What Grass to Plant During the Winter

Transition Zones Explained

• Lawn planting areas are divided into three types of zones. These zones are cool season grass zones, warm season grass zones and transition zones. Cool season grasses thrive in cool season zones and warm season grass does well in warm season grass zones. In between these zones lies an area known as the transition zone. In transition zones, cool season grass will grow as an annual grass from late fall until early summer when warm season grasses typically go dormant due to winter cold. For year round green, some lawn owners plant cool season grass each winter. In summer, cool season grasses will die in the transition zone and warm season grass turf will take over.

Root Development

• Many lawn care experts recommend that lawn caretakers plant cool season grass in late fall or early winter as opposed to spring. Lawns planted at the beginning of the cool season will develop a strong root system throughout the winter and spring in Northern climates. This will help them survive drought conditions in summer as well as resist pests such as grubs that attack the roots of grass in summer.

Selection

• Cool season grasses may be planted on bare dirt as sod. For already established lawns, many cool season grasses are planted as seed. The type of grass selected is based on the characteristics of the grass. Fescue are fine textured and drought tolerant, tall fescue has a more coarse texture and some shade tolerance, Kentucky bluegrass has fine leaves and spreads through rhizomes and stolons. It is not drought or shade tolerant and will whither and die in summer heat faster than other types of winter grass.

Planting Time

• Winter planting times for cool season grass are based on the USDA hardiness zone that grass is located in. in areas of zone 9 in Texas, grass may be planted up into November. In central Iowa's zone 5 where winter descends earlier, the best time to plant winter grasses is between August 15 and September 30. In zone 4, grass seed should be planted by no later than September 15.