I agree with dlenart. I did this last year and had excellent results and I didn't need to spend any money for a top dressing. I used a power rake set at the deepest setting, (which helped level out some bumps I had as well). I raked everything up, slit seeded and then covered with the old grass. This was a lot of work, but I had better results as the year before I just mowed it down as low as possible and left it. As a side note, I still had a pile of grass that composted and I'm growing pumpkins in it for my daughter and they are growing out of control!

greyandamy - you might want to look at a 'flame wand'. It runs on butane gas and is excellent for at least subduing tricky weeds such as dandelions or frizzling new weedlings. If your hands are giving you trouble then you may be able to get some sort of harness to take some of the weight on your upper body. It's very old fashioned - but a sharp draw hoe can be good for slicing off young weeds - as can a long-handled claw cultivator. I'm not promoting anything here - just giving a reference to check to see what's available: have a look at Wolf tools. They're a German company. One way you might be able to deal with your composting issue is to 'start a wormery'. You can get plastic boxes that stack like a beehive and they often have a tap on the bottom one so you can draw off the 'worm water.' It makes great liquid fertiliser - dilute it until it's the colour of weak tea or amazingly dilute coffee. (You should be able to see through it.) As it fills, though, you might need help to empty out a layer or so. It's brilliant for using around treasured plants (except cacti, because it holds moisture very well). Oh, and avocado pits sprout in it - but the skins do rot down very well. With a cold and unturned compost stack - just keep adding to it and it will keep on rotting down. Eventually the bottom layer will be that beautiful dark humus - with weed seeds. (Some seeds can last in that sort of duff for more than thirty years and still pop up.) If you can get someone to help you clear it out - put it on the garden for autumn/fall. The birds will forage in it and spread it around. The frost will subdue the growth (might even kill it) and you'll be set for an easier spring planting as the soil will be much easier to turn over. Cardboard and such. Probably better under a solid mulch, such as bark nuggets, to hold in moisture. I know the tiger worms love it (the compost worms) but it doesn't take long for earwigs and sowbugs to demolish it. Hope your flare eases for you soon so you can enjoy the summer.

Are we talking about a vegetable garden, or landscape beds? I have read about implementing layers of compost in a vegetable garden as opposed to tilling, as many of you mentioned. I have never tested it, but it made sense to me when a pretty well educated compost guy likened it to layers of leaves in a wooded area. The soil is rich and loaded with worms with few weeds. On the subject of fabric / weed barrier not all brands are created equally, and the poor quality types give the good products a bad name. Fabriscape, for example produces a good product. It is a strong woven material that cannot be ripped with your hands like the thin papery stuff they sell in box stores--it is so strong it can be difficult to cut with scissors and utility knives at times. It has a fuzzy underside that does an amazing job gripping to soil. A few sod pins to hold it in place until it is covered and you are good to go. I have gone back to projects 10-15 years later and found it difficult to peel off the ground, and still strong as ever to tear. I do recommend using a decorative stone mulch instead of a wood mulch product. Wood mulch will eventually compost an provide a possible seed bed on top of the fabric. If the stone you choose has some sediment in it, you may still get weeds, but if installed correctly you should have about 80-90% fewer weeds.

Agree - keep an eye on it and water when it tells you to. The dead blades might be a sign of a fungal disease from the incessant rains. I've got it in my lawn in San Antonio but not in Bandera. Do you want to take a picture from about 3 inches away and post it for evaluation? Our rain finally ended after fortnightly drenchings since October. Temps are in the low 90s again, and my grass is just now looking poorly. The last rain was 2 weeks ago exactly. This is the first time ever I've gone into July without watering at all. I'm going to unroll the soaker hose tonight and set it to a slow trickle (8 ounces per minute rate). I literally have the water police living on my street and driving past several times a day. Husband and wife work for the property owner association's private water company. They're sticklers. We're only allowed to water on Tuesdays for 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the evening. The place looks like a water park with everyone watering at once. I'm hoping the super slow trickle soaker approach gets past their scrutiny. They flag high water use over 3,000 gallons per week, so the slow soaker won't even come close to that. I'm just trying to keep the grass alive, not the weeds. When you subtract the weeds there's only 100 square feet to irrigate. So the point of all this is to say watch the grass and water as much as you need when you need to. Deep soaking rains should have left deep water in the soil. The grass, not the soil, will let you know when it's drying out.