Zoysia will tolerate your winters in its own way, brown. But it should come back in March or April. I've had it and it's too finicky for me.

Can you post pictures of the yard? Best garden pics are taken on a cloudy day.

You talked about watering. How long did you water? Did you get a full inch? And how often? How did you water the new sod?

I'm posting pics of the lawn right after sod installation in May, about a month later, and today (in that order, but should be obvious). I contacted the landscaper in June when I saw distinct areas of brown adjacent to green, matching the sod squares. They claimed not their problem. We didn't measure the water, but we alternated between letting a hose trickle over each area and using the oscillating sprinkler, letting it go for hours. We watered in early morning or evening. We felt the sod each time. It never seemed dry and sometimes felt too wet, like a rice paddy. It also rained fairly often during this time.

That looks more like sod loss and lack of establishment than anything else, and it suffered in summer (spring installations often do. Installation of sod in May? It was doomed to suffer, and if late in May, nearly doomed to failure).

See how it failed in patches before going all at once, and the patches seem to conform to where the sod was laid? That's one signal of what's going on here.

You might have gotten away with it by watering it more. Maybe. Maybe not. It depends on how close it is to that tree there. Grass might simply not be the best solution, but it does look like it'll work through at least most of that area.

I'd be tempted to scalp it, seed it again with a tri-mix (fescue, rye, and bluegrass) right now (literally, today or tomorrow if possible), water 3x daily, and see what happens. Get the best seed you can, but you're seriously getting short on time...too short to do much research and order anything much from far away.

Any recommendations on seed brand? I can get lots quickly via Prime.

Anything with a good mix of fescue, rye, and Kentucky bluegrass, and with zero noxious weed seed and very low percentages of weed seeds.

Remember that even low percentages are huge numbers. There are 1 million KBG seeds per pound. So if the batch is 0.1% weed seeds--a number that seems reasonable--that's still 1,000 weed seeds per pound...

In this instance, I'm not inclined to suggest an elite lawn. Not right now, anyway.

Scalp it, seed it, and tap it down (you can roll it, walk it, or whatever). Some topdress with peat moss, 1/4", or compost. Some don't. Both work, although the peat or compost do help hold water should you forget, or if temperatures get hot or winds pick up. Seed won't tolerate going dry.

Water 3x per day (seriously) for a few minutes at a time for a full month. Fescue and rye sprout quickly, but the bluegrass takes forever.

By then, temps are much colder, so you should be able to back off to daily watering or every other day immediately. Feed at that time, though. And check back in for further instructions.

Thank you so much.

Is the center of that area mounded up? It looks like the center might be 8-10 inches higher than the driveway. Growing grass on a mound is a challenge, and growing grass inside a mass of heat collecting asphalt adds more to the challenge.

Mark your calendar to write back with progress this coming weekend but no later than Sept 15.

No mounds. It's perfectly flat.