/diy/ - Do It Yourself

Not sure if anyone here knows about gardening / landscaping, but here goes… The snow that was in my front yard just melted, and I noticed that the Yew hedge in front of my house has large brown patches on it. Does anyone know what this is or what I can do about it? Is my hedge just a goner, or can I trim it or something?

OK, so a while ago I bought a house on a short-sale. The owner had not been maintaining it, so right now my front yard looks like something out of Fallout. Honestly, this is my first house so I don't know a whole lot about gardening and landscaping. There are a couple of garden areas with wood chips in them, and a bunch of dead plants and weeds popping up. The grass on the lawn is pretty much brown and looks dead. Also, apparently the previous owner had a dog or something because there are a bunch of bald spots on the lawn. How can I go about fixing this? Since it's already mid-September and I only have 6 weeks at most of nice weather left, (I live in Minnesota) should I just leave it?