Lawn and Garden forum - Late frost and bermuda

Author

Late frost and bermuda

robv60

2007-04-10, 5:25 pm

I live in north GA and have a bermudagrass lawn. All has been going
well, grass was greening up nicely and was about 50% green. I aerated
the lawn and a few days later, a freakish late frost came around and
has since turned the grass that was greening up brown again. I have
been holding off on applying fertilizer until the grass had really
started to green up (on the advice of a local expert) and after I had
aerated. I was planning on doing a little restoration of the yard
because it has some thin spots so I decided to aerate and re-seed. I
have yet to reseed but was planning on it soon. I have addded a very
thin sprinkling of topsoil to the thinning areas and raked it in. Im
afraid at this point I may have done more harm than good since the
frost came in. Anyway, now that the grass is brown again, Im not sure
when to fertilize & reseed. Any ideas?

Kyle Boatright

2007-04-11, 3:25 am

I'm in your same situation - late frost here in N. GA. The only difference
is that I have Zoysia, which was mostly green.

The thing to remember is that it is almost impossible to kill bermuda. The
only thing that seems to slow it down is shade. So, simply take out the
mower, mow the grass down low, and it'll come back in a week or two. Once
it is nice and green, fertilize. In your bare spots, why are the spots
bare? Shade? Packed soil? Traffic? Unless something bad is happening in
those spots or they are large (say a couple of feet across), the bermuda
will probably cover the areas this summer assuming you mow often, fertilize,
and water.

If you need to re-seed bermuda, you probably need to wait until mid-May.
Right now, the soil temperatures probably won't give you a good germination
rate.

KB

"robv60" <mfulcher@alltel.net> wrote in message
news:1176242003.946255.254150@p77g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
>I live in north GA and have a bermudagrass lawn. All has been going
> well, grass was greening up nicely and was about 50% green. I aerated
> the lawn and a few days later, a freakish late frost came around and
> has since turned the grass that was greening up brown again. I have
> been holding off on applying fertilizer until the grass had really
> started to green up (on the advice of a local expert) and after I had
> aerated. I was planning on doing a little restoration of the yard
> because it has some thin spots so I decided to aerate and re-seed. I
> have yet to reseed but was planning on it soon. I have addded a very
> thin sprinkling of topsoil to the thinning areas and raked it in. Im
> afraid at this point I may have done more harm than good since the
> frost came in. Anyway, now that the grass is brown again, Im not sure
> when to fertilize & reseed. Any ideas?
>

robv60

2007-04-11, 5:25 pm

On Apr 10, 11:07 pm, "Kyle Boatright" <kboatrig...@comcast.net> wrote:
> I'm in your same situation - late frost here in N. GA. The only difference
> is that I have Zoysia, which was mostly green.
>
> The thing to remember is that it is almost impossible to kill bermuda. The
> only thing that seems to slow it down is shade. So, simply take out the
> mower, mow the grass down low, and it'll come back in a week or two. Once
> it is nice and green, fertilize. In your bare spots, why are the spots
> bare? Shade? Packed soil? Traffic? Unless something bad is happening in
> those spots or they are large (say a couple of feet across), the bermuda
> will probably cover the areas this summer assuming you mow often, fertilize,
> and water.
>
> If you need to re-seed bermuda, you probably need to wait until mid-May.
> Right now, the soil temperatures probably won't give you a good germination
> rate.
>
> KB
>

My guess is the bare areas are a mixture of shade and somewhat
compacted soil. There is a tree on either side of my yard that the
bermuda has trouble growing under. These areas are usually the slowest
to green up and tend to be somewhat thin, not bare, but thin, The
branches of the trees arent real low but do cast some "filtered"
shade. The trees are both in flowerbeds but the branches hang over the
grass some. I recently aerated the lawn, a little early I know, but it
was the only time I could get the aerator for a while and the grass
was growing pretty well already so I figured it would be ok (albeit
not the ideal time) to aerate. I have a feeling the bare spots will
never look like I want them to unless I have the trees taken out.
Worst case, I may eventually expand the flower beds out into the yard
to cover the areas where the grass in thin.

Kyle Boatright

2007-04-11, 8:25 pm

"robv60" <mfulcher@alltel.net> wrote in message
news:1176327094.276562.322390@y80g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> On Apr 10, 11:07 pm, "Kyle Boatright" <kboatrig...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> My guess is the bare areas are a mixture of shade and somewhat
> compacted soil. There is a tree on either side of my yard that the
> bermuda has trouble growing under. These areas are usually the slowest
> to green up and tend to be somewhat thin, not bare, but thin, The
> branches of the trees arent real low but do cast some "filtered"
> shade. The trees are both in flowerbeds but the branches hang over the
> grass some. I recently aerated the lawn, a little early I know, but it
> was the only time I could get the aerator for a while and the grass
> was growing pretty well already so I figured it would be ok (albeit
> not the ideal time) to aerate. I have a feeling the bare spots will
> never look like I want them to unless I have the trees taken out.
> Worst case, I may eventually expand the flower beds out into the yard
> to cover the areas where the grass in thin.

That's probably your solution...

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