Also for watering: the soil looks too dry too soon currently. Mine, too--and I have no real problems. The very top surface of the soil dries out really fast in sun and wind, but that doesn't mean there isn't water underneath. You can test that by pushing a screwdriver into the soil. If it goes in fairly easily (barring rocks), your soil is damp. Or drive a small trowel into it and separate it into a V shape by rocking it a little bit. That'll give you a direct visual on how deep the water is. Here would be my plan: for now do very frequent waterings to help really wet the soil, I'm not familiar with California (except for the part about moderate temperatures and no rain), but this doesn't sound like a good idea--it encourages shallow roots and lawn diseases. The standard is 1" of water a week, all at once (well, within a day to allow for on/off cycles to allow the water to penetrate). For sandy soil your mileage will differ because the water wicks out fast and goes very deep very quickly. I will also probably try milorganite as a jump start, as I fear my soil is probably pretty depleted. I swear by it, others don't (it is processed sewage, but heated enough to kill everything in it). The 18 lbs/thousand square feet I put down last weekend kicked in and it's a rainy week. The grass, since Sunday, has grown one and a half inches and gone a deeper green. Once it stops raining, I'll mow. I went high, but I'm going to renovate this fall--with a deep, heavy core aeration I want lots of organics mixing into the holes. I alternate it with alfalfa and soy. When I started (early last year), my soil profile was slightly silty clay, poor drainage, very poor water penetration, hard as a rock, and a light tan. It had been corn field for as long as I could remember prior to building, and even my parents don't remember when it wasn't. Call it 40 years of abuse. Now it's still slightly silty clay (nothing's going to change that short of a renovation down to a foot or more). Drainage is fair to good, penetration is good to excellent, the soil is still hard when dry (it's supposed to be), but spongy when wet. The top half-inch is black, another inch is deep brown, and a good three inches below that have turned a midrange brown. Everything grows better and more strongly. I'm very pleased. Some older photos are here. I have to update them--the grass has improved since these were taken and the season advanced a bit.

Organic lawn care is not all that difficult to achieve - here in the PNW, organic gardening of any type is highly regarded and encouraged and lawn care is right up there with everything else. If you are planting a new lawn or sodding, preparation of the seed base is critical - a good, thick layer of quality soil to encourage deep root development and proper drainage is a must. If you are maintaining an existing lawn, my first suggestion is to invest in a mulching mower. Grasscycling or recycling of the finely minced grass clippings will reduce or even eliminate the need for additional fertilizing. Mow high and often and water infrequently but deeply. A well maintained and healthy lawn will outcompete weeds, but the best way to manage any that do appear is through manual removal or hand pulling. If your lawn has been previously maintained through chemical intervention (fertilizers and pesticides), be prepared to invest some patience in converting it to totally organic. Like any chemical addiction, the lawn will need to be weaned off and it may take a season or two before your lawn responds eagerly to the organic approach.

Okay. You need to forget the conversation with the sprinkler guy. He just wants to demonstrate all the cool features of his installation. Here's how to water. First you need to time how long it takes YOUR sprinkler system to deliver a full inch of water. Put some cat food or tuna cans out on the lawn and turn on the sprinkler. When all the cans are full, that's the time you want to memorize. That is the time you will water every time you water. When the temperatures are in the 90s, you should be watering no more than once per week. When temps fall into the 80s, you can back off to once every 2 weeks. When temps are in the 70s, back off to once every 3 weeks. Chances are your sprinkler system does not allow you to program it like that, so you'll have to go to manual. Also stop characterizing your soil as clay unless you have a brick factory in your neighborhood. When you have real clay, brick factories pop up. Otherwise what you have is sandy loam with too much magnesium in it. Magnesium causes soil to mimic clay in many ways. The red color is from iron, which you seem to have plenty of. You can do a quick test to show you don't have clay. Get a straight sided jar like an olive jar or whatever. Fill it half way with soil and measure the height with a ruler. Then fill it with water almost to the top and put in 3 drops of dish soap or shampoo. Put the lid on and shake it up real good. Then set the jar down. Two minutes later take a picture of the jar with the ruler next to it. Two hours later take another picture with the ruler. Then 2 days later take another picture. You're looking to get 100% of the inches of soil measured. If you had six inches of soil to start and after 2 minutes you have settling of 3 inches, then 50% of the soil is sand. After 2 hours if you have 2 inches more, then you have 33% loam (2 inches divided by the original 6 inches). The rest should be a cloudy brown water on top. What is most likely is that after 2 hours the water will not be that cloudy. If you can see through the jar then you virtually have no clay. If, after 2 days, the water on top is still cloudy/brown and not cleared up, then you have serious clay. Clay remains suspended in water for days.

The link below takes you to a web site about organic lawn care published by Ohio State University which may well be of some help. Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Lawn Care