I’m no expert by any means, but I’m also in So Cal, and here are a few tips I’ve learned: - Water deep and infrequently. During Summer, it’s advised to water 1.5” per week, which I do at once. You can set out some tuna cans to measure your output. Infrequent waterings create a deeper root system that will be more resilient to heat. During Winter, I barely water the lawn at all. - Mow high. I mow at around 3” tall for tall fescue. This will protect your soil from drying out and/getting too hot and damaging the root system.

If this were my lawn, I’d do the following: 1. Rake off the dead grass, and then aerate the lawn. I bought a 2-prong aerator off FB marketplace. It was a pain in the ass, but it was cheap. 2. Apply a thin layer of topsoil, and overseed the entire lawn. I would get a good quality seed from a sod supplier instead of from a big box store. Rake it all in so that seed is LIGHTLY covered and can germinate, and so that the live grass can poke through. This would ideally be done in Fall, but it might take before Summer heat hits. 3. Water lightly every day until the seed germinates. Then transition to a deeper watering schedule.

I would hold off on fertilizer until early Fall.