Dog urine contains urea, which is an excellent source of nitrogen and is used as the nitrogen component of many fertilizers. It is very common to get these "islands" of green from your dogs. The ones that are brown surrounded by green have fertilizer burn in the middle, hence the brown. As the amount of urine becomes more diffuse it greens up the area around the burn. Female dogs tend to produce more burn areas as they squat and pee, whereas males kind of move around a bit as they stand and pee, which spreads it out more. Often if you look at the base of road signs and fire hydrants the grass around them is very green and lush.

Thanks dchall, I will definitely try the soap thing, it is worth a try. As for your questions:

Do you know what kind of grasses you have? I am going to guess fescue and Kentucky bluegrass since you have described features of each one. Not sure, I think your guess is right on and my overseeing is with typical sun/shade blends.

How often do you fertilize? Do you know what you used last and when? I typically try to not overfertilize in the back due to the dogs and children that play there. Last year I used some Ironite early on and then used a spray weed and feed twice through the season. This year, as I am trying to reestablish a few areas, I did the entire lawn with starter fertilizer.

I think I know the answer to the key question but I don't want to embarrass myself (again) by jumping the gun launching straight into an answer that doesn't apply.

Can you post pictures of your lawn? Sometimes that makes all the difference. I will get some pics this evening and repost tonight.

Thanks for the help.

I have some pictures but I can't figure out how to attach/upload them to the message. Can someone give me some pointers?

Thanks.

Pictures:
GardenWeb does not host pictures. If you have pictures hosted somewhere else on the Internet, GW can link to them. An Internet photo hosting site might be tumblr, photobucket, picasa, or some others. Then you need to use the correct HTML code so it shows up here. Here is that code.

<img src="YOUR PHOTO URL GOES HERE">

You get your photo URL by bringing up the photo (in your browser at the host's site) and right clicking on it. Select Copy Link Location. Then paste that location between the quotes in the code above. The quotes are necessary for this to work. Don't leave them out. The photo URL should look like this

http://www.photobucket.com/yourphotos/photoname.jpg

Putting it all together it will look something like this...

<img src="http://www.photobucket.com/yourphotos/photoname.jpg">;

Then post your message like normal.

Basics of Lawn Care

After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at seven houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct.

Watering
Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an hour in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. Do not spread this out and water for 10 minutes every day. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. If that does not work, then you might have to water more than once per week during the summer's hottest period. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds.

You will have to learn to judge when to water your own lawn. If you live in Las Vegas your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, humidity, wind, and soil type. It is worth noting that this technique is used successfully by professionals in Phoenix, so...just sayin.' The other factors make a difference. If you normally water 1 inch per week and you get 1/2 inch of rain, then adjust and water only 1/2 inch that week.

Mowing
Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush.

Fertilizing
Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it. Too little is better than too much. At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide.

Here is a collage of my lawn trouble areas. Add to this an explosion of bittercress this year, and life is fun... Thanks for the awesome response and tips above, my only question on watering is for new or overseeded areas, I need to keep them moist, so I am watering 2x per day, 15 minutes each, 10 am and pm, so keep them moist for germination. Once the grass is growing I can move to the deep watering, or should I do that now? I would just expect the see to die if I did this now.
The upload is not working, maybe the system doesn't like Flickr, so here is the URL direct.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32757723@N00/

Thanks,
Paul

Here it is

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Keep watering with the new seed schedule until you see about 80% germination. Then start to back off after you are mowing it.

Thanks for all the help and any more to come. I will apply the soap and want to move to organic fertilizer. Can anyone recommend any brands for me to look for? I see Scotts has some but not sure if it is worth it or if there are better products out there, or what to look for in an organic fertilizer.

Thanks,
Paul

If you go organic I recommend reading the organci lawn care FAQ. As to brand, you'll quickly learn it's not worth to pay twice as much for branded organic fertilizer. Rather go to your local feed store and buy alfalfa at $14 for 50lbs. (or soy bean meal, etc.)

The Organic Lawn Care FAQ is in the FAQ section of the Gardenweb Organic Gardening forum. You can buy the same ingredients as the commercial bagged ferts for about 1/6 the cost when you buy in a plain brown bag. Look for rabbit or chinchilla chow. Even that comes in plain brown bags.

Here is a picture of a mrmumbles' zoysia lawn fertilized with rabbit food in May of last year. The picture was taken in June. Note the improved color, density, and growth.

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