Where do you live?

What kind of grass did you put in?

How often did you water the new sod last fall?

Is the bare spot in more shade than the rest?

How high/low do you mow?

Im in Oregon, not sure on the sod type, got it at home depot.... We watered the new sod like nuts and everywhere is a bare spot, I mowed super high on the one time I mowed it.... the sun hit all parts evenly this year.

How many hours a day does the sodded area get direct sunlight? Call HD and see if they can tell you what type of turf the sod is that they sell. Most likely in Oregon, it's KBG, but doesn't hurt to check.

This is the best time to re-seed your lawn. Rent an aerator and aerate your whole lawn. Apply fertilizer and reseed everything with a mix of Kentucky blue grass, fine fescue and rye grass. 1lb/1000sf. make sure there is no annual rye in the mix. Let the grass grow tall at 4" during the growing season. Don't bag the clippings. By mid April the lawn will go to seed. by keeping the grass tall you will see new seed heads everywhere on your lawn. That's how most organic lawns will out-compete weeds at the beginning of the program. Repeat the re-seeding in the fall.

Good luck

1 lb/1000 square feet? A bit light, eh ?

I have been doing it for 12 years now. And most of the organic lawn care providers I know along the east coast, follow the same rule.

So all grass at 3-4" tall is tall enough to reseed itself? Interesting. Contradicts all available university materials I have read.

Generally we need a city to home in on your climate and soil type. Oregon has two climates: desert and rain forest. Which one are you?

I'm thinking the lawn failed due to improper watering. Watering like nuts is not very descriptive. I'll describe good watering and you can see if that sounds like what you did.

Watering should be done deeply and infrequently. Deep means 1 full inch all at one time. You can put out cat food or tuna cans, turn on the water, and time how long it takes your sprinkler/hose/water pressure to fill all the cans. That will be your watering time from now on (unless you are establishing new sod or seed). Infrequently depends on the temperature. With temps below 70 degrees F, deep water once a month. With temps in the 70s, water once every 3 weeks. With temps in the 80s, water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 90s water once every week. With temps above 100 you can go to once every 5 days. Above 110 water once every 4 days.

I disagree with J Gill on timing for new seed. This is just about the worst time of year for two reasons. One is that now is the time when summer annual plants, like crabgrass, are germinating. When you water your new seed/sod, you are giving the crabgrass exactly what it wants. The second reason is that spring seeded grass does not have time to develop a heat resistant root system before summer comes. If you're on the west slope of the Cascades, you might not have a warm enough summer to matter...which is why I would like to know where you live. For most of the north, late summer to early fall is the best time to seed a new northern grass lawn. Having said all that, if you want to seed now, at least you know what to expect. When you have a full crabgrass lawn in July, you should rest confidently that the best time to renovate is coming soon. Killing out the crabgrass for a renovation is not that hard.

If you want to reseed now anyway, try this: water daily as if you had new grass seed down. That means watering for about 5 minutes, 3x per day, for 2 weeks. That should sprout every weed seed in the yard. Then spray those weeds out with Round Up. Continue watering like that for another week to sprout any late blooming weeds. A week later spray the RU again. The next day you can scatter your new grass seed. After 2 doses of RU spread out like that, you should get a mostly grass lawn.

I think the PNW is rye grass country. Most of the US is anything but rye, but y'all are crazy about it. Rye is a full sun, bunch grass that does not spread quickly. If your lawn gets any wear and tear, it will need to be reseeded in the fall. Kentucky bluegrass is a full sun sod forming grass. That means it spreads to fill in thin spots by itself without further seeding. The downside to KBG is it turns tan in the winter.

im in Salem, in the Willamette valley... Wife and I read about the need for extreme watering and so thats what we did, we watered constantly, two times a day a good soaking. We read on several sites that the sod should be mushy drenched..obviously that didn't work...' Our main problem is Moss in the lawn...... Wife and I would just really like to have something that looks remotely like a lawn.

YIKES! You watered like NUTS!! I was not expecting that.

Sorry but you got some poor advice from two other sites. It should not be mushy ever - EVER. With new seed or sod the very top surface of the underlying soil should be moist so the roots will go down and knit in. Moist is not soggy. Generally 5-15 minutes, 3x per day, is plenty to do that, but sometimes that is too much or too little. It depends, but the idea is to be moist.

Now you have some grass but you don't know what it is, right? Rye and fescue grasses will not spread to fill in the thin spots. Kentucky bluegrass will spread if you have any of that. What I suggested earlier using Round Up is a complete renovation. Since you already have some grass, you might just manage what you have along with whatever weeds come in between now and August. Then in August you can kill out the weeds and put some good seed in.

What do you want to do?