It might be recommended to loosen your soil in some parts of the world and in some forums, but I certainly don't make that suggestion. By softening, are you referring to rototilling? That's a big no-no. I don't have a sprinkler system in San Antonio and have managed to maintain St Augustine in a lot worse climate than Houston. The only problem that will wipe out St Augustine is not watering long enough when you water. The amount of water needed for St Augustine also happens to be the amount of water needed for bermuda if you want the bermuda to look nice. If you don't care whether the bermuda looks nice, then you can get away with no water at all. THAT is where bermuda differs from St Aug. St Aug dies without water while bermuda only goes dormant. Bermuda will not grow immediately to the north of south-side fences, so find a different solution for that location. Something else you might consider is calling in a landscaper. Oops! Never mind. Just reread that part about the budget. Rather than scalping the lawn, rent a verticutter, power rake, or slit seeder. Any one will work. These machines will barely cut into the surface of the soil but they remove all the plants. Then rake or blow all that stuff away before seeding. After you seed, roll the seed down with a rented roller. It is very important to get good contact with the soil. Now the most important suggestion I can give you is to WAIT TO SEED BERMUDA until late May or June when the soil is fully warmed up. Seeding bermuda now is a waste of seed and time. In the mean time sit on your hands. Find a copy of The Bermuda Bible online and memorize it. The author, Texas-Weed, will be along here soon and reply to this with additional, and perhaps conflicting, tips for you. He's the man when it comes to bermuda, though.

Well, after some more research, I've made some progress on identifying the weeds, and figured I'd share... I'm almost positive #1 is Virginia Buttonweed I think #2 might be nutsedge. Can someone confirm that? As far as #3 goes, I think it is bermuda grass. But I think I actually have some bermuda and crabgrass, particularly where the lawn meets the street. And now begins the long process of trying to revive my lawn. My current plan is... 1. Try to control the weeds as best I can for now by spraying them with weed control for lawns and/or picking them by hand. Already started and it seems to be slowly killing the weeds and leaving the grass intact. 2. Come early-September, I'm going to fill in some depressed areas of the lawn with topsoil 3. Top dress the rest of the lawn with a thin layer of top soil. 4. Add some milorganite (unless someone has a better suggestion) 5. Seed entire yard with tall fescue, or maybe a mix of tall fescue and kentucky bluegrass 6. Water daily until grass starts to grow, then only twice a week for a few weeks, then only once a week. 7. Pray that tons of grass grows and chokes out the weeds 8. Come early spring, spread pre-emergent herbicide on the lawn Thoughts? This post was edited by ryanhaub on Sun, Aug 4, 13 at 0:40

They are not easy to tell apart in a picture, which isn't surprising since Tradescantia is in the Commelinacae family. I also thought Tradescantia when I saw the OP's picture, but then saltcedar's picture threw me for a loop. As purpleinopp says, a couple more pictures will help. Or, if it's well-behaved, just keep it.

Brenda, I would pose this question on the lawn forum if I were you. I'm sure you'll get a quick response there. Good luck Here is a link that might be useful: Lawn forum