I live in the San Diego area and my back lawn area is fairly big. The four corners and some of the edges have lawn growing, but the center area where the kids play is just plain dirt.

It is rock hard to dig in, but doesn't seem to crack and look like "clay" soil. Also, the top few inches are dusty loose dirt. As an example, I tried to drive a tent stake into the ground and could not, but I can go scoop up a handful of loose dirt easily.

Our neighborhood was built in the late 40's/50's and we have the ghosts of many trees that have long since been cut down. Our back yard is criss-crossed with shallow old roots, rototilling seems like it would be difficult. The only thing that will grow in the center area is Mallow root (yuck!) which is just dying off now.

I've used a soaker hose with some success, and tried spraying a dish soap mixture with no results. Core aeration is too expensive for me and honestly the soil seems so hard it would be like chiseling holes into brick. If that would truly "fix" it, I might give it a try.

Are there any budget-friendly options? I'm reading about liquid aerators but some sources say they are worthless.