Congrats on the new home. 1) Nutsedge is challenging whether you are trying to stay organic or not. Most chemicals don't work very well on it although there are a few products that specifically target this weed (sledgehammer etc.) The problem is the "nut" part. This weed forms little nut shaped bulbs in its roots a energy reserves. If you kill of the top, it just regrows from the "nut". The quickest way to get rid of them is just to dig them up - dig, not pull. If you pull, you will likely just get the topgrowth and miss the nut. 2) Getting on a consistent watering schedule and using organic fertilizers will slowly improve the soil. For a much quicker fix: Water for 15 minutes. Let it soak in. Water for 15 minutes. Let it soak in. Do this a bunch of times in a row until you can actually get a shovel into the ground. Then, wait a day and rent a plug aerator. Make a couple of passes over the whole area. Then, sprinkle a layer of compost over everything and then rake/broom the area to knock some of the compost into the holes. 3. Bermuda won't grow in shade. You can plant St Augustine grass there if you really want grass. I don't think it looks very good next to bermuda though. Personally, I would make beds, patios, sitting spots etc out of the shady spots. Grass likes to grow in the sun. If you walk in the forest, you aren't going to see a ton of grass growing there. It is a lot easier to follow nature than to fight against it.

Good suggestion, eaga, but I didn't get lucky with the pages that "The Wayback Machine" had archived. It'd be a bit like finding a needle in a haystack, trying to guess what day the Organic Lawn Care FAQ showed up in the discussions. Unfortunately, the search function wasn't able to find it in the archived pages. Guess we'll just have to hope Houzz gets their act together soon.

This is a list of things the beneficial microbes in the soil do, so the benefit of applying organic fertilizer is to improve the health and population of the beneficial microbes so they can do these things. Decompose plant residues and manure to plant food or humus. Retain nutrients in nutrient-rich humic and fulvic acids Combine proteins and carbohydrates to prevent nutrient loss. Suppress disease. Produce plant growth regulators. Develop soil structure, tilth, and water penetration/retention. Clean up chemical residues. Shift soil pH toward neutral . Search out and retrieve nutrients in distant parts of the soil. Decompose thatch and keep it from returning. Control nitrogen supply to the plants according to need. Pull minerals out of inorganic soil components for plants. Provide the exact chemical nutrients to the plant that the plant has evolved with rather than man's cheapest chemical approximation. Provide exactly the required quantity of nutrients that the plant needs. Provide the nutrients at exactly the right time that the plant needs them. No chemical can do any of that. To be fair, no single microbe can do all of that either. In fact, it could be that it takes 10 different species, one working right after the other, to do any one item in the above list - sort of like a microbiological assembly line. But at least it's real easy to get all the right microbes. At the same time, many chemicals inhibit the microbe's natural abilities to do these things. Herbicides, fungicides, and pesticides are all designed to kill various biological life. As a byproduct, they often kill off the beneficial microbes that are doing 1 through 15 above. Any break in the assembly line can interrupt the process, damage the mini ecosystem, and lessen the benefit of the organic methods. My personal reason for using organic fertilizer, and specifically corn meal, is that it cures the fungal disease I periodically get on my lawn. That's how I got started. Now that I've been doing it, organic is just dead simple and no hassle. If I use too much - no problem. If it rains after I put it down - no problem. If I put it down and the temp suddenly turns hot - no problem. If I want to get rid of a bag of old stuff - no problem (just apply it). If I forget to water it in - no problem. If I accidentally double the application - no problem. If I want to have the lawn really green on a certain date - apply 3 to 4 weeks prior (pretty easy). Application cost runs me about $4 per 1,000 square feet - well within my lawn hobby budget. One thing I notice about a month after I use organics, my lawn becomes so dense it seems like I'm mowing lettuce. It just seems juicy. Another thing I noticed is my insect issues disappeared with organics. I used to have pill bugs by the double handful showing up in spots. Back in the 90s I used insecticide to kill them. That worked but they came back. Once I started with organics, I have not seen them. I never see cockroaches in the yard anymore, either. Someone suggested that the reason for this was that the natural predators (birds, toads, lizards, geckos, etc.) don't like to come to lawns that have been poisoned with insecticide or that have too many chemicals. That makes sense.

Start by taking a good in depth look at the soil. Even a lawn needs a good healthy soil to grow in. You should know what the soil pH is (most all nutrients are most readily available wit the soil pH in the 6.0 to 7.0 range) and whether the major nutrients are in balance. These simple soil tests mayu also be of some help. 1) Soil test for organic material. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. For example, a good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top. 2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains’ too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up. 3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart. 4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer your soil will smell, to a point. Too much organic matter can be bad as well. 5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy. Your soil is most likely clay and those sandal aerators, as has already been stated, simply will not do the what you expect them too. Mow the grass as high as possible and put the clippings right back where they came from, the lawn. Those clippings can supply up to 1/2 the annual nutrients that lawn will need. Rather than Lawn Restore I would simply spread compost, about 1/4 inch thick each time. The compost will do more to build up organic matter in the soil than would the Ringers. I'd spend more time working on the soil and not worry much about any weeds this year. kimmq is kiommsr