part of my lawn is sloped and consists of very dry clay soil, which makes it difficult to keep the seed wet enough to germinate during the summer.

Anyway, lots of problems with the way my lawn looks right now. I like to keep it low and tight, but I'm afraid I may have to kill the Bermuda and resort to centipede or St. Augustine for maximum effectiveness.

DD