Gotta warn you that I'm just a little frustrated here. HofmyH, did you read all the replies above? Did you read the one from John_in_SC about almost nobody has clay soil? It's always best, especially when you are tagging onto a defunct thread, to read the contents of the thread before posting. You need to be sure the previous suggestions either don't apply or you have followed them. Please do a jar test (search this forum or the Internet). The jar test will demonstrate that you do not have much clay or it will make me look foolish. I don't mind looking foolish, and I'd rather do that and get it out of the way than operate out of misinformation. The problem is there are some salts in your soil which can make it look, feel, and act just like clay, when in fact it is 90% sand. On to your question. DO NOT PLANT RYE NOW AND FESCUE IN THE SPRING. Okay that should take out the last of my frustrations. NOW is the time to plant fescue. Today. Planting now will give the fescue plants all winter to harden off and develop a root system that can withstand next summer's heat. If you plant rye now, it will not die off until May at which time it is far too late to plant fescue. You would have 100% crabgrass by the first of August. Since you are planting in a sunny area, you might want to mix some Kentucky bluegrass, or go 100% with KBG. It is your choice, but I thought I'd put that out there. If you think your soil is clay, you probably think that because it is so hard. The reason it is hard is you have lost the population of beneficial fungi that cause soil (even clay) to soften. The fastest way to get that softness back also happens to be the cheapest and easiest. All you have to do is spray with any clear shampoo at a rate of at least 3 ounces per 1,000 square feet. Do that and then irrigate with 1 full inch of water. Repeat in 2 weeks and you should be good for a full year. What that does is allows water to penetrate deep into the soil and hold the moisture content fairly steady. The beneficial fungi love those conditions and will regrow very quickly. Picture a loaf of molding bread. If you leave it under ideal conditions for even one day, the entire loaf is engulfed in green fuzz. That same thing happens in your soil.

From the original post "Obviously there is a dead tree that needs to be removed as well." The jason777 said the tree is dead is there a reson to keep it? Maybe I was't clear on why jason777 should use Tenacity, maybe gsweater didn't read the original post, or maybe he/she doesn't understand Tencity's use as a preemergent herbicide that you can seed cool season grass into. I didn't even address the OP's question about dandelions, you can use 2,4D. By the way gsweater what is it that you recommend jason777 should do? So gsweater I'll lay it out for you in simple chapter and verse since you clearly don't understand the issues with seeding in the what would now be considered late spring,and I'll try to keep it short and use small words so you can keep up. To seed you need to have good seed to soil contact,so you will need to aerify and/or rake up all the dead stuff. Once you've disturbed the soil, seed and then roll. Use Tenacity right after you seed and then again 3 weeks later, watered in with .15 inches of water. Three weeks after the last application of Tenacity apply the low rate of prodiamine or pendamethlin, be careful not to apply to much because your probably going to need to reseed a few spots in the fall. Now after you seed you have to keep the seed wet for around 10 days if your using tall fescue if your using kentucky bluegrass it's more like 21 days, this means watering for a couple minutes every hour or two between the hours of 8 a.m. And 5 p.m. Once the seed has germinated you can back off the water to twice or three times a day until the tall fescue has tillered out a couple of times, or the kentucky bluegrass is starting to put out rhizomes. Also, as soon as the seed germinates you need to feed it some nitrogen something quick release, like ammonium sulfate or urea, so you can get it moving to out compete any weeds. A .5 of a pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet every couple of weeks until the area is filled in. Okay now the area is mostly covered and it's now the end of May or the beginning of June just in time for summer heat and disease pressure. Also, now that the plants are hopefully mature enough you can start spraying any weeds that the Tenacity missed.Take a picture now because by the end of August that area is not going to look like it did in May. The plants that you seeded back in the end of April beginning of May did not have enough time to develop a deep root system and store enough carbohydrates to fight off the heat, drought, and disease pressure that is coming. Now,if you sod you cut out the area,rake, lay the sod,roll if you need to. Give the sod a good soaking once in the early morn. with a hose. The sod should be rooted down in about a week. Once the sod has rooted down apply pendamethlin or prodiamine and water in with .5 inch of rainfall or irrigation. Then one shot of fert at .5 to a 1 pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet. Or the best option wait until early fall and resod then and you don't have to worry about preemergent herbicides and the sod has all fall,winter,and spring to develop a strong healthy root system.

Okay guys. I know the Bermuda looks terrible but I've just started the regimen. Thank you so much for all the help. I just recently received my soil test and started to really get into and face the cold hard facts that my grass is in bad shape so, I'm on the wagon now, the lawn wagon. I understand that dallisgrass is hard to kill. I just started doing the 36-0-0 fertilizer with Milorganite. I'm thinking of getting the alfalfa pellets next week for it. Dchall I guess I'm putting the cart before the horse thinking overrun. I'm just glad I've found this site for the help you're all giving me. I've been getting a better understanding of how this Bermuda works from reading these threads. I don't have a reel mower but bought a new blade. I hope to one day be able to show you before and after pics of my yard. Let me know if you recommend anything else outside of what I just named to apply to my lawn. I'm open for suggestions. This soil test says to do these applications monthly. I wonder if I could do it every 2 weeks until it looks better. What say you? 36-0-0 every 2-3 weeks?

I wouldn't put the landscape fabric down because it might do the job it's designed to do. If it does, you won't get weeds growing through it, but your grass roots will also not grow through it. So you'll get grass with a maximum root length of 4 inches. I try to get my KBG to root to at least 8 inches and to get my fescue roots to a foot or more. In my lawn, though, those two grasses will die later this year because their roots are too shallow (I'm going native with grasses that root to depths of 8-10 feet).