I wonder...how did your lawn turn out? It seems from the picture that more than one thing is wrong. Obviously pH, but also it could be your watering schedule, amount of fertilizer, and mowing. The cheap lime is ok but you might not get great success with it. I live about 60 miles from you and have compact clay as well. I use the fast acting lime every 4-6 weeks (1/2 the recommended values to avoid rain runoff). But it seems because your pH is so low that you aren't watering your grass (usually city water is hard). For watering if you have compacted clay soil, you should make sure to water in the AM (before 9) because it looks like your soil easily dries out. This way you'll give roots access to water in the mid-afternoon during "respiration" which is when most water in the blade is lost. Plus you'll dry out the top surface of the ground to discourage weeds and disease/fungus. Plus the high humidity/dew in the AM lets more of the water get into the ground. Water every 2-3 days during the hot summer months...if you water and your grass is beginning to turn brown, you should have watered the previous day - but never water the lawn everyday. You'll need to water long enough to get down to the root zone (water in the AM and in the PM dig a small hole and see how deep the water went - if it didn't go 2-3" deep, try watering longer until it gets this deep. if you look at the soil after a nice soaking rain, 3-6"+ of soil will be damp). For those bare spots, it's best to use a water-absorbing coated seed - those seeds tend to grow much faster than regular seeds covered in peat moss. You can use these in the middle of summer as long as you water the spots everyday for the first 2-3 weeks. I've seen these seeds germinate in 4 days (Scotts brand). For fertilizer, a balanced fertilizer is best, i.e. 20/20/20. You might have to go to a specialty store for this. Fertilize a little below the recommend settings every 4-6 weeks. Finally, for mowing make sure you set your mower as high as possible. That will help keep the top 1" of soil from drying out so soon and help new seedlings grow.

The idea behind raising mowing height in the dog days of summer is to keep from allowing the lawn to burn. What type of Bermuda do you have, is it a hybrid or standard variation? What height do you currently cut? How much and often are you watering? How established is the lawn? Where are you located? Have you read the Bermuda Bible by Texas Weed, if not, you need to. Google it and spend 30 minutes reading, it will change the appearance of your lawn forever. I have a hybrid Bermuda, I cut at 1". In July and August I may raise my mowing height by a 1/4" to 1/2" if it is excessively hot and or dry. Assuming you have a rotary mower place it on a level surface and measure the height from the blade to the surface. There should be adjustment levers on the front or back wheels or both. Raise them one notch and re measure, what is the difference from your first measurement to the new measurement? That is how much you have raised the mowing height.

"But what about after seeding? You have to administer starter fertilizer." You don't have to add starter at the time of seeding. Seeds will germinate all by themselves without starter. Actually it makes more sense to add it after the first mowing, when growth really starts to happen and it has long enough roots to actually use all those nutrients. I usually do a half app with the seeds, another half app after the second mowing. "I'm planning to seed in a week or two. But by the rule of thumb, won't the high concentration starter fertilizer compromise the existing grass if the temperatures are warm enough at the time it's applied?" If you are overseeding, it's probably better to wait till you mow for the first time. The starter will increase topgrowth and with all the watering you will be doing fungal disease will be an issue, and it will also crowd out the new grass to an extent. "I should add that my low concentration recovery feeding was just two weeks ago, during a cooler-than-normal span of a few days. " Doesn't matter, the fertilizer in summer forces topgrowth, which depletes nutrient stores, and increases the need for more water. For CT you want to shoot for around Labor Day, but that's just a way to remember it. When the weather turns dryer, and the nights cooler (low sixties, high fifties) is a good time for the first synthetic fall feeding.

The most frequent watering occurred during June, about once a week, whenever the grass looked stressed. I always water until I can easily insert a screwdriver into the ground 7-8 inches. During July and August, I hardly watered at all due to the rain and humidity. Right now I'm back to watering about every 10 days, but again I make each watering session count. I'm hoping this will 'train' the grass so it requires even less water next summer.