A Yankee In NC
Well-Known Member
I live in Southern NC and am wondering when I should plant "Winter grass" for my mini. What types grow best in this region?
NC planting season question
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Try winter rye. I usually throw that out here in the fall and it will come up in winter. They don't LOVE it but its mostly ground cover to keep the dead pasture grasses from going to mud. Works for me.
Bunnylady
Well-Known Member
Welcome to "Ask the Landscaper," LOL! As you doubtlessly know, the warm-season grasses that we depend on for summer grass brown out and go dormant during the winter. If you want green grass in the wintertime, you generally overseed with rye. Ryegrass comes in three forms. Annual rye is bright green, coarse textured, grows fast, and is mostly water, with just enough Chlorophyll to stain your knees. It is damaged, but not usually killed, by hard freezes. It usually dies out in May or June. Perennial rye is dark green, finer textured, grows more slowly, and is actually used as a year-round pasture grass in some more northern parts of the country. It usually fades away and dies in the summer heat here, but we have a few isolated clumps that have persisted from an experiment of my husband's a couple of years ago. The horses seem to like the perennial rye much better than the annual form, for some reason. Annual ryegrass seed used to be really cheap, with the perennial kind costing much more. Lately, though, the annual rye has gotten much more expensive, and the price difference is not all that significant any more.
And now, there is a new player in the game. Intermediate rye, which is a hybrid between the two types. Its name is right on the money, as it is in between the two in color, texture, and growth habit. The price is right there too, which is nice. We have planted the variety "Midway" for two years now, and have been pleased with the results in the landscape. I planted some in the pasture, where it persisted until early July this year. The horses and goats seem to like it.
The weather is getting cool enough, you probably could get away with planting right now, if you want to. I had some seed left over from last year, that I put out just last week, and it is sprouting now. We usually don't overseed lawns this early, because we don't want the rye competing with the lawn grasses. Usually we wait until October, but that is historically one of the driest months of the year. Ryegrass seed is large, and it floats, so I wouldn't put it out less than a week before a major rain event (like a tropical storm I could mention,) other than that, you're good to go.
And now, there is a new player in the game. Intermediate rye, which is a hybrid between the two types. Its name is right on the money, as it is in between the two in color, texture, and growth habit. The price is right there too, which is nice. We have planted the variety "Midway" for two years now, and have been pleased with the results in the landscape. I planted some in the pasture, where it persisted until early July this year. The horses and goats seem to like it.
The weather is getting cool enough, you probably could get away with planting right now, if you want to. I had some seed left over from last year, that I put out just last week, and it is sprouting now. We usually don't overseed lawns this early, because we don't want the rye competing with the lawn grasses. Usually we wait until October, but that is historically one of the driest months of the year. Ryegrass seed is large, and it floats, so I wouldn't put it out less than a week before a major rain event (like a tropical storm I could mention,) other than that, you're good to go.
