I am actually glad this thread got revived. I didn't read all of it but it got me thinking. I am in NC and have clay soil and Bermuda. I had my back yard sodded a few years ago (pretty sure it's tifway 419) and right now it looks pretty good for it to be mid May. My front yard was sodded by the builder (don't know if it's common Bermuda or tifway) and just hasn't greened up like the back. The ground is definitely hard. I am following the Bermuda bible but am looking to going to a more hybrid program of synthetics and organics. I currently do use milorganite more so for the iron then anything. Anyways, my plan was to aerate next month and immediately follow it up with 10 lbs of alfalfa per 1000 sq. ft. That way I could get it deep in the soil and let the microbes do their thing. I was going to follow it up 3 weeks later with 20 lbs of alfalfa. Now that I'm reading this I'm not sure what to do. Any advice? If I do the shampoo is there any restrictions on applying fertilizer or herbicides to my yard before or after? My back yard looks good but I have this God awful broadleef weed that is spreading. I sprayed it at the beginning of the month with good results and will need to spray again at the end of the month. I also plan on fertilizing in a couple of days. Thanks in advance for the help.

This topic is over a year old but what the heck...nobody is going to read for these comments, anyway. If deep and infrequent watering does not work, then you have the wrong grass. Fescue is the wrong grass for the Mojave desert. Yes, I realize it is an extremely popular grass, but when trying to grow it in the desert, it will consume all the water you can give it. If water was prevalent, it would not be a desert. It would be much better to select a variety of grass that is strongly adapted to your area. bpgreen can help steer you in the right direction but you will have to do some ground work with your county extension agent. Despite what the previous poster suggests, you will NEVER need a rototiller to prepare your soil. There is no six-inch 'usual depth' for preparing soil for turf at the homeowner level. After reading comments and complaints on this forum and others for 10 years, I'm convinced a rototiller will destroy your soil structure. In three years, when the structure finally reestablishes itself, it would leave you with a bumpy surface. You can create a deeply organic soil by working entirely at the surface without aerators or tillers. Look in the Organic Garden forum and find the FAQs. At the bottom of the list is the Organic Lawn Care FAQ. It will get you started. In the case of organics, more is better until you get up to about 80 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Beyond that point you have to start thinking about whether you might be smothering the grass. If you want to get your organic numbers up fast, apply alfalfa, soy bean meal, or whatever you can get, at 20 pound per 1,000 square feet every week all summer long. It will cost you a little more but it has been shown to work. If you are going to that extreme, then before you put all those organics down, you might want to invest in a good soil test from Logan Labs, not your local extension service. Again, this is after reading for 10 years. Logan Labs has an excellent reputation. Local extension service has, at best, a reputation for having poorly motivated/educated personnel and too often incorrect test results. The Logan Labs test will enable you to tune up your micro nutrients better than any extension service test.

Ok got it done today...The plugs are about 2" long..It has rained her for a few days dropping lots of water so the ground was soft..buy 25 it goes from cold to hot here in Alabama..It has been in the 90's for 3 months now and will still have 90 degree weather until the middle of Oct..The aerating machine will wear you out..I then muched my lawn to break up the plugs..tomorrow I will aplly some more N..I want to overseed in the back yard, but I can not find any Princess 77 seed and with the Tifton 419 bermuda I do not what else to overseed with..any suggestions..I am want to apply some lime when would be a good time to do that? Thanks for all the help and suggetions...Patrick

You have a big project, and it would have been better if you started a few weeks ago. Don't know what your entire lawn looks like so cannot advise whether to do just the brown spots or overseed the whole lawn. I would aerate, seed and fertilize the same day; as soon as possible. The most important step is to keep the seed moist for a few weeks. You may want to do the worse half this fall and the other half next spring or fall. It depends how much time you have to devote to your lawn. I never top dress but I am retired and can keep the soil moist all the time. I am in the second week of renovating about 12,000 sq ft. It is very time consuming to keep every thing moist if it is sunny and breezy every day.