Green Lawn Year Round – Options

Q: I’m building a house that will be done in September. The contractor normally uses bermuda grass but I prefer a green lawn year round. What grass would you recommend for our full sun yard with irrigation system?

A: You have two choices when it comes to having a year-round green lawn. The first choice is to use fescue grass, which is green 12 months of the year, but it can decline a bit during summer heat. The key to keeping fescue healthy in summer is to thoroughly till the planting area before you plant seed or sod. The good news is that the best time to plant fescue is in September.

Your other choice is to use bermudagrass sod and overseed it with ryegrass each winter. If you lay bermudagrass sod in September, it will not be established well enough to plant ryegrass the first year. But if the sod establishes well and you keep it healthy you could plant ryegrass in the sod next year. Check my website notes for recommended planting procedures in either case.