MINT! In the GROUND!! Just kidding...sort of. Once mint becomes established, it becomes an invasive weed. At least it does in Texas. And it gives a refreshing fragrance when you mow it down. If you want to use organics, then skip the rest of the prep you had planned. Especially skip the sulfur. Sulfur is a nonselective fungicide which is basically poison to an organic soil. Your pH is normal enough and the organics will tend to perfect it for you. Start this project in August after the evening hot nights seem to cool off. Do you have a flat surface or does it look like it was just forked? Whatever, flatten it first, scatter the seed, walk on every square inch of grass seed to press it into the surface of the soil, water 3x per day for 3-4 weeks until you have 80% germination, then start to back off on the watering frequency until you are watering deeply but only once every 2-3 weeks. This should be a gradual process. You won't need any amendments at this point. The fertilizer is the amendment. Always apply organic fertilizer at the surface of the soil. I really should insert something to that method of installation. Just because you have turned the soil (that was not needed, by the way), you have not killed the weeds. If you are not opposed to setting this up using RoundUp, then do this. Start watering briefly 3x per day as if you were sprouting grass seed. Just 10 minutes at breakfast, lunch, and dinner would be perfect. This will sprout all the weeds in the soil. Give them a week to get going and spray with RoundUp. Continue watering for another week or two and then spot spray any new weeds with RU. Give that a few days to dry out and then do the seed. If you skip this step, then all those weeds would have sprouted when you were sprouting the grass seed. Sometimes people panic at that, so this is the easiest way to avoid the panic. You really get what you pay for with seed. What you want is seed with Weed Crop = 0.00% and Other Crop = 0.00%. You can find these seed products on the Internet but not online. They are expensive, but they have not weeds in them. Or you can buy Home Depot seed and plan to fight the weeds for awhile until the grass gets established. For organic fertilizer I prefer to use the ingredients rather than the commercially bagged fertilizer. I like alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow) from my local feed store. Here are the feeds stores in your area. Call first to see what they have. For 200 square feet you only need about 3 pounds. I would scatter it by hand.

I doubt soil quality is as much a problem as compaction is a problem. Soil is clay, sand and organic matter. It is the ratio that defines good soil from bad soil. I would normally agree with TW (your first response) to not till, but if you have access to compost it is the only way to get it blended into the top 6-8 inches of soil. Tilling is not favored because invariably it will leave a lumpy lawn when it settles. It is difficult to till at depth evenly. The other approach is to add the compost on top of your existing soil. Since you appear to want to do a complete renovation I'd recommend adding a good inch of compost now and then core aerate the heck out of it. Yes, this is far more than the normal quarter inch, but you are going to mechanically incorporate it by aerating and giving it some time to heel into the soil. Water heavily for the next 2 weeks then roundup the weeds before seeding. You could core aerate again before seeding. I'd second the notion to get a soil test done before doing anything. Any amendments can be added before seeding. Do you have any worms in your soil?

From the picture posted I think it is dog urine. Brown patch has a grey like outter ring and the inside of the disease does not look staw color as your picture shows. Brown patch isn't a concern in bermuda either. Spring dead spot is a major disease for bermuda but that's not it, nor dollar spot. As far as when to fertilize, well if it's not above 90 and you can provide good water then for bermuda the time is now. A good fertilizer for bermuda is one with a high first number with 50% slow release. As far as the rest of the information on taking care of your lawn, try searching online. Bermuda is pretty fool proof and is good for people who don't want to fuss over their yard.

Grading is not an issue. The house sits up above the back yard a bit. We did put in grass for the first 30 feet or so off the back last fall. From there is where is slopes down, about 5-6 feet over all. Sod is out. Trying to keep this as cost effective as possible. Plus, I don't see much sod being done in my parts. Our new home is a custom build, so "the builder" only did what we paid to do. By the time we got to landscaping we were hitting the bottom of the barrel. So it was our choice/plan to do the back yard sometime later. I've started looking around for landscape companies who can handle new lawn installations. It's surprisingly hard, as most only advertise about mowing, plowing, plantings. I guess a full new lawn is not a common enough occurrence to advertise about. First guy said definitely rake & cap off the yard (200+yds!) before seeding, and to do it now. Fall would be ideal, but it'd be better to be looking at a little green this summer and deal with weeds later than having another season of rocks & dust. We'll see what the other few say. Good idea about seeking an extension service. I think the local university has some sort of thing.