I bought a new house with a large yard. The previous
neighbors didn't much care for their yard and also
had a dog that presumably urinated there. Besides
the neglect, I don't know of any other big problems
besides the resulting patches in the lawn.

After move-in, I decided to try to fix the lawn patches.
After a few failed tries due to my lack of a green thumb, I found
Scott's Patchmaster.

I bought a Weasel and rototilled most of the lawn areas that were
damaged by my chemical fertilization attempts before I found the
PatchMaster,
removed the surface debris, and sprinkled Patchmaster.

Anyway, it's now about 1 month later and there's a
growth of new shoots in most of the areas. It's December
26, in the middle of Southern California (our wettest
weather so far), and things look better. The Patchmaster was
put down about December 1. They quote a 1-2 week turnaround
but here it is and at least shoots are coming up and in some
areas (maybe 80% of the areas), rather well, but not uniformly.

Some spots didn't develop due to I think not having been Weaseled
sufficiently. I could go back and redo the same on the remaining spots
but instead will try this instead after more time passes.

Put down drinking glasses at the remaining brown spots, then do
a standard sprinkling. Sprinkling should be infrequent and heavy
unless watering a new area which should be frequent and light.

Check water quantity in glasses for too little or too much watering
indicating sprinkling problem. Fix sprinklers/coverage/etc.

Then dig up brownspots to a depth of 2 inches with a shovel, lay
appropriate
Medallion Seed blend (90% Tall Fescue, 10% Kentucky-Blue-Grass -- this
is a
popular mix for Southern California and many of the landscapers around
here use it -- I think it's what I had (had thought it was KBG until I
heard
about Fescue then thought it was fescue -- glad to know I was half
right
on both.))

After putting down the seed then I will cover it very lightly
with Kellogg's Topper. If no sprouts in a week, cover with a
clear plastic cover with holes punched in it and anchored at
the corners to get the greenhouse effect. Sprinklers will go
through the holes. Sprinklers to run lightly 3x per day.

The only things I would have done differently in all of this is
1) check the sprinkler coverage first (with the drinking glasses
test) 2) dont fertilize without topper/mulch 3) try to do it properly
before relying on PatchMaster since I am getting a short fescue with
no Kentucky Blue Grass instead of what I like which is a tall fescue
with a little KBG. I didn't want to pay the high rates of gardeners
around here, so live-and-learn.

ROMAN