best time to overseed in Atlanta?

[W.D.]

Hi, Several of you provided advice last Fall about how to plant grass in my front 'lawn,' which was basically weeds and dirt at the time. I ended up planting rye grass after killing everything off w/RoundUp and got a nice lawn within weeks. But I've been told that the rye will die as soon as warm weather rolls around so I should overseed w/another variety in the Spring.

My plan is to rake, aerate and fertilize the lawn, then overseed and water. When would be the best time to do this in Atlanta? Now?

Given that I've got rye there now, which grows pretty fast, what do I do about mowing? Do I just cut it real short prior to seeding and not mow until the new stuff comes up?

Any advice about what to plant? The lawn gets full sun. Thanks in advance for your help!

W.D.

[Kyle Boatright]

Full sun? You probably want to wait until May or thereabouts and overseed with Bermuda or Zoysia. Your chances of success are better with Bermuda (it germinates and spreads faster), but it is more invasive than Zoysia. Fall is the appropriate time to overseed if you want Fescue. However, Fescue doesn't hold up that well in full sun. You'll probably need to overseed every fall to keep a full lawn.

KB

[Oscar_Lives]

September

[Steveo]

-snip-

You should consider slice seeding. The choice of seed or season is up to you down there, but the end result is killer. You should rent the Ryan Mataway seeder if you can find one.

[W.D.]

That's how I seeded last Fall, and I did get great results. Am not sure how slice seeding would work over an already full lawn though as the blades not make full contact with the dirt. Has anyone else used a slice seeder to overseed?

W.D.

[Steveo]

Well I'm not anyone else but we do it all the time.