Have you watered?

It looks like the part next to the fence is in shade, and is doing better. Makes me wonder if it's just a water issue.

When did you add the extra fertilizer in that spot and how much extra did you add? If you added too much, it could be fertilizer burn, especially if it was added when it was hot.

Otherwise, as lamcon suggested, it's likely that it needs water. If that's the case, it's probably dormant, not dead, so it will spring back if you give it some water.

Yet in the third picture, along the sidewalk on the left, the grass has survived where you'd expect it to be drought stressed from the heat of the concrete.

jlm41, the areas that have browned out, did that grass grow faster and taller than the rest of the yard? Was is a lime green colored grass?

garycinchiago:

My lawn looks exactly like the 'now' pictures as well. And yes, it did grow faster and taller and was lime green.
Do you know why or what the problem could be?

Here is a link that might be useful: My Post

"Yet in the third picture, along the sidewalk on the left, the grass has survived where you'd expect it to be drought stressed from the heat of the concrete."

I do not believe that is always the case. When the walkway is around the house, it should slope slightly away from it. Right next to the walkway will get all the rain that falls in the 3' path. Driveways and sidewalks are different.

Just my opinion.

jlm41,

I think it might help to know how much you water your lawn as well and how much rain you've had.

you had either poa annua or poa trivialis and it died off because of the heat.

In my area, due to the high clay content, if you try the "water infrequently" motto you will soon have no lawn. When it gets above 90º the lawn needs more water. When you see it start to dry out it needs to be watered the next morning. We have been in the hundreds for the last week and I have to water every morning or I will have straw for a yard.

Metal--You can get clay to absorb water better by doing a couple of things. When you water, water as long as you can before it stops absorbing, then water a different area the same way. Keep doing that until the whole lawn has been watered as much as possible. Then return to the first part you watered. If it hasn't been an hour since you watered there, wait until an hour has passed, then water there again. And continue doing this for the whole lawn. What this does is give the water more of a chance to soak into the soil.

Another thing you can do is to try to increase the organic content of the soil. Mulch mow, mulch mow leaves in the fall and so forth. Doing this will loosen up the soil quite a bit. I can water much longer without runoff than I could when I bought my house as a result of taking this approach.

OP, check your soil in those areas, you might have shallow/restricted soils there. Get a star screw driver penetrate the soil to see how far go in. You could also have some construction debris or lots of stones/rocks just under the soil.

One last thing, if you over applied Halts or any other DNA-type pre-emergent, it will harm the roots of the already summer shallow KBG roots, and go dormant then die if not water. A few 90 degree F. days will not burn KBG (trust me, I'm down in Raleigh where we get more 90F days than you)lack of water, shallow soils, and disease will.

Did you lawn recover?