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I'm not an expert, but I would start at the bottom and work my way up, eliminating issues. Start with a soil test where the dead grass is. They are only $10 See what that says. Maybe you killed it with too much fertilizer? Maybe you have a dog that's peeing right there throwing the PH off the charts and that's killing it? Who knows. A soil test will tell you for sure what's going on under the grass and eliminate certain possibilities.

If all checks out, you can start looking at other issues. Disease, grub worms, etc...

Here is a link that might be useful: Texas A&M Soil Test Form

This post was edited by rockinar on Mon, Aug 5, 13 at 1:37

1. The first thing you are doing wrong is installing a new lawn in the spring.

2. Expecting a spring lawn to do well all through the summer.

3. Watering incorrectly.

4. Fertilizing incorrectly.

5. Bonus thing you're likely doing wrong is mis reading California geography about where you live. I realize that is a bold statement but it is based on reading 4 lawn forums for 10 years. 95% of people claiming to live in northern California live in the Bay Area or Sacramento. If you live in Sacramento you really are watering wrong. If you really do live north of Redding, then I apologize and some of what I'm about to say does not apply.

Let's skip down to #3. Once a lawn is established (and yours is NOT), then watering should be done once per week but apply a full inch at a time. You are barely moistening the base of the plant with your approach. At this point you must keep your grass alive for the rest of the summer.

Start by measuring the output of your sprinkler. Put some cat food or tuna cans our on the lawn and turn on the sprinklers. Time how long it takes to fill the cans. That is one inch of water. Let's say it takes an hour to fill all the cans and you are currently watering Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Start watering twice as long as you are now on Monday and Saturday. Water the regular amount on Wednesday and Thursday. When the summer heat breaks, start backing off on the frequency. Skip Wednesday and water on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. Continue with the double time watering on Mon and Sat. When the temps are in the lower 80s during the day, drop to 2x per week. When the temps drop to the 70s, you should be able to fall back to 1x per week but go to the full inch (hour?). Actually by the time your temps get down to the 70s, you should be watering once every 3 weeks.

#4 If you are using chemical fertilizers, fertilize 3x per year. Do it once in late spring (Memorial Day) once in early fall (Labor Day), and once in late fall (Thanksgiving). If you are using organic fertilizers, you can do that any day of the year with no fear of burning the lawn. If you feel the need to use preemergent in the spring, get one that is not mixed with fertilizer. The grass does not need fertilizer that early in the spring. Hint: with KBG you should not need a preemergent herbicide. KBG is too dense to allow weeds in.

rockinar - Thank you for the suggestion on soil test.

dchall - I really appreciate your detailed response. I live in the bay area (San Jose to be precise). I have a feeling that I may not be watering the lawn correctly, but I only checked on coverage of my sprinklers, making sure the brown patches were not receiving any less water compared to other areas... Thank you for your advice. I will start following it this week.