Question
Hi Charolette,
really appreciate your quick and such a detailed response. I am definitely going to try your suggestions for improving my lawn. I had heard about organic fertilizers but it never stuck me that household table sugar can be used as fertilizer.

IT seems that the thatch from the mowing during the summer months has got accumulated a lot on my lawn and I had been mowing the lawn to close to the ground about 2.5" everytime I mowed as I thought I will have to mow less frequently. the result is there is lot of dried up thatch on the lawn and the grass has pretty much dried up in several places due to heat and is not coming up. Though i see grass coming up on the sides of the house where there was considerable shade. Also my front lawn has very steep slope.

So few questions this time
1. SHould I go ahead and get my lawn aerated with some professional as there is lot of thatch or is there an alternative to that.

2. what can I do keep the water from running off fom the steep slopes or how often do I need to water. I have sprinkler system in the lawn. SO can I put water several times a day on the day watering is allowed or should I water for longer duration. THe problem is due to low grass height to almost no grass at most places in the steep front yard and lot of thatch the water is just not staying there and getting into the groung.

3. I am gussing that the sugar you mentioned in your earlier reply was regulat table sugar that we use daily. So can I bring a big bag from COstco/wal-mart and use it or will that be expensive or Is there a place where I can buy this sugar that is primarly meant for use as a lawn fertilizer. Also do I use more sugar around weeds.  will that kill the weeds?

I Really appreciate your experienced suggestions.
thanks,

srinivas
-------------------------

Followup To

Question -
Hi Charlotte,
I have a bermuda grass lawn and I live in Dallas, tx. I am a new home owner and don't know much about lawns. Due to excessive heat and improper fertilization and water rstrictions in my area (only once per week) my lawn has become yellow and completely dry in most places. But after some good rains the grass is returning back to normal in most palaces but there are several dried up yellow patches where the grass is just not growing. I am not sure if it was due to fungus or overheat. with the rains the weeds also have taken over the lawn at many places.

I was wondering whether to give the lawn to some professional or is it something I can do on my own to fix the above problem.

