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When your sod is new, you should keep an eye on it to prevent dehydration. As new sod plants its roots into the soil beneath it, it can easily get dehydrated and start to turn brown. Keeping a consistent watering schedule for your new sod will help prevent this issue and will help it thrive as it roots into your yard.

Once your sod is about six weeks old, you can start to establish a regular lawn maintenance routine, complete with mowing, edging, and fertilizing.  

The best time to apply fertilizer to your lawn is in early fall, though some climates necessitate a different schedule. In most cases, avoid fertilizing late into fall, as this opens up your yard to winter injuries and poor health (though this is a great time to kill weeds.) You should avoid early spring fertilization, as this helps the grass leaves grow, but at the expense of developing root systems. Remember to water your lawn after fertilizing to increase its effectiveness and reduce the likelihood of runoff during a rainstorm. 

Overfertilizing can burn and kill the grass as well as upset the soil's nutrient balance, leaving your grass prone to disease and infestation. You'll know that you have overfertilized your burn when you have recently fertilized and begin to see brown and yellow patches of dead grass that need to be reseeded. 

A quick search online may recommend that you give your dog apple cider vinegar to help decrease the pH level of your dog’s urine. This method won’t help your yard, though. Most turf grasses thrive on slightly acidic soil, so apple cider vinegar won’t make much of a difference. 

The main cause of grass death by dog urine isn’t the pH level anyway—it’s usually the excessive amount of nitrogen that kills your grass.