some lawns are much darker than others
 

Does anyone know why some of the lawns are much darker color than others? My understanding is that empire zoysia should ideally be a uniform very light tan/brown when dormant.

Do you mean from Village to Village, or just in your immediate area, golow?

My observations are mostly limited to a couple of the villages south of 466A. Not sure if it would be applicable on a wider basis.

Are you referring to the lawns that have been sprayed with green dyed liquid fertilizer?

I am guessing you refer to the fully green lawns. Some lawn care companies, such as Service Smart, spray dye on the lawns along with pre-emergent weed control and fertilizer at this time of year.

No, I’m not referring to those distinctive “green” lawns. The ones with this darker color almost look a bit black when they are adjacent to a lawn with a “normal light brown dormant” color. When I drive through my area, there are just a handful of lawns like this, probably not more than 10%.

I saw a company spraying green stuff on a lawn on O'dell.

You can have your lawn over-seeded with rye grass in the fall, and it will stay green all winter long. Massey did ours.

I notice our neighbor's lawn, that is not watered except when it rains, has turned brownish with darker areas throughout. I don't understand why they put so much in their landscaping and won't use their sprinkler system.

Two things come to mind about a darker lawn...grass that is seeding looks darker....grass that is too dry can have a purplish cast.

Use of dye
 

Sometimes spray companies add a dye so they can tell if they have missed any areas. Usually only last a few days. Sounds like they may be actually using a true lawn dye to cover up the brown if it last a long time.

Also is time for the golf courses to turn on the sprinklers more than what they're doing. Played EP yesterday; greens and fairways were great, the tee boxes were starting to look stressed. It is starting to get dry, gone back to watering twice a week rather than once.

RE:darker lawns
Why don't you simply ask the person?
Possibilities-milorganite-it is black in color, you need to apply quite a bit so when first applied it will look black. Due to high PH iron is locked up in our soil. Applying one of the iron supplements-IRONITE will darken the green color.
For me-it is all a balance. If, you fertilize too much you will need to mow more, water more. You will also be feeding the weeds and you will get more fungus. Watch the gardeners on the common ground. They get good results and they do look at economics.

Pest
 

Lawn pest also love healthy grass to attack.

We have used Deans in two different houses and our grass always looks greener than our neighbors(not spray painted.Ugh). We almost can pick out the Deans lawns in our neighborhood.