Is it to early to sow rye grass here in north texas since we have had all of this rain and the evenings are much cooler?

Thanks for the help in advance.

_________________
Life is a Garden. DIG IT!!!

Are you talking about a winter rye or a something for year round?

_________________
David Hall
Moderator
Dirt Doctor Lawns Forum

I think I may do a winter rye. My backyard is basically dirt and a big bag of seed is really cheap. I'd like to have something back there over the winter until I can get some yeard round grass in.

The ground is fairly hard... Should I till? Or just spread a thin layer of compost and then seed it?

If your ultimate grass is going to be St Augustine, perennial rye, fescue, or zoysia, then go ahead and do the final installation right now. If you are going to install bermuda, then do the annual rye and seed the bermuda next June after the soil is good and warm.

If you are doing bermuda, you need to have a perfectly flat surface. Tilling will give you a lumpy, rolling, uneven surface simply because you can never level out a tilled soil. The soil underneath the surface is all different grades of fluffy and when it settles, it will be uneven. If you are doing bermuda, I suggest you grade it perfectly flat now before sowing the rye seed. Perfectly flat grading can only be done with a small tractor fitted with a box blade. Hire someone to do that. It should take one morning. This technique levels the surface with minimal disturbance of the soil underneath. So all the settling is already done and your surface will be as flat as it can be.

If you are not doing bermuda, then you can do the compost and seed or seed and compost. The amount of compost you need is 1 cubic yard per 1,000 square feet of seeded area. This is a pretty thin layer. I think I would put the compost down first, sweep it around to even it out with a pushbroom, then seed. Follow up the seeding with a roller to make good contact between the seed and the compost. At the same time I would put down some alfalfa pellets or meal. As a fertilizer the alfalfa will be just activating about the time the roots need it. Timing couldn't be better.

When the rye gets up to 4 inches high, you can mow and cut way back on the water. Set your mower to the highest setting and mow weekly while leaving the clippings on the turf.

_________________
David Hall
Moderator
Dirt Doctor Lawns Forum

Wow thanks for the awesome help! I'll try to get started this weekend!