If you are going Organic, you really can not over do your applications. Lawn Restore is a good product, but you can also use Corn Meal or Cracked Corn, Soy Bean Meal and Milorganite (5-2-0 with 4% iron) to give you some diversity. Used Coffee Grounds can be used, if you can find a good source. In the fall, you can mulch mow leaves others throw away curb side and add lots of organic matter for free to your yard. It usually take 3-4 passes to make them disappear. Your neighbors will think you are crazy, but you can not deny the results. I applied 350lbs of organics / 1000 ft2 last year. Hoping to hit 500+ this year. Now for the clay, you can use a soil conditioner and wetting agent to loosen it up. This with the organics will open up the soil over a few years. Humic Acid, Dried Kelp and Black Strap Molasses can help energize the microbes in the soil and get things moving quickly in the spring. NC Agronomic agency soil tests are free and get you in the ball park. Although, once you dial the soil in, you may want to use a lab that gives you more details so you can tweak the other elements in your soil (Boron, Copper, Manganese, Zinc and Iron) Using lime (whether Calcitic or Dolomitic) is important and which one you use will help you with your pH and Calcium to Magnesium ratio (7:1 is what you are shooting for). Calcitic is usually 5x the price, but has 5x the Calcium. S http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/soil/msg0311011017714.html Lastly, NCState as a NTEP testing site for grasses. If you want the best results, using the best grass for this area is key. Typically the big box stores are not the best place. Online you can order exactly what you want. http://www.ntep.org/tf.htm Just read the results for the NC testing center and you can get an idea of which varieties you will want. In the end, you are probably not too far off. Since you enjoy it, adding a few more pieces to your schedule should improve your results.

Yeah, I have an Orbit timer setup with three different valves, each valve runs three sprinklers (I wish I had put in an underground sprinkler system, but oh well). I haven't measured how many inches yet, but I run each valve for 15 minutes (45 min total) each day, until it starts to runoff. Now I'm down to 15 minutes each valve every 3 days since it's only in the 90's now. It does take a lot of water, but it's well worth it and water is dirt cheap here...imagine that in the desert! (I only pay about $25/month for about 2500 cubic ft.). Soil is rock hard clay, no sand, you literally have to use a sharpened pick axe to dig it up. What I did to prepare was pick axe the whole dirt back yard (about 8" down), then mixed in a truck load of compost (about 30% compost). There were some areas where the grass grew great until the heat kicked in, so I dug those up last week and reseeded (I didn't dig down deep enough so the roots stopped growing). I water at 5am, and humidity is only like 10% usually, so yeah, no fungal disease worries here! In the peak of summer it gets down to the 80's only, now it gets down to 50's. We freeze overnight in Jan/Feb as well. I was amazed to see Tall Fescue growing here too (since it's cool season grass), but a lot of lawns here are fescue and that's pretty much all the stores carry. I use the generic Contractor's Mix from Lowes (which is one of the cheaper bags, but I've had great success with it), I'll have to check what cultivars are in the bag and report back.

I'm sorry if I come across an ass, but I am lost here. You post information detailing problems and concerns, you requested feedback, feedback is provided, you state the feedback will not be used and that you will continue doing what you are doing. Are you looking for different/alternative feedback other than "water you lawn" or am I missing something? Again, I'm sorry if I come across badly. I'm newer to the forums also but I have ever read any of the senior folks here expecting to get good lawn results without providing the lawn with basic needs. There are a number of folks here who do not water their lawn, especially in drought restrictions but they understand that their lawn will not look it's best. Looking at your pictures you can have a beautiful lawn if you just supplemented you're rainfall with water. You have areas of your lawn up against trees, mulch, concrete/pavement, etc. You have contours that result in runoff away from certain areas as well as contours onto certain areas. Unless you can eliminate all of the above, areas of your lawn will respond differently given the exact same amount of rainfall, hence the need to supplement areas with watering. If you mowed higher, yes you may require less water. If you used more organic fertilizers, yes you may require less water. If you added water retention amendments to your soil, yes you may require less water. But doing all of this may still result in some areas outperforming others due to you lawn's layout. The most easy thing to do may simply be to spend 5 minutes every week or two spraying a hose on areas that look a little stressed.

Chadinlg- at the moment, the mulch mowing is not enough. I always mulch mow at the highest setting and water an inch as rarely as the weather permits. Im surprised you don’t fertilize at all since grass is a heavy feeder and really needs it. I typically use an organic feed as fertilizer and I’m wondering if I should use it more frequently for a year to improve the soil.