Answer -
Hi Srinivas;
I live in Irving, to the west of you.
We have really had a hot one.
All a professional will do is put poisons all over your lawn.
You can grow a beautiful lawn, for a lot less money, and not nearly as much labor as you think.
I was a work my self to death gardener for so many years, then I tried organics, and I have twice the lawn I ever had before, and with a fraction of the money spent on lawn care products, and very little labor.
The secret to keeping a lawn in this area is deep watering.
Even with a once a week watering.
Deep watering encourages the roots to grow deep, and that helps protect your grass from heat, cold and drought damage, and prevents a thatch buildup.
In this hot weather we have, so much water is lost to evaporation when you use sprinklers, so using saoaker hoses gets every drop of water you pay for onto the grass.
I always water to a depth of at least 6 inches, and that has kept my lawn alive through all this heat.
In Irving, we are on restriction, but not so strict as in years past, but we can water at anytime as long as it is with soaker hoses or hand held watering.
I only water my grass once a week though, because it is enough. When the top few inches of soil are dry, there is still moisture down where the roots are.
Now that things have cooled off some, the water you put on will do more good.
This is going to sound funny to you, but it is all I have put on my lawn for the last 8 years, and I have thick St.Augustine grass, and no weeds.
Sugar. Plain old table sugar like you use to sweeten tea.
I apply 1 pound per 250 Sq.ft of lawn and garden.
what it does is nourish the beneficial microbes that enrich your lawn. Fertilizers kill these microbes and other beneficialo insects that feed on harmful insects.
Chemicals don't solve problems, the CREATE them.
They kill all the beneificial microbes, nemetodes and insects that feed on the harmful ones. The harmful ones re-invade after the poison is out of the soil, but the beneficial ones don't come back that fast.
Even cockroaches are beneficial.
They normally live in the soil and feed on microscopic insects that are harmful. We put poison insecticides on the lawn, and it kills their food supply, and they come in our houses to find food and a place to hide from the poisons.
I have millions of them in my lawn, where they tunnel and aerate the soil, and eat harmful insects.
Weeds like poor soil and will not thrive in rich soil, so make rich soil, everything grows very well, except the weeds. So make the rich soil, let the natural predators eat the harmful insects that invade your lawn.
Toads lizards and grass snakes will come to your yard, when it is a safe enviornment for them, and they feed off larger harmful insects like, ants, slugs, beetles, army worms etc.
Toads love slugs, and that makes them good friends of mine. My lizards keep all the aphids off my roses.
 Lay the soaker hoses in a pattern, and water until it starts to run off onto the sidewalk and drive, then turn it off, and let it soak in for about an hour, and then turn it on again.. I do this until it has soaked in at least 6 inches. Then move the hoses to the next area, and turn them on again. do the same water and soak in until that area is watered down deep enough. You can actually start the watering very early in the morning. and you can finish up any areas you have missed from early evening.
You should be able to get it all watered within the same day.
Technically, your day atarts from midnight to the next midnight, so that gives you enough hours to get it all done.
I have watered my yard this way so long that my roots are very deep.
After I apply the sugar ( I just broadcast it by hand, like sowing seeds or feeding chickens) I water it in well.
I put the sugar down, then turn on the soaker hoses.
Unlike fertilizers that will burn if left on the ground and not watered in immediately, sugar will not burn your grass if it is not watered in immediately.
I hope this makes sense. I have gone back and added things I thought of, and it may now seem very disconnected.
But the gist of it is, switch to organics, water deeply when you water, and apply sugar in the spring and fall, when you would normally put down fertilizer.
In the winter, when we have not had enough rain, go out and turn on the soaker hoses for a good deep soak.
You should only have to do that once or twice during the dormamnt stages.
If we get a good rain, you shouldn't have to water for at least a month, if we don't get more.
We usually get enough rain in the winter months.
You will see some of the weeds disappear a couple of weeks after you put down the sugar, and a few more each couple of weeks. But next spring you should see fewer weeds come up. I would put down sugar now, and again in about the first part of November. Then p[ut it down for the spring feeding.
The two treatments this year will give the microbes a bigger boost, and they will work all winter enriching your soil.
I am learning about a lot of other natural things you can put on your lawn to benefit it. I have only used to sugar, and it did great, so I didn't delve into other things organic to use, except for using baking soda for fungicide.
I have joined Howard Garrett's groung crew this year, and I am learning so much more to do.
All I have used so far is lava sand and alfalfa meal.
I have not been using it long enough to really see the results, so I don't want to recommend yet, but I am adding the information to my answers, in case anyone wants to try them.
Lava sand has a lot of nutrients in it. That is why volcanic islands have so much beautiful growth in flowers .

The alfalfa meal I had to go to the feed store to get the alfalfa meal. I have been making a tea with it to water my container plants, and it seems to be really making them grow better.
You put 1 cup alfalfa meal in 5 gallons of water and let it steep overnight, then strain it off, stir it well, and water your houseplants, outdoor containers etc, or you can just throw it all over the lawn and garden to add nutrients.
You can also put the tea in a garden sprayer, and use it to foliar feed your shrubs etc. It is supposed to be especially good for flowqering plants and shrubs.
This is all I am going to write now. It is late at night, and my mind is getting tired.LOL
Afraid it is making me skip around too much.
If you want to know more about organics, just write me, or if you need me to clarify anything I have said here.
I am more than happy to pass on what I am learning about organics.
Charlotte  

