"I am wondering if you guys think I can get a decent enough germination out of the plain seed to outweigh the hydro mulch." With irrigation you should not HAVE to use hydromulch. It offers some advantages in getting the seed to germinate because of the mulch that goes down with it. However, for that much acreage, unless cost is no object, you should be fine seeding it without the hydromulch. I would suggest you do a search and read, read, read on seeding and overseeding. There is a huge amount of info posted here in the fall (prime time for cool weather seeding) that should be in the archives. Soil prep, various ways to seed, like with a drill, overseeder, broadcast, etc are covered. If you broadcast it you will probably want to roll it. Again, if you don't hire it hydromulched, then size is an issue on an acre. Do you have a tractor or yard tractor to help? As to when in your area you might consult either the archives (usually based on soil temps, I don't know them for annual rye.) Or talk to your County ag agent or local nursuries. Sooner is better because of the weeds that will want to germinate with the rye. Also, you might want to consider sprigging some of the new hybrid versions of buffalo grass instead of bermuda once it gets warm. It likes lots of sun and alot less fertilizer and water.

Buy a ratcheting plastic pipe cutter. You can get them for $8-$100. Mine cost $8. If you need the cutters you'll also need PVC glue and some pipe cleaner fluid. It is often dark purple in color. The cleaner removes the outer surface of the pipe so the glue will melt deeper into the pipe forming a solid piece after it dries. The rest of this I'm doing in steps to make it easier to sort out. I'm not trying to be pedantic. Find a riser you want to adjust the height on. Dig around that riser until you get to the cross connecting pipe underground. It will be 6-12 inches deep. Put all the soil onto a tarp or something that you can temporarily pull away. Measure the pipe diameter so you can speak intelligently with the people at the hardware store. Risers are usually 1/2-inch but rarely a 3/4 pipe is used. Measure the height of the riser from the TOP of the lower fitting to the TOP of the spray nozzle. Lay a piece of wood across the hole and measure from the top of the bottom fitting to the bottom of the wood across the hole. The bottom of the wood is the very top surface of the planet at the location of that hole. You want the TOP of the sprayer to be at that height. At this point all I can say is you are going to get some experience. Adjusting the height of the riser might be as easy as adding a threaded "nipple" to the top of the riser or you might have to do some surgery with your pipe cutting tool. If you have to shorten the riser, you will need to cut it twice and remove a piece in the middle. Then you can rejoin the two pieces with an unthreaded nipple (need the glue and cleaner). Or you can cut off the top fitting and glue a new one on at a lower height. Use the measurements you made to determine the final length of the riser when you are finished. Make all your cuts leaving the riser as long as possible. It's much easier to work at the top of a hole than at the bottom. There are many ways to approach a fix. Go to the hardware store and start memorizing the types of fittings you have available. There aren't that many but the combinations of threaded and unthreaded are important. When you are finished you will have dirt left over that will not fit into the hole. This next part is very important. ALL THE DIRT GOES BACK INTO THE HOLE. That is why the tarp was important so you don't lose any of that dirt. If you do not put all the dirt back into the hole, you will soon enough have a depression around that riser. Even though you have a mound around the riser and the spray nozzle is below grade, all that dirt will eventually settle back to where the edge of the planet was when you started. You will pay for the cutting tool the very first time you use it. The alternative is a hacksaw that usually ends up breaking pipe and fittings as well as delivering bloody hands. The cutter goes through pipe like a hot knife through butter. When I was doing this in the '60s all the pipe was galvanized steel. Hacksaws were required so the hole had to be big enough and deep enough to get a hacksaw in there. If the pipe was old enough you usually ended up replacing the horizontal pipe, too. What a MESS! Life is better with plastic!

All I meant by that is, the stuff is concentrated. Care must be taken to ensure you are using the proper concentration. Tenacity can be spot sprayed...recommended spot spray concentration is listed in the label. For your purposes (seeding/lawn establishment), I think you'd be wise to blanket spray which requires much more care about technique. A good target would be 1 gal per 1000 sq ft, although I like to fill my 4 gal backpack and use all 4 gal on about 5000 sq.ft. It takes some experience to spray evenly with minimal gaps and overspray, and at your target rate (what some like to call "calibrating your sprayer"). Variables in setup include output pressure, spray head pattern and sprayhead volume--all vary so it takes experience to know the pace to walk at to put down that 1 gal per 1000 sq ft. That said, once you have a good spray system in place, you can spray anything: iron, pre-emergents, post-emergents, soil conditioners, fungicides, etc etc. Almost a must for any lawn enthusiast or DIYer.

It looks like the soil is higher than the concrete along the driveway. That should be corrected so that water from the driveway flows into the grass/garden, not the other way around. Well, preferably the water from the driveway flows to the center of the driveway and the the water in the garden flows to the center of the garden and then out at the curb sidewalk or curb. You have a LOT of soil to get rid of no matter what you put in there. Here are some things to think about for planning this and deciding if you want in-ground system. I used to live in Hawthorne 3 miles south of LAX so I know you happen to live in a sweet spot where you can have any kind of grass you want. Most of California has no business trying to grow fescue, rye, or Kentucky bluegrass, but with the sea breeze you never get too hot for the northern grasses. If you have full sun you can use the grasses you mentioned, but if you have half a day of shade from buildings, fences, trees, or shrubbery, you should go with either fescue or St Augustine. Fescue, like Marathon I, II, or III would work fine. Those are readily available anywhere that sells grass. St Augustine might be harder to find. Call around. When calling, if you have no luck in LA County, try Roger's Gardens in Costa Mesa. Fescue will stay put without spreading. St Augustine will spread over top of the soil and invade other areas where it was not planted. That needs to be kept back with something like a string trimmer. Watering all these grasses is about the same if you want the yard to look green. Some will survive better with a serious lack of water, but they will have turned brown loooong before that. If you want them green, then you need to water any of them. One of the serious issues with California is the institutionalized, adamant, insistence on daily watering. Y'all have to stop that crap. For you in Westchester with the daily sea breeze keeping high temps in the 70s, you only have to water once every 3 weeks. For that one week every few months when the Santa Ana winds blow hot dry air, then bump it up to watering once a week. But when the sea breeze returns, immediately go back to infrequent watering. Water one inch all at one time every time you water. That can be a lot of water, but when applied infrequently, it is usually less than daily watering would be. Put some cat food or tuna cans in the yard and turn on the sprinklers. Time how long it takes to fill all the cans. That is your watering time from now on. With all that, do you really want an in-ground system? I have settled on oscillator type sprinklers for my lawns. I've tried them all, twice, and oscillators work best for me. Any of the grasses you pick should be mowed at your mower's highest setting. The Marathon varieties are considered to be dwarf. That means they grow slow, but if I remember they still will eventually get tall. Bermuda is an exception, but you did not mention bermuda. Mowing high will result in the best saving of water. The tall grass shades the soil and resists evaporation. This is a big contributor to being able to water so infrequently.