I have a similar problem. In addition to the straw appearance, my lawn
seemed to have stopped growing. I also noticed numerous spots where
animals had apparently "core aerated" the lawn, probably in search of
grubs.

For reference, I'm in Southern New Jersey and have an irrigation
system.

Based on not wanting to repeat last year (described below), I applied
the following:

- Spectracide Grub Stop at the recommended rate.
- Bayer Fungus Control. I kind of miscalculated, and put down about 5
lbs. per 1000 ft**2 instead of 3.

The lawn seems to be growing again.

I have a problem like this every year. Last year, I had a lawn service
fertilize. During early spring, the lawn looked great - check the
photo from May, 2005. However, it had to be cut three time a week. By
late July it was awful. My theory was that the service applied too
much nitrogen, causing all top growth and no roots.

I had the lawn core aerated last fall, and overseeded at that time,
and in early spring. In shady areas, I used Poa supina grass. I
applied starter fertilizer in May.

The lawn looked pretty good until a couple of weeks ago - the June
2006 photo. As I said, it seems to have bounced back a little.

Any suggestions about what could be going on? The bad spots don't seem
to correlate with sun/shade or any other obvious factor. One thing I
noticed is that in a spot where two trees were removed last year, the
grass is growing well and is very green. (I had the soil tested a
couple of years ago, and it was OK, but this makes me wonder.) I don't
know whether to fertilize or not to.

Martin

On Wed, 5 Jul 2006 22:01:54 -0400, "Kyle Boatright"
wrote:


"john" wrote in message
news:gsPqg.64343$9c6.32010@dukeread11...
My otherwise good looking lawn has brown grass, almost looks like straw ,
mixed in with it not in any particular pattern. A few weeks ago, the
entire lawn was a deep dark green. Now some is green and some is this
brown grass or the edges are brown. Any ideas/explanations. Could it be
the unusual amount of rain we have gotten along the north east. Any
observations appreciated. Thanks

John

What kind of grass?

How much rain?

Your lawn may have some sort of fungus.