Question
Ronald,

I could use some guidance. We live in Ojai, CA where the summer temps can reach regularly in the high 80's and low 90's in the summer with about 10 days over 100 degrees. Winters are usually in the 40's and on occasion can reach as low as 32 degrees. Three weeks ago, we hired a local lawn care & garden man to install Marathon Fescue Sod in our backyard. The yard is bordered on one side by two tall Pepper Trees that have a tendency to drop debris from time to time. He watered twice a day for the first two weeks, then once a day for the third week.  The lawn seemed to settle in nicely on both the left and side of the rectangular yard, but the center section seemed to die out. He pulled the center section and replaced it with fresh sod. Again, it seems to be taking, but over the weekend we saw toadstools appear in the section on the right. When we question him about it, he said he would ask the sod company. The next day he said the sod company said the toadstools occurred from overwatering, so he stopped watering for three days. The toadstools seem to have disappeared (but that may be because he cut the grass and lopped off the heads of the toadstools!). Yesterday, we noticed two brown areas roughly oval in shape appearing in the center section. It looks to us like isolated dead grass. We've also noticed that in two areas along the bend-a-board borders that separate the grass from the flower beds, the grass is browning along this edge.

What do you think might be causing this? How do we remedy the problem? What should we continue to look for to insure that this doesn't continue? Is fescue the right kind of sod in this climate? Can the Pepper tree droppings cause a problem with the grass?

Answers to these, and any additional information we should have asked about would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your time.

Phil

Answer
Browning along the edge of sod is almost always related to a watering problem. The trick is to determine a 'chicken and egg puzzle'. Was the sod not tamped down enough or rolled to ensure intimate contact with the soil? This will cause the edge to lift away from the soil, dry out and turn brown. Examine the edge closely and if there is space, fill it with sand. Sand can be 'poured' into such spaces. While you are at it examine all the seams to eliminate gaps. If you allow them to continue, browning out will spread and weeds will poke through. On the other hand, the sod may have been properly laid but the irrigation was not enough to wet the sod thoroughly. In such a situation the middle area of the sod piece will be adequately wetted but it will dry out from the edges. These edges will start to shrink and pull away from the soil and turn brown. Watering twice daily is OK as long as the second one does not follow too closely. This can cause a lot of the second watering to be lost by runoff. Then again, you want to complete all irrigation early enough to ensure that all the grass blades are quite dry before the sun sets.
That center section is a bit more problematic. Is it lower (sunken) than the rest of the area; or is it higher? Ask the lawn man if the dead sod was rooted in. He should remember if it was difficult to "tear out". If it was, I would guess that the area stayed wet (sunken would cause this) and a fungus killed the patch. If the sod was easy to pick up then it looks like watering was inadequate either because the area is higher or the watering was not well distributed to reach the patch to facilitate rooting in. The oval pattern that is now emerging tends to favor a biotic cause; fungus, hence low elevation and/or heavier watering.
Because of the regular watering required for good establishment, sporadic mushroom  appearances are normal but if they persist, it might signify overwatering.
If the pepper trees are Schinus terebentifolius (sorry about the technicalities) or Brazilian pepper, then there might be some allelopathic (there I go again) effect. I can certainly say that I have observed it with shrubs and trees rather than grass.
I must thank you for providing enough relevant observations to make my contribution easier and decidely more enjoyable.