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Is it just sections that are dead, or patches?

And when you spread the fertilizer, did you use one of those winding spreaders or did you do it by hand (!!!)?

Ahhhhh, mini, that's why.

Try one more thing since we'll be getting rain all week and this might be a good opportunity. Rake the dead areas and then go to Terra and buy a few bags of triple mix. Spread it out on the grass, esp the dead areas, and re-seed the dead areas (you could apply grass seed by hand, but never fertilizer). Let the rain work on it for a few days and see if there's improvement in 2-3 week's time.

I had some dead spots; I used a rack to tear out as much as possible. Then went got some fresh soil laid some some grass seeds mixed with that new soil. I've been watering every day for about 2 weeks and now I'm seeing little tiny stems.

Def mix some fresh soil in with that. Try to loosen up the top 1" of soil that's on the ground currently. That'll really help.

Those dead spots are….dead.

You can repair it, but first you need to wait. The soil there is overloaded with nitrogen, and anything you plant there will die. You have two choices:

1) Wait about 6 weeks for the fertilizer to naturally dissipate. Then loosen the soil up, seed, and cover with top soil and water to death for 3-4 weeks.
2) Dig out about 1-2 inches of soil in the affected areas. Then replace with new soil, seed, and water.

Or just sod.

if they are large patches like you mention, I would just buy a roll or 2 of sod, cut to size - done.