Home Garden

What Grass Should I Plant in the Fall?

What time of year you plant grass depends in part on where you live, but variety selection is perhaps the most important consideration. Many grasses should be planted in fall, especially if you are starting your lawn from seed. With sod, timing is less important, but the seeds of cool-season grasses need the moist conditions and cool nighttime temperatures of fall to germinate and grow.
  1. Cool-Season Grasses

    • Grasses are divided into two basic categories: warm season and cool season. Cool-season grasses have two annual growth cycles, in spring and fall. They do not grow significantly during the warm summer months, and should be planted at the beginning of either of these two cycles, though fall planting is generally considered to be superior to spring planting.

    Varieties

    • A number of common turf grasses fall into this category. Kentucky bluegrass is perhaps the most widely grown cool-season grass, and is used in all but the hottest parts of the United States. Other cool-season grasses for fall planting include fine fescue, tall fescue, creeping bentgrass, rough bluegrass, annual ryegrass and perennial ryegrass.

    Time Frame

    • In most areas the best time to plant cool-season grasses is late August through mid-September. If you live in a cooler, northern part of the United States, you can start planting in the earlier part of this time range. In the South, you can plant these grasses as late as October. Wherever you live, try to plant cool-season grasses after summer heat has subsided, but early enough that the grass will have time to germinate before winter.

    Considerations

    • Warm-season grasses like Bermudagrass, zoysia and St. Augustine grass are better planted during early summer, especially if you start from seed. Landscapers more often establish these types of grasses from sod, however, and you may lay sod at any time during the growing season, including fall, as long as the soil is moist and will not freeze before the sod takes root.