Last year we had a pretty rough drought in Illinois and it took the yard at my new house from a nice robust mane of green grass to this spotty monstrosity:
https://i46.tinypic.com/15nmvxe.jpg
Being that this the first time I've had to care for a yard I'm at a lost as to what to do to get it back to that lush green blanket of grass I had when I originally bought the house.
Are the spots simply from not getting a lot of water or is there some more nefarious reason like fungus or grubs behind it?
Any insight would be appreciated!
Mike
Hailing from another part of Illinois...I must say you will not have to worry about that problem this year since having this huge amounts of rain fall.. 
But with joking set aside your lawn must had been sown with Kentucky blue in all bets due to your neighbors having the same look. Kentucky blue grass goes dorment durring the hot dry summer months. Which we had a doozie of a heat wave last year of 2012.
The extreme heat signaled the grass to go dorment and when it does, gives off a brown patchy look. It resumes back to normal the next spring after the winter's dorment period.
Bluegrass can become a healthy green and keeps weeds down by mowing higher of 3" in mowing season of June thru August. Then by your last couple of mowings before winter go back down to 2"
One can use clover also to help give shade to the rest of the lawn if that is your sort of thing.
But with joking set aside your lawn must had been sown with Kentucky blue in all bets due to your neighbors having the same look. Kentucky blue grass goes dorment durring the hot dry summer months. Which we had a doozie of a heat wave last year of 2012.
The extreme heat signaled the grass to go dorment and when it does, gives off a brown patchy look. It resumes back to normal the next spring after the winter's dorment period.
Bluegrass can become a healthy green and keeps weeds down by mowing higher of 3" in mowing season of June thru August. Then by your last couple of mowings before winter go back down to 2"
One can use clover also to help give shade to the rest of the lawn if that is your sort of thing.
Awesome, thanks for the info. Glad the rain stopped up here otherwise I was going to be planting kelp for the summer...
Will I have your attention - is there any benefit to letting mulch stay in your yard? Rains have washed a lot of my landscaping mulch into the lawn. Personally I don't like it cause I can't walk around barefoot without stepping on a wood chip so I was just going to try and rake it all up and away.
Will I have your attention - is there any benefit to letting mulch stay in your yard? Rains have washed a lot of my landscaping mulch into the lawn. Personally I don't like it cause I can't walk around barefoot without stepping on a wood chip so I was just going to try and rake it all up and away.