Yep, looks kind of like good old brown patch fungus, but that is quite a sunny slope. If you have been inundated with rain, tho, like we have, it is almost unavoidable. It's been a plague in NC this summer. We water at 3 AM to help, but still have a little -- the first year ever for us. Link below that might be of interest, especially the pics. Here is a link that might be useful: Pictures of brown patch fungus.

It would be nice to see some pictures. Also tell us where you live and what kind of grass you have. I would not expect to see insect damage until July if you live in the south and get chinch bugs or September for grub damage. Dead spots can be caused by dogs, too much shade, over fertilization, auto exhaust, road salt, under watering, smothering with grass clippings or compost, and disease. So we need more info.

That last picture is a particular style seen in some oriental gardens. They do it because they can with the right varieties of zoysia. Applying a preem in early Feb in northern GA is, uh, a waste of your money, but a great way to for them to make their boat payments over the winter. Late March preem is probably still a little early, but much better than Feb. The rest about fertilizing helping in transitioning from dormancy is pure bull crap. When grass is dormant it is not taking up nutrients. Applying fertilizer to grass that has not yet awakened from winter is a financial waste but also not great for the soil or wherever the rainwater runs off to. The warm season gurus wait until May for the first app of chemical fertilizer. If you feel the need to apply something earlier, at least wait until after the second mowing of green/growing grass to apply fertilizer. Mid to late May is the proper timing for the FIRST application of a chemical fertilizer for the year. So what I'm doing is painting a picture of what your lawn care company is doing. What they're doing is making lawn care look more difficult than it is. What they are not doing is telling you how to water and mow. Proper watering and mowing are more important than fertilizing to make the lawn look nice. I don't like lawn care companies, but I'm going to defend them in your dead grass from last year. I don't think they could have over done the fertilizer to the point of killing the lawn. Zoysia is persnickety despite what all the ads tell you. I'm thinking it got dry on the pallet when it was delivered and just appeared to die (or go dormant) coincidentally after the fertilizer folks left. Here is the 1-2-3 of lawn care as put together by me over the past 12 years in the lawn forums. In the mowing part I ignored zoysia because it is such a small proportion of lawns. In your case (Emerald) I would keep it mowed short more like bermuda than like anything else. 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. 1. Watering Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an inch 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 El Paso your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, temperature, 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. 2. 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. 3. 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 much organic is better than too little*. 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. * This used to read, "Too little is better than too much." Recent test results show that you cannot get too much organic fertilizer unless you bury the grass in it.

Looks like mine. I was mowing twice a week end of August until we got alot of rain, and then I had to mow between raining, which turned out to be once a week. It got too tall, so I mowed it as usual, and then a couple of days later lowered the height of cut, mowed again to get back to twice a week. Scalped it! Lesson learned. It was time for a fertilizer application. I've never used Milorganite, but I did because someone told me it was good for when you scalp, and stress a lawn. I love it! It's been two weeks. My backyard with seeded bermuda looks lush & green again. But the front yard with sodded Tifway is slowly but surely coming back. After about three days after scalping it, I looked at some of the brown spots, and noticed green coming back, so I realized it was fine. All I had to do was wait it out. I wasn't sure if it would come back in time. It's been cool nights/hot days. But we had alot of rain from Harvey, and it's coming back. Oh, and by the way, before this happened my grass was very thick, lush green too. It was just getting too high, and going dormant underneath. I made notes for next year :)