As a landscaper here in Phoenix we enjoy the Fall because it means 2 things…. Temperatures are cooling off and it is getting time to plant perennial rye seed for a winter lawn.
However, planting a winter lawn each year can be tough on your existing bermuda grass that goes dormant each year. In this video we speak to Ryan Kibner with Custom Weed & Pest Control about this very issue.
Ryan actually recommends taking a year off of planting a winter lawn maybe once every 4 to 5 years to give the dormant bermuda grass time to strengthen its roots in the fall and winter months without having to compete with a perennial rye seed that is growing at that time.
Another issue that happens over time is the fact that scalping sometimes cuts below the crown of the grass and when this happens it also is very harmful for the bermuda grass and makes it much more challenging for the lawn to come back in the springtime.
Therefore when scalping to expose the soil for seed during the planting years it is much better to thatch areas to expose the soil over scalping the lawn much shorter.
There are products that you can use to control the amount of time the lawn lasts without harming the turf you want to assist. The other threat that rye grass is to bermuda is that its growing season is lasting longer with each new year of planting.
Because the rye seed is getting better it is not giving the bermuda grass the 100 days of growth in some areas that is needed for a healthy season. Here are some other threats to your lawn like allelochemicals, grubs and other bugs can also be a huge issue and cause problems.
If all this seems too much to figure out on your own, we highly recommend contacting Ryan Kibner’s company Custom Weed & Pest at 602-956-3844 or go to their website at wekillweeds.com. Also please follow them on social media;
If you have any landscaping questions,
Please contact AMS Landscaping at (602) 944-0421 or go to our website at azlawns.com. If you would like to see some current pictures of our work please click azlawns.com/pics.
We also offer many other landscaping services and offer great tips and offers on our Blog, Facebook and YouTube.
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