Been reading lots on this forum since I now have a house with my first lawn. I was looking forward to maintaining a beautiful lawn but I'm having no luck so far.

First off, here are some pictures:

Background Info:
-I live in Kelowna, BC, Canada which is considered to be a semi arid climate
-lawn was planted as sod in early June by what we now know to be a really poor quality landscaping company
-not sure how much or what quality of top soil was laid under the sod as we were out of town when the majority of work was done (due to the poor quality company and them delaying start dates till we were out of town)
-not sure what species of grass was planted
-neighbor tells me that they were waiting the grass for about 3 hours every day (sprinklers put out ~1" per hour) and our backyard was clearly flooded while we were away
-between mid June and early August I was watering every second day at about 0.5" per watering session because I didn't know any better.
-placed 4 containers randomly and ran irrigation for 15 minutes. On average, the containers accumulated 1/4" +/- 1/16". Therefore ~1" per hour output.
-Since early August I've been watering every 4th day at about 5/8" per session. I would water less frequently but even at this rate, water seems to pool on the lawn and not soak into the ground quick enough.
-hadn't fertilized at all until late August when I applied about 1lb of Nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft
-grass is cut to about 3" long
-grass is only cut about every 10 days and even then it hasn't grown much to the point where I'm barely cutting at all

I've continued on through all of August and now early September with the new watering schedule and the grass just continues to look like this. It originally looked nice and green until about late July when it got real hot. I cut back the watering in early August thinking it was getting too much water but nothing has changed.

Questions:
1) Does anyone know what type of grass I have?
2) Is the watering I'm currently doing good or should I water less frequently and let the water pool?
3) Can anyone guess what is wrong with my grass? If so, what should I do to remedy it?

You can try applying a fungicide, but long term you're better off planting a cultivar that is more fungus resistant.

I would apply a light dusting of compost to get the soil microbes back in gear. The amount is 1 cubic yard per 1,000 square feet (800 liters per 100 square meters). Sweep all that down with a push broom to lift the grass our from under the compost.

A week later apply an organic fertilizer like alfalfa pellets (rabbit food) at a rate of 10 pounds per 1,000 square feet (5 kilos per 100 square meters). Three weeks later you can double that amount of fertilizer.

It is getting very late to do this so get going.

Also spray your lawn with 3 ounces of any clear shampoo per 1,000 square feet to get better penetration of the water. Spray and irrigate with an inch. Repeat in 2 weeks.

This time of year in your location you should be watering once a month.

I guess I will try the composting solution first. Is there any specific way to apply the compost to the lawn? I measured my square footage and I have about 1,024 sq ft so I would apply a full cubic yard.

Also, how do you apply such a little amount of shampoo (3 ounces) to such a large area? 1,024 sq ft?

Once a month for watering!? That's way less than I would have thought but I am also a newbie to this. Is there any guide you can link to for my area that would give me an idea of how much water to apply through out different months?

For the shampoo, put 3 ounces into your hose end sprayer, fill the sprayer with water, set the dial for anything, and spray evenly around the entire area until all the contents are gone. That will be 3 ounces per 1,000 square feet.

What we're trying to do with watering is mimic Mother Nature. To tend to your grass, you need to keep an eye on it. Water it when the grass tells you. In the winter that is harder to tell. Once a month is good for the soil regardless of whether your grass is growing or not. As the temps climb, you will be watering more. How much more depends on your soil, climate, grass type, grass height, shade, etc. There is no guide for that. In the heat of summer most people outside of triangle formed by El Paso, Palm Springs, and Las Vegas can water once a week. If you are in the triangle, you might need to go to every 5 days and sometimes every 4 days.

I was out of town last weekend so I will do the top dressing and shampooing this weekend. Are you suggesting to to the top dressing and then shampoo right after on the same day?

Also, a little update: I took a long screw driver and poked it into the ground in a few spots. Where the grass looks good and green, the screwdriver goes in easily and fairly deep. But everywhere that the grass looks dead, the screwdriver will barely go 1/2 inch into the ground. I doubt this is coincidental. I also took a pick-axe and swung it into the ground in the middle of one of the dead spots. It looks like there is a fair bit of soil but it is just really hard. Any thoughts? Would you still suggest I have a fungus problem or something more to do with soil?

I lightly dethatched the lawn with a dethatching rake. I then shampooed with 3oz of no tears baby shampoo. I then spread 1 cubic yard of premium ultra fine compost.

I noticed today, however, that some of the yellowness seems to be running in fairly distinct lines in the same direction that I originally fertilized. See pic:

I also noticed that the back 16" or so running at the base of the rock retaining wall is really green and I remembered that I accidentally did an extra pass there when I originally fertilized. Could it be that my lawn is just really lacking nitrogen?

Would it be ok to do another application of fertilizer first thing tomorrow morning over the top dressing then give it a good 1" of water?? The last time I fertilized was about a month ago and the lawn hasn't had any other fertilizer this summer.