Ok, wow. I mean WOW! You're getting the wrong advice on every front. St Aug would THRIVE in that shade. The grass died because they didn't water it. Actually it might have died the first time from a disease left to run out of control, but in any case, the solution now is new sod (NOT SEED) and water. That cheap builder grade bermuda is only one notch below the very best bermuda grass you can buy at any price. The reason it is cheap and "builder grade" is that it is easy to grow and every grower in Texas grows it. The supply of that stuff is inexhaustible, but you cannot get a better turf grass without paying through the nose. The name of it is TIF 419 or TifTurf, or something like that. It has been around for 40 years or more and is very popular. The more expensive TIF varieties are only used in professional sports stadiums. I should note that ALL seeded varieties of bermuda are basically common bermuda, not the TIF hybrid. Thus if you start with a TIF lawn, you should never reseed bermuda into it. The common bermuda looks like a weed in a hybrid turf. Here is a picture of common bermuda invading a TIF turf. Note the common is bluer in color, coarser, and has a different growth habit. It's a mess once you have them mingled. If you have already seeded with common bermuda, I would not attempt to install a hybrid (sod) lawn without a lot of prep to kill the common. June is the time to take on that project. Whatever you do, do not fall into the trap of watching all the golf TV where they are urging you to get out and do something to the lawn. Bermuda needs hot soil to do much of anything to it. The reason your neighborhood lawns might look cheap is because they don't know how to care for them. Bermuda needs a LOT of maintenance to keep it nice. It should be mowed to about 1 inch high, 2x per week and 3x per week during the spring flush of new growth. It also needs heavy fertilizer applied monthly all season long. Most people are unwilling to do what it takes to make bermuda look great. Having said all that, I still prefer a St Aug lawn if you can keep it watered. All lawns need exactly the same amount of water to keep them looking nice through the summer. That amount is one inch per week, applied all at one time. The problem with St Aug is if you fail to water it for 3-5 weeks, it can die on you. Other grasses will go dormant first, but St Aug just dies. That's what happened in your yard. Bermuda would never grow in your shade, but St Aug should do fine. In fact, St Aug will take over your yard even if you have bermuda now. You would have to keep the St Aug mowed at the mower's highest setting and allow it to invade the bermuda. Bermuda cannot invade into tall St Aug because the tall St Aug provides too much shade for bermuda. But if you mow the grass at the lowest setting, then the bermuda can invade just fine and will give you a mess. Absolutely DO NOT rototill the soil in prep for a lawn. You might want to rototill for a vegie garden but never for a lawn. The tilled soil will take 3 years to settle, and it will settle unevenly. There is hardly anything worse than mowing a bumpy lawn.

follow this irrigation schedule after planting your new seeds. water 15-20 minutes twice a day for two weeks water 20-30 minutes once a day for one week water 30-45 minutes once a day every other day for one week water 30-45 minutes once a day twice a week for one week move into deep irrigation, increasing the time to provide 1 inch of water all over and decreasing the frequency to just once a week. If you have to move the sprinklers at any point, the new location also receives 1 inch. After seeding, baby the grass by staying off for 1-2 months. Mow when the new seeds reach 4 inches and mow it back to 3.

3. You would be fighting a losing battle on the side where the dog has already worn away 80% of the grass. I have a similar strip. We're just piling leaves in there for him to walk on and to keep the weeds down. Any mulch will do although anything but pure bark mulch is better than bark mulch. Most mulches will help feed the soil, but bark mulch has no nutrients in it. 2. We created a landing made of flagstone at the bottom of our back stairs. That give us and the dog a place to hit the ground when coming down the steps. Then we can stand there or take off in a new direction. We have never had a path develop coming off that landing...until this new puppy. He has created a path to the side (same side as #3 above). It's not bad. He has to live there, not us. Eventually he'll stop tearing up the yard and we can go back and do our gardening again. 1. It could be there was some fescue in the fence area last year and the dog tore it up. Fescue does not spread to fill weak spots like Kentucky bluegrass does. It will probably look good again in a few weeks as the KBG fills in where it can. If/when the KBG does not fill in completely this summer due to the partial shade, then next fall (August) you should seed in some more fescue. Get into that habit every fall for the shady areas. I've never seen a liquid fertilizer of any kind that can apply 1 pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet. Grass needs nutrition by the pound, not the fraction of an ounce. If you want to continue with organics, look into the local cost of alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow). The application rate is 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. As with your liquid organics, you can apply it any time of year.

How often do you water, and for how long? Most of California waters daily. Is your lawn hybrid bermuda? If so, don't be tempted to overseed with bermuda. How often do you mow? Bermuda can be mowed at the lowest setting on a rotary mower and mowed many times per week. Many weeds cannot take the repeated stress of low mowing. These will probably adapt to the low mowing, however. You could probably kill the weeds and not the bermuda by painting RoundUp onto the tall weeds after 4-5 days of growth. Dip a really soft paint brush into the RU, tap off the excess, and lightly drag it across the weed wetting only the blades of weed grass. Give that a few weeks to die and it should look a lot better. Careful not to drop RU onto the bermuda. The first pic does not look like nutgrass to me. Nutgrass does not grow in tight bunches like that.