Get started by measuring your sprinkler output. Put some tuna or cat food cans out around the yard and turn on the sprinklers. Watch to see how long it takes to fill them up. Every sprinkler system is different. Mine would take 8 hours to fill but some take only 20 minutes. Once you know that, you can do this yourself. The basic idea is to water once per week and put out enough to make it through the entire week. An inch is the starting point, but in your case it will take a while to work your way up to a full inch. Your roots are not deep enough yet.

When was the lawn seeded? If was this year then you should not hope for a miracle. Actually the miracle would be if the entire lawn survives the heat and makes it until fall. But if it was seeded last fall, then the roots should be fine. You should be able to grow them much deeper so that you are watering longer and much less frequently. There are other good reasons why not to water so often, so just work your way there. If I had temps in the mid 80s for a high, I would be watering every 14 days. With temps in the low 100s, I water once a week.

If your soil is too hard to allow penetration of that much water all at one time, try spraying baby shampoo or any clear shampoo. Application rate is 3 ounces of soap per 1,000 square feet. Apply once followed by an inch of water (if you can). Then follow up 2 weeks later when you water. Normal soil feels soft when it is wet and feels very firm (hard) when it dries out. It is just like a sponge. The longer you apply the shampoo the deeper your soil will soften. Clear shampoo is best to use because it does not have oils or antibiotics that some other liquid soaps have.

Thanks for your input dchall.
The lawn was actually planted in June of 2011, not the optimum time to plant grass I know. It was the builders choice.
I have heard of the shampoo application to loosen up the soil and I am going to give it a try along with having the soil tested. How do you apply the shampoo?
Do you or any of the other bloggers know if it is possible to bring the lawn back from what the lawn service technician is calling drought stress or am I wasting water?
Should I let the lawn go dormittant? I am planning on slice seeding in early September.
Thanks again.

Good so you have a good root system. Now all you need to do is stretch out the watering. Start by skipping one water cycle and see how the grass goes. If you already know it can't make it, then double your watering time and try it.

Are you interested in taking over and letting your lawn service go? If you are in reasonable physical condition, it is not that hard to apply fertilizer. Most people simply don't know when to apply or how to diagnose issues. We can help you learn that. Here are the very basics of lawn care - I call it Lawn Care 101. You can get a lot more into it but if all you do is this, you won't have many issues to deal with.

Basics of Lawn Care

After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at seven houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct.

Watering
Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an hour in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. Do not spread this out and water for 10 minutes every day. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. If that does not work, then you might have to water more than once per week during the summer's hottest period. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds.

You will have to learn to judge when to water your own lawn. If you live in Las Vegas your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, humidity, wind, and soil type. It is worth noting that this technique is used successfully by professionals in Phoenix, so...just sayin.' The other factors make a difference. If you normally water 1 inch per week and you get 1/2 inch of rain, then adjust and water only 1/2 inch that week.

Mowing
Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush. One last exception is Kentucky bluegrass. The experts mow it at 3.5 inches (one notch below the highest setting).

Fertilizing
Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it. If you are using chemical fertilizers, too little is better than too much. If you are using organic fertilizers, it is the other way around. At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide.

dchall,
Do you have a name brand for the organic fertilizer you are using?
I plan on doing the sprinkler output test tomorrow.
Thanks again for all of your help and suggestions.

Claga I don't know where you are in Massachusetts but I advise you not to let your grass go dormant. Water once a week untill your lawn gets an inch of water. Letting it go dormant would encourage weeds/weed seeds to take place If i'm not correct. In 6-8 weeks your lawn will have less of a fight trying to enjoy the cooler temps. If you have not limed your soil at all or it's been a while then you must use that soil test to your advantage to correct your PH. My lawn may not be the cultivars i want but since using the lime i needed to ajust a poor Ph it has looked a hell of alot better. I'm in Burlington,Ma near Pinehurst,Billerica and there is a reason they call it "Pinehurst", lots O pines = acidic soil. Mine was a 5.0. I dropped Calcium lime at max bag rate and my lawn has improved. I won't really know how much one app of lime can push the Ph up but the grass looks so much healthier than previous years. I plan to retest after 2-3 apps. Are you renovating or overseeding this year? Or just trying to maintain? Do yourself a HUGE favor and send those samples to UMass! Then you can figure out which fertilizers to use to gain the upper hand.

Where are you in Mass?

If you have rye grass then overseed it Aug/Sept

michael1022,
I live in Holden, it borders the north side of Worcester.
It't a brand new neighborhood that a second builder purchased after the first developer clear cut for 38 house lots. The surrounding area is mostly oak trees. As I mentioned earlier the soil is clay based. I did plan on either overseeding/slice seeding this fall.
I do have a couple of questions for you though if you don't mind answering.
What type of container did you use to send your soil samples to UMASS?
And if I overseed; how soon or how do you mow the lawn after putting the seed down?
I recylce the grass clipping, I do not use the lawn mower bagger.
Thanks

I just did a soil test w/ Umass. I double bagged mine in ziplock sandwich bags and sent them in a padded envelope. I received the test results so I assume they arrived safe and sound.

Thanks jayhoz

Aug 15-Sept 15 to overseed. Cut the exisiting lawn down to 1 inch and overseed into that and water 10-15min 2-3x a day. Mow lawn again when the new seedlings become 3 1/2 inches. Apply starter at half the rate after putting down seed.

Here is a picture of my fertilizer bag.

{{gwi:107111}}

I'm not kidding. I buy alfalfa pellets in plain, 50-pound bags at the feed store.

Thanks Everyone,
You have provided me with alot of good information.
I measured the sprinkler output last night. The results showed I was definitely underwatering. The output was only 1/8" of water per 30 minutes. I adjusted the times to one hour per zone with an output of 1/4" of water per zone every other day; splitting the time between two watering sessions starting at 4:00am and 6:00am to eliminate the possibility of run off.
Is this okay?

Thanks again.

It's been a week since I performed the sprinkler system water output test dchall suggested (see above). Since making the time/quanity of water adjustments the lawn has recovered very nicely and looks good.
I do plan on getting the soil tested and applying the baby shampoo to soften the soil along with over-seeding in early September.
Thanks again everyone for all of your help.