The Type Of Grass That's Great For Overseeding Your Patchy Lawn

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As the days grow shorter, cold weather can challenge even the most experienced landscaper. Like heat, the cold can cause dead patches to form in your yard. Eventually, you have to accept that the grass is going to go dormant, but you can still try to hang on for as long as you can. To solve this problem, you can either put down swatches of sod grass or reseed your lawn. Be careful what you choose because putting down the wrong seed is one of the common ways you might be ruining your lawn. However, if you prefer the latter of the two options, consider using Lesco Double Eagle Ryegrass, which sells for about $55 a bag.

This is a cool-season grass, meaning that it thrives in the colder parts of the country. If you live up north, this grass should work wonders in your patchy backyard. This grass holds up better against cold fall nights than warm-season grasses like Bermuda or Zoysia. In fact, it thrives at between 55 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. This grass establishes itself rapidly and comes in with a fine texture and a dark green color, making it the perfect turf for Thanksgiving day two-hand touch football games.

It's recommended that you overseed (the process of putting down grass seed over existing grass) your lawn with Lesco Double Eagle Ryegrass in the early fall. Overseeding in the fall often works better than overseeding in the spring because it doesn't expose the plant to herbicides that you might need to put down in order to kill weeds earlier in the year.

The fall is a great time for overseeding because there's usually a lot of rain, but that rain can also wash your grass seed away. That's why the first step is to aerate your lawn. This is the process of making thousands of holes across your yard, which is a great way to fix patchy spots. The tiny punctures will also make it easier for your seeds to germinate and take root in the soil. You can rent an aerator from Home Depot for about $89 a day, and you can complement this process by adding phosphorous-rich fertilizer to your lawn.

Once those steps are complete, fill up a push spreader with seed and march it across every square foot of your lawn. Within five days, the heads of grass should start to peak up. Of course, don't worry if your grass continues to grow in patchy because there are other ways to easily fix it.