Updated December 2019
One of the best tips for keeping your Arizona lawn healthy and green through winter is to over seed with perennial ryegrass. This will ensure your Arizona winter grass stays green through the cooler season, no matter what grass you've originally used to create your lawn. The southwest climate can be challenging for gardeners, that includes the winter months. Rest assured, you can establish a healthy, verdant lawn all year round when you overseed with cool season grass into your existing sod lawn during October.
It is possible to create a healthy year-round lawn in the Arizona climate. If you live in warmer climates below elevations of 6,000 feet you'll probably have warm season sod, such as Bermuda grass. Overseeding your lawn with cool-season perennial ryegrass ensures your lawn is perfect through winter.
Follow the three steps below to overseed your warm season sod and ensure your Arizona winter grass is the healthiest it can be:
1. When night temperatures fall below 65 degrees, overseed your lawn with perennial ryegrass. This is usually during the first weeks of October.
2. Scalp and de-thatch your summer lawn. Drop mower blades to between 1/4" and 1/2" and mow until all green tissue is removed. Dispose of all clippings and, if necessary, use a power rake to remove any remaining thatch. The lawn will appear very bare, with short and brownish grass.
3. Seeding: Use a good quality ryegrass seed and spread it in two directions, to minimize any overlaps or skips. Spread seed in one direction and then in a direction perpendicular to the first. This will ensure you don't have any skipped areas or overlap areas where too much seed has been sown.
Recommended amounts of seed vary based on your needs. If you keep the lawn cut to between 1" and 2" then sow 12 pounds of ryegrass seed to every 1,000 square feet of lawn. If you prefer to keep your home lawn cut shorter (1/2" - 1"), then sow 15 pounds of ryegrass seed per 1,000 square feet of lawn.
Once your sod has been seeded with ryegrass you'll need to fertilize. Use a starter fertilizer in a 6-20-20 or 15-15-15 composition for best results and follow the manufacturer's instructions for best results. Water your lawn well afterwards and keep your ryegrass seedbed well watered for the next seven to ten days. You need to water four to five times a day for short cycles and you should expect your seeds to germinate within this timeframe. If you cannot maintain the schedule for watering the seeded lawn you may wish to mulch instead as this will retain water and heat that's necessary for your seeds to germinate.
After about 14 days your seeds will have germinated and watering can be reduced to once daily.
You can begin mowing your lawn around 10 to 14 days after seeds have germinated and start to feed the lawn once per month. Fertilizers with iron are ideal for perennial ryegrass, while watering can be cut down to every other day until temperatures begin to rise in spring.
Your Arizona winter grass can be an attractive garden feature if it is overseeded with ryegrass to ensure it remains green and lush through winter. Where you have warm season sod and are situated at elevations below 6,000 feet, adding ryegrass to the lawn is a simple matter that yields stunning results.
Evergreen Turf is your source for the highest quality sod in Arizona. Our friendly, knowledgeable people are committed to answering all of your questions to ensure a stress-free experience with your new Arizona sod lawn. Whether you wish to sod a small play area for the family or an entire golf course, Evergreen Turf can help you make it happen.
Our team serves customers throughout Arizona, including Phoenix, Mesa, Tempe and Tucson. Browse our website for information and tips on how to create and maintain a beautiful lawn, or give us a call and talk to one of our sod specialists at 480-456-1199 if you don't find what you are looking for. Better yet, stop by and meet the team at our convenient Chandler location.
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