Process

For southern lawns below Tennessee, we all have what’s called warm-season grasses. Tennessee and Kentucky are located in the temperate zone and anything north of these states grow cool season only grass. For warm season grasses, the lawn starts slowing growth in October and turns grayish-brown in November (depending where you fall lat/long from North to South). This period is called dormancy. The grass will stop producing green leaf tissue and only work on root production through the winter.

Overseeding is when you take a northern cool-season grass seed and apply it to the soil in October (typically before October 20th depending on Lat/Long) and set up a watering schedule to promote germination prior to temperatures reaching consistently cool rates that adversely affect germination. Before you put your seed out, you have to cut the warm season grass very low (a process called scalping) to allow a consistent coverage of your seed with a spreader. At this point a lot of grass is laying above the lawn and below the lawn. This is called thatch. The thatch will need to be blown off the top of the lawn and as much as possible in between the grass blades to allow for seed-to-soil contact.

At this point you can fertilize. After the grass reaches about 3 inches in height, you can start to mow. To achieve the patterns seen in the attached images, you need to mow with what’s called a striping kit. It is basically a roller attached to the back of your mower which pushes the grass blades in the direction you are mowing in. Reflective light on the waxy grass blades give the grass the impression of light, dark, light, dark green grass as you make your passes.

Locally you can have a northern cool season lawn from October through May. In June the cool season grass starts to die off or thin and the warm season grass is out of dormancy and starting to take over. Some companies spray out the cool season grass in April and allow the warm season grass to take over.