Keep Your Lawn Green All Winter Long

 

 

Want to keep your lawn green through the winter? If so, now is the time to overseed your Burmuda grass with a cool season grass.

 

Burmuda, being a warm season grass, prefers our summer heat. But come winter it will go dormant and turn brown. Fortunately, if you want to keep it green there are several types of cool season grass seed you can choose from, to grow over your dormant Burmuda. Maintaining a thick stand of cool season grass also helps to prevent the invasion of aggressive winter weeds.

Perennial ryegrass is the preferred cool season grass for overseeding Burmuda grass lawns. Many new types of perennial ryegrass are available. These new types are fine textured and form a dense, attractive lawn. They are also frost tolerant and will persist longer in the spring, allowing time for the Burmuda grass to green up.

 

Carefully preparation of the lawn prior to overseeding is the key to success. To germinate and grow the seed must come in contact with the soil. A dense Burmuda grass lawn will need to be lightly verticut or power-raked to remove the mat of dead grass plants, called thatch, which accumulates in the lawn. This work is best left to a professional lawn or landscape maintenance service. If you have a small lawn area you can remove some of the thatch by hand-raking with a steel-tined lawn rake.

 

After raking, scalp the Burmuda grass by cutting it as low as possible. Then remove the thatch and clippings. With some space opened up in the lawn, the seed that is spread will be able to drop through to the soil surface.

 

You can apply the seed by hand, but for better uniformity use a drop spreader or cyclone spreader. Seeding the lawn in a cris-cross pattern will also help provide a more uniform stand of grass. Whether your using perennial or annual ryegrass, apply 12 to 15 lbs. of seed for an area of 1,000 square feet. After spreading the seed, use a strong spray of water to help wash the seed down to the soil surface.

 

To help retain moisture and encourage seed sprouting, fine compost or steer manure can be lightly spread over the area. A leaf rake or broom can be used to evenly distribute this top dressing and work it down through the Burmuda grass.

 

Keep seeds moist until they germinate and become established. This may require watering several times daily, with just enough water to keep the top 2 inch of soil wet. When the grass becomes established, watering should be reduced gradually to about once a week. During the coldest part of the winter the grass may not need water more than once every two weeks.

When the grass reaches a height of 2 inches, mow the turf to 1.5 inches. Gradually increase the height of cut to maintain the grass at a height of 2.5 inches. A rotary type mower can be used, making sure to keep the blades sharp.

 

Begin fertilizing 2 weeks after seedlings sprout. Apply 4 lbs. of a lawn fertilizer such as 16-4-8 or similar analysis for every 1,000 square feet of lawn. After the initial fertilization, apply 1 to 2 lbs of lawn fertilizer per 1,000 square feet, every 3 or 4 weeks. If the lawn is green at the time of a scheduled fertilization, skip that fertilization.

 

By following these steps of overseeding now, you'll be creating a beautiful cool season lawn that will last well into spring.