The last three seasons I’ve been experimenting with having a longer rye grass season in our back yard. This is mainly due to the back yard being too hot in the summer, and shifting a focus on having a green lawn to enjoy during the fall, winter, and spring months. Well, a few things happened this season, and I’m not really sure what caused the most loss.

I did overseed at ~ 15lbs/1000sq’ in hopes to have a thicker ryegrass. I don’t know if that was too compact for this type of ryegrass, and lead to issues.

In December, we had a few days in the 11 degrees range that gave us a hard freeze early in the season. That’s when the Bermuda went dormant in our area, and that’s when my back yard was really exposed with either dead ryegrass, dormant Bermuda, or a combination of both.

I’ve had cold spells in the past few years that were even worse than this one, but with less loss. So I’m wondering if this is a brand issue, annual vs. perennial rye, or is it just bad luck?

I did have some recovery, but not enough to continue with the long season. There will be no spring overseed, and I’m moving on to getting ready for a normal Bermuda season. Leave a comment of your opinion!