"
wrote in
ps.com:

I live in Cincinnati Ohio, and roughly speaking, my reasonably
large backyard is surrounded by trees. The parts that get at least
partial shade grow well, but there is a sunny spot in the middle of
the backyard (roughly 8 by 10 feet) that grows very poorly. In every
7 inch square space (roughly speaking again), there is only one clump
of brownish looking grass with barespots in between the clumps. It
seems like the barespot grows slightly more every year. Can anyone
tell me what the problem is so that I can fix it this year?

Thanks,

JD

It could be that they seeded the lawn to make sure the partial shade
areas grew well and used the wrong seed for the sunny spot.

Does that spot get a lot of traffic? Maybe it's not turf grass.

Does it green up in the summer? It could be hot weather grass which
instantly turns brown after the first frost.

You probably can overseed and get some coverage for this summer but if
you're planning on a major renovation of this area, do it over the Labor
Day weekend. Grass seed germinates and grows best when planted at that
time of the year.