Know Your Grass

Every date on this site — overseeding, feeding, aeration — depends on whether your lawn is cool-season or warm-season. Two minutes here settles it.

The 10-second test: a lawn that stays green through winter and struggles in July heat is cool-season; one that turns uniformly brown after the first frost and thrives in August is warm-season.

Cool-season grasses

Cool-season grasses grow hardest in spring and fall, slow down in summer heat, and stay green late into fall. The year’s biggest project — aeration and overseeding — belongs in early fall, and the most important feeding does too.

🌱

Kentucky Bluegrass

Northern lawns in full sun where looks matter and irrigation exists.

🌿

Tall Fescue

Transition-zone lawns, low-irrigation yards, and anyone who wants sturdy over showy.

🌾

Perennial Ryegrass

Quick cover, high-traffic play areas, blends, and winter-overseeding southern lawns.

🍃

Fine Fescue

Shady yards, low-input and no-mow meadow lawns, blending into bluegrass mixes for tree cover.

Warm-season grasses

Warm-season grasses wake up after the last frost, peak in midsummer heat, and go dormant (brown, not dead) after the first fall frost. Almost everything — seeding, feeding, aerating — happens from late spring through midsummer.

☀️

Bermudagrass

Sunny southern lawns, high-traffic yards, sports turf.

🟩

Zoysiagrass

Southern and transition lawns wanting dense, low-input turf and tolerating slow establishment.

🌴

St. Augustine

Florida and Gulf Coast lawns, shaded southern yards, fast coverage from sod.

🐛

Centipedegrass

Low-input Southeastern lawns on sandy acidic soil, from the Carolinas along the Gulf.

🦬

Buffalograss

Plains and western lawns, xeriscapes, low-water conversions from Nebraska to Texas.

🌵

Bahiagrass

Large low-maintenance Florida and Gulf Coast lots, sandy soils, no-irrigation yards.

Quick comparison

Grass	Family	Mow height	N / year	New-lawn seed rate
Kentucky Bluegrass	Cool	2.5–3.5″	2–4 lb	2–3 lb / 1,000 sq ft
Tall Fescue	Cool	3–4″	2–3 lb	8–10 lb / 1,000 sq ft
Perennial Ryegrass	Cool	2–3″	2–3 lb	6–9 lb / 1,000 sq ft
Fine Fescue	Cool	2.5–4″	1–2 lb	4–5 lb / 1,000 sq ft
Bermudagrass	Warm	1–2″	2–4 lb	1–2 lb / 1,000 sq ft
Zoysiagrass	Warm	1–2.5″	1.5–3 lb	1–2 lb / 1,000 sq ft
St. Augustine	Warm	2.5–4″	2–4 lb	Sod / plugs only
Centipedegrass	Warm	1–2″	0.5–1 lb	0.25–0.5 lb / 1,000 sq ft
Buffalograss	Warm	2–3″	0.5–1.5 lb	1–2 lb / 1,000 sq ft
Bahiagrass	Warm	3–4″	1–3 lb	5–10 lb / 1,000 sq ft

Once you know your grass, get its local schedule from the lawn calendar lookup, and its quantities from the seed and fertilizer calculators.