At the beginning of last summer I had a couple of lawn companies come and look at it. Scotts just gave me quotes to take care of my whole lawn but never answered the question about why the patch had died. Then I had a local guy come and he did a half-ass job of churning and reseeding. He also aerated the whole lawn. The grass grew in, but in about August it died again.

Now it is March and I have watched all winter as the dirt seems to have churned up (see pics). I never see animals digging in it (that doesn't necessarily mean they aren't there). But this is odd. Does anyone recognize the problem by looking at these pics? I hate to dig and reseed only to have it fail again. Any theories? Much obliged.

Click the image to see larger.

Theory 2: Something is buried there. You may never see it but it could be animals come there to bury stuff and dig it up later. Could be a cat potty. Could be grubs that skunks come and dig up. Being a fescue lawn, once it is dug up, it will remain bare until it is seeded again.

Theory 3: Runoff from your roof lands there and messes up the soil chemistry. Do you get roof runoff right there?

Theory 4: The soil biology has been killed from oxygen starvation. Is that a low spot that collects water? Have you ever had standing water there for 3 days or longer?

Have you tried to fix it with anything?

Fescue can be mowed at your mower's highest setting. That won't have anything do to with your current issue...just sayin'