I can empathize with your wish to save the tree, but I would question whether it in fact should be saved, or even can be saved. It is too close to the road, and even if you could make it thrive, when it's bigger it will likely start to be hit by passing trucks, and the city might send out their mandatory tree hit squad to trim it back, which likely will be a recurring problem. I can't tell quite what type of tree it is, but I'd bet it's having trouble either due to dirty water from the road (salt and grime) or too much heat hurting the roots, from the surrounding pavement in the Summer. I might be a heretic, but not every tree should be kept. Many were planted in the wrong place, and in the wrong environment, and that's not your fault. How about planting two nice trees in nice places in your yard instead? Just my thoughts... Best of luck.

If you're going to overseed, spring is not the time to do it when you have that much go dormant in the heat. Depending on when you have your first frost, it may already be too late to do a fall seeding. You want to leave 6 weeks between seeding and the average first frost and I think that's already here for me (and it's still too hot to seed). The problem with spring seeding is that the grass doesn't really have a chance to establish before the summer heat kicks in. The problem with fall seeding here is that fall is too short. It seems to go from too hot to snow in a hurry. I've had my best results from dormant seeding. I wait until it's too cold for the seed to germinate and put the seed down (if possible, just before a good snowstorm hits). The snow melt and the freeze/thaw cycles will get the seed to the soil and it will germinate as soon as the soil warms up enough. There should be enough moisture from the snow melt that you won't have to water. However, I don't really think your lawn looks like it needs to be overseeded. I think you just need to get the grass to root more deeply. I don't usually core aerate, but I've been working on getting the organic content of my soil higher so that it will absorb water better (and the worms then take care of the aeration). If your organic content is really low, you may want to core aerate this fall (and maybe again in the spring if it's really bad). If you want to introduce some grasses into the lawn that will have a similar green period to the KBG but will need a lot less water, you can try adding some native grasses like streambank and western wheatgrass or some introduced grasses like crested wheatgrass. These are all cool season grasses that spread somewhat (but won't out compete the KBG where the KBG does well). They're not as dark green as KBG, but they don't need nearly as much water to stay green.

Where do you live? What kind of grass do you have? - Dethatch No. Thatch, if you have it, is the least of your problems. - Cut the grass short Oh heck no. Always mow at the mower's highest setting or nearby. - Scarify Scarify is something you do to seeds that need to be roughened up. What does it mean in your context? - Aerate Probably not. Wait until you have the major issues resolved. - for the muddy areas, apply triple mix soil to flatten and level the lawn Not yet. Assuming you have low spots, you need to address those. Fixing those should get rid of the muddy parts. - overseed / over the mud spots, I will apply more seed and Wait for seeding (preferably until September), but until you have the bumps and dips sorted out. - put triple mix soil on top of seed No. You probably already have too much soil in the yard. Almost nobody is short of soil. There are tons of people who put 1/4-inch of topsoil on the yard EVERY year. Well, in 4 years that's an inch of soil you don't need. - Rake and spread the soil around NO! No more soil. - add water NO! You already have a water problem. I live in Texas and have not watered my lawn yet this year. Well, a little on the southern bank, but then it rained, of course. The big thing is to identify any drainage issues. Water should drain away from all the buildings and out to the curb or a ditch somewhere. If you have low spots anywhere, or if you have soil higher than the concrete walkways or driveways, then you have too much soil already. Scraping it up and hauling it away is a huge deal that I've rarely seen done, but that solves so many issues. Fixing the drainage will NEVER involve tilling the soil. It might involve scraping surface soil away to form a swale or ditch, but rototilling is never in the solution to drainage. Rolling is similarly useless in profiling the surface. It looks like your yard is bumpy mostly from lumps of grass interspersed with dead spots. I would not jump to any conclusions about the soil being bumpy until you get an even stand of grass.

Where do you live? I ask that mostly because if you live in FL you're going to have to come to grips with neighbors telling you how to water. You are watering wrong. I have only watered my St Augustine lawn one time this year. Last year we had more rain and I didn't water until June. That year I watered a total of 5 times. Year before that we had better rain and I did not water until July. That year I watered a total of 4 times. You should NEVER (ever) need to water every 2 days. Clearly the grass is established and happy with the incorrect watering, so it will take just a little weaning to get it where is should be. Ideally in the hottest heat of summer you would be watering once per week. Here's the entire watering guidance that should work for St Augustine anywhere from Phoenix to the Everglades. Deep water every time. Deep means 1 inch all at once, not spread out over several days or twice a week. Set out some tuna or cat food cans and time how long it takes to fill all the cans. If you have dry spots in the middle, be sure to put cans there. That time will be your watering time, every time you water from now on. My watering time with an oscillator sprinkler, my water pressure, and my hoses is 8 hours. Yours is going to be a lot less with an in-ground system. It might be as little as 20 minutes. With temperatures below 70 degrees F, deep water once per month. Mother Nature usually takes care of this at those temps. With temps between 70 and 80, water once every 3 weeks. With temps between 80 and 90, water every other week. With temps between 90 and 100, water once a week. With temps from 100 to 110, water every 5 days. With temps from 110 to 115, water every 4 days. This is guidance, not gospel, but it's much closer to what your lawn needs than watering every other day regardless of anything else. Are you doing your own mowing? If so set your mower to the highest setting and mow every week. Get ready to fertilize for the first time in 2 weeks (Memorial Day). If you want to use organic fertilizer, let me know where you live and I'll help you get the right stuff. Do you have weeds in the lawn? or just at the edge? Pictures, please. If that second pic is the same area as the first pic, then run to the store to get some of this stuff. It should kill most of the grassy weeds and the broadleaf weeds. And tell us where you live.