Answer
Hi again;
I wouldn't hire it aerated by a professional just yet.
First, take a garden rake. this is the one that has the heavy tines straight across, not the fan shaped grass rakes.
Just rake with that.
You can probably grasp most of the thatch and get it off enough for the water to get to the grass roots and make it grow.
I can't imagine why people are told to mow Buirmuda grass to a height of 2 inches.
Well, professional companies get to come more often and charge you more.
I mow my grass to about 2 inches for the first mowing, to give the roots a good stimulation to send out more runners. That helps it thicken up if the winter is a little harsher, and it has some damage.
After you get a good, deep root system, that will not be necessary.
As soon as it is mowed the first time, if i have lowered the blades, I raise them to at least 3 inches.
That is the highest setting on our mower. It is a dinasaur. LOl
The added height of the blades help shade the soil, and protect further from heat damage, due to the soil drying too fast.
I leave the last mowing high too, because it also insulates from frosts and freezes.
Usine the organic method of gardening, you will not have a problem with thatcjh again.
Thatch forms when the roots come to the surface to try to get water, and die, then they trap other debris and form that waterproof pad of thatch.
With the higher blades, leaving the grass clippings to decompose and feed the grass, and deep watewring, that will eliminate the thatch problem.
If the raking will not remove enough of the thatch, then you may want to hirfe someone to dethatch, but it is not that difficult to do yourself.
There will be no need to aerate once the thatch is torn up and a good deal of it removed.
What you can do with the thatch you rake up is, put it in a compost bin, or dig it into the soil in a remote area, and if ytou have a tiller, mix it up with some of the existing soil, and let it turn to compost to feed your lawn of vegetable garden next spring.
as for having to mow less frequently, lower mower settings will not help that.
You should never cut off more than 1/3rd of the blade height, or your grass will look reedy and stumpy.
With fertilizers, you put them down, and the grass shoots up, and you have to mow more often. then the fertilizer wears out, and the growth levels off, but then you have to fertilize again, and another growth spurt.
With organics, you don't have those sudden spurts. Your grass grows at an even pace all the time.
My husband mows only once a week.

2.  The steep slope of the lawn.
My lawn slopes, but is not very steep. We put a small rock retasining wall across the lawn where it meets the sidewalk.
You could have a concrete perimeter, or a retaining wall with rocks or bricks, or landscape timbers.
That will stop some of the water runoff, but your biggest problem is to get the soil up at the top of the slope soaked deeply enough.
You might want to forego using the sprinkler system, and use a soaker hose.
You need to keep the soil from shrinking at your house foundation to prevent foundation damage.
I would lay a soaker hose against the foundation of the house, turn it on, and when the water gets close to the bottom of the slope, turn it off, and let it soak in for about an hour, then turn it back on again.
You would have to experiment with this some, to see how long it takes for the water to reach that area. then you can buy a timer to put on your faucet like I have. I set my soaker hoses for 1&1/2 hours . That is how long it takes for it to get where I want it to get to. Then I turn it off.
Where I put another soaker hose to get the lower part of my lawn watered, I turn it on for only an hour.
I don't know how your sprinkler is set up, whether you can direct the spray in different directions, so I really can't advise much there.
When the soaker hose has soaked the upper parts of the lawn deep enough, some of the water will move horizontally through the soil, so it will water it further down.
It will just take some experimenting on your poart to fine the best way to get enough water into the soil, and cover it all on the day you can water.
Maybe an initial soaking, and then turning the sprinklers on for just enough time to get the top inch wet, then off and let it soak, and do it in shorted periods like that.
The thatch is what is causing the water to not soak in. If your soil is loose enough, when you remove a good bit of that thatch, the water should soak in.
3. Yes, just plain table sugar.
Dry molasses was what is recommended, but at the time, the nurseries here didn't carry it, so I used plain sugar.
When dry molasses became available, I tried it.
Well, I use 4 pounds sugar per 1000 sq.ft.
It is recommended you use 10 pounds dry molasses per 1000 sq.ft.  and pound for pound it coats about the same, so really, the plain sugar is cheaper.
There is really a difference in the sweetening power of sugar from brnad to brand.
I only use Imperial Pure cane sugar for cooking and my table, but I buy the cheapest brand of sugar they store has, for the yard.
I don't think the microbes have taste buds.LOL
Using more sugar around the weeds will not help.
The sugar does not kill the weeds. The sugar feeds the beneficial microbes that enrich the soil, and the richness of the soil is what eliminates the weeds. QWeeds will not thrive in rich soil.
When you are on an organic program, you have a healthy enviornment for beneficial insects and beneficial  nemetodes that feed on harmful nemetodes and insects, and on lawn critters like grass snakes, toads, and lizards that feed on harmful insects, so you will not have a need for insecticides. They will do the job better than chemical insecticides do.
KLizards eat all the aphids from my roses, and toads love slugs.
They eat ants, army worms, everything like that.
Hope this helps you some more.
Write anytime. I am heppy to help.
Charlotte

PS;  Hope I didn't make too many typos. this is way too long to proofread.LOL