I am a turf management major and work on a golf course and here's what you can do 1. No doubt use topsoil for sure on a yard sand is good for golf courses and ball fields not a yard. But what you can do is cut away the sod in the ruts with a shovel or sod cutter and save your pieces aside. Then fill your ruts with topsoil making the topsoil level with your yard(the topsoil will naturally settle dropping your raised sod pieces back level with your yard when you lay them back on) then lay your existing sod back on the topsoil and tamp it with a tamper, a shovel, your foot... Anything to make sure the roots and soil contact each other. *make sure if in summer to fertilize with a fertilizer high in K (potassium) has this is the mineral most linked to root growth and water at least 30 mins everyday until turf has a root hold* 2. Instead of using existing turf you can buy some sod to replace what you removed if you don't want to mess with cutting and removing the sod and laying it back in the same order. * Bottom line don't worry ab weed seeds in your fill dirt or pre-treating the soil before the fill dirt because it does no good and your fertilizer is below your roots anyway. What you do is, with bermuda because i live in the south with a bermuda yard is wait and see what weeds emerge if any and treat with a post emergent selective herbicide in the summer or I would tackle this project in the early winter when grass is dormant and wait for your winter weeds to show and kill with roundup (because warm season turf isn't affected by roundup in the winter) and then treat with a preemergent in early February for your spring/summer weeds. I know it is a lot but you can find websites that give times when and when not to apply herbicides/fertilizers and the appropriate herbicides for certain weeds! Hope this at least gets you an idea of how to start this.

I have two that are growing in full sun, so at least this far north it is happy in full sun. I have seen one growing wild in northern Ohio (where I grew up) under high trees on a stream bank (above most flooding, but maybe rare high water.) So it was probably in all day (or almost) shade there. The shaded one was less densely branched than mine, but it was blooming just fine. If your shade is relatively bright, I would imagine that it will be happy there. Here is one of mine just starting to bloom last spring. Since it is fine is a range of sun exposures, and the pH range from NH to OH is from quite acid to slightly basic, I think this shrub is fairly flexible about growing conditions, though I don't think it likes it too dry.

I use bonide as well. Actually just did my first application with it this weekend. I too applied to little, but in spots around my driveway and walkway (where I was trying to be careful not to get on the concrete), I actually saw the grass turn almost to a black color. I went back and re-read the directions and I did not apply enough to the whole yard. 1 gallon covers only 1k sq ft. My front yard is around 8600 sq ft and I only applied 4 gallons. I am going to start a new thread that show results of the applications, but here is a few pics of what I saw after a day or 2. Note for reason the grass isn't as green as it should be: 1) it is common Bermuda-seeded 2 years ago. 2) Haven't fertilized in over a month due to the rain 3) cut it very short last week to get back to the height I wanted the grass at. Cut 2 days apart and 2nd cut too over a little more than 1/3 of the blade. 4) I also am dealing with bumpy yard and uneven cut from my mower, which currently working on to improve.

Agreed. Where do you live? There is a zone 8 in Oregon, but I'm guessing you don't live there. For most of the US, bermuda seed won't germinate until mid June. Scalp the rye every chance you get. The bermuda will love seeing the sunlight and warming up. The only magic rye has is shade. It's the shade that keeps the bermuda from awakening. I've seen nice bermuda lawns, overseeded with rye, take a full season to recover from an unusually cloudy spring. Overseeding with rye isn't a good idea. The only reason to reseed bermuda is...uh...ummm, there really isn't any reason to reseed. Maybe if you wanted more of a variety of bermuda varieties you could reseed. Bermuda is bermuda. It's going to take over no matter what you do. If it thins out that usually means it's in the shade. No amount of overseeding will help that situation.