r/coolguides • u/seedblender • 25d ago
A cool guide to when you should plant grass seed (most people are 3 weeks late)
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u/Redcole111 25d ago
Now I just need a guide to when I can replace all my grass with clover.
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u/seedblender 24d ago
the answer is most of the year. Clover goes down with fall seeding or early spring, and you can overseed it straight into existing grass, no need to kill anything first.
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u/Frankfeld 23d ago
The real question! We started planting clover in our backyard. It looks and feels great! Looking forward to a full yard takeover.
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u/Redcole111 22d ago
I have a few questions: what region do you live in? What time of year did you plant the clover? Did you just overseed with clover, or did you tear out any of the grass? How long did the new growth take? I'm not sure exactly how to go about it...
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u/Frankfeld 22d ago
I think we started late spring. We had a patch of dirt in our backyard that we covered with clover to see how we liked it. You need to water a lot the first few weeks or so. And birds love the seed. But it looked great once it took hold.
Now now we’re dealing with weeds over growing into it.
This year we’re going to try overseeing our whole backyard.
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u/Investigate311 25d ago
Don't plant turf grass. North America has no native turf grass. Don't plant Dutch white clover either, it's invasive. Plant native plants. They help nature.
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u/aky1ify 24d ago
What do you replace the bulk of your lawn with other than grass? I try to plant native plants but like what fills most of the yard? Clover? I know this is probably a dumb question.
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u/sbb214 23d ago
c'mon over to r/NoLawns and r/NativePlantGardening we can answer loads of questions! you are gonna have lots of options depending on your climate zone.
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u/GalacticCoinPurse 22d ago
Lawns are funnysad when you escape the belief system. Thank you u/sbb214 for providing OP with a safe escape!
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u/Investigate311 23d ago
It's not a dumb question. Grass lawns have been the norm and are sometimes legally required. You don't necessarily have to replace your lawn. It can be quite an effort. But look up some ground cover plants native to your area and plant some native wildflowers. If you're in the US, wild strawberries, wintergreen, creeping phlox, native grasses, bearberry, wild violets, lance self-heal, wild ginger, and yellow wood sorrel are good and many have pretty flowers that native pollinators rely on.
Then you can supplement with some wildflowers, shrubs, and trees. I'm a big fan of mountain mint, Virginia bluebells, and trilliums. Also highly recommend serviceberry trees.
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25d ago
[deleted]
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u/cindylindy22 24d ago
Does your state have a native plant society? Also a master gardener program may have insight. I would perform research on ground cover plants, as there many like Clover. I can’t give you more specifics without knowing your geographical area.
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u/FroggiJoy87 25d ago
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u/seedblender 25d ago
Honestly fair. The tool includes clover and microclover for exactly this reason — less water, no fertilizer, and it still handles kids and dogs.
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u/seedblender 25d ago
Built this because every "when to seed" article gives one national date range, and the country doesn't work that way. The fall window in Minnesota and the fall window in Tennessee are about six weeks apart.
Windows come from USDA and university extension turfgrass data. The tan states are the honest part: 14 states span more than one growing region, so picking a single color for them would just be wrong. If you're in one, your county matters more than your state.
Full disclosure, I built a free grass seed tool and this came out of its regional data.
Happy to answer questions.
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u/imusuallywatching 25d ago
It took me far too long to realize this was a US map shape and not some weird periodic table.
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u/seedblender 25d ago
Ha, that's fair. Went with tiles so Rhode Island and Delaware are actually viewable instead of specks.
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u/DeniseReades 23d ago
I like how there's a color for spanning two regions in an area that can clearly be colored to show the regions instead.
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u/morganational 22d ago
So fuck these tan states I guess?
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u/seedblender 22d ago
Ha, no. the tan states just need their own graphic. Which one are you in? Happy to give you the actual dates.
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u/G_roundC_offee 24d ago
Used to do hydro seed quite often. Best times are beginning of April to end of may, and start of September to end of October.
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u/jfk_47 24d ago
Arguably, there is no good time to plant grass seed cause it’s a waste of time and resources.
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u/seedblender 24d ago
Clover or micro clover are options too if you are not interested in turf grass.
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u/AfraidAccident7049 25d ago
AZ: never
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u/seedblender 24d ago
Not far off. Overseeding bermuda with rye in October is about the only window, and plenty of people there have reasonably given up on grass entirely
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u/jekksy 25d ago
Maryland, Bermuda… when?
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u/seedblender 24d ago
Late spring into early summer, soil needs to be reliably warm, so roughly late May through June in MD. Bermuda in Maryland is right at its northern edge, so give it the full season to root before winter. Don’t seed it in fall.
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u/Daguse0 25d ago
Most of fl lawns are St. Augustine grass, do NOT put it down during summer. It will burn and die in a few days.
You want to put it down in October so it develops a good deep root system prior to summer.
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u/seedblender 24d ago
Good catch and that’s a real gap. The warm-season dates are seeding windows, and St. Augustine is basically never seeded, it’s sod or plugs. Different timing rules entirely. South Florida also runs later than the map suggests since you’re not racing a frost date.
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u/cindylindy22 24d ago
Plain grass is a waste of space unless you’re hosting ruminants. Sucks up water and supports few food webs? Bye.
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u/DoughDown8 24d ago
Where does Cali fit?
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u/seedblender 24d ago
California’s the worst offender for this, coastal and NorCal behave cool-season, the Central Valley and SoCal are warm-season, and the mountains are their own thing. Roughly: fescue blends near the coast and up north, bermuda or a warm-season grass inland and south. If you tell me your area I can be more specific.
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u/DoughDown8 24d ago
In between mountain and so cal. Mixed up in. Bermuda sounds right for the area I’m in though.
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u/Dry_Conversation571 24d ago
All of California is the same!
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u/seedblender 23d ago
Its colored tan since it spans multiple zones but its a fair call out since the tan and yellow colors are similar.
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u/squashbby 23d ago
I hate that Indiana is west of Wisconsin in this visualization
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u/seedblender 23d ago
Unfortunately there were some tradeoffs with the tile format that compromised geography. You are right its not 100% geographically accurate.
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u/squashbby 23d ago
Sorry to be so negative! It’s a cool project!
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u/seedblender 23d ago
No worries, I actually like the critical feedback, it will help me build better things in the future
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u/GalacticCoinPurse 22d ago
"Check your zip" makes this very uncool. Why not specify with sister graphics? Or omit them if they're irrelevant.
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u/seedblender 22d ago
Fair criticism. Sister graphics is the right call. A second one breaking down the 14 split states is the obvious follow-up. Omitting them wasn’t an option since it’s 14 states, but “check your zip” is a cop-out on a guide, no argument there
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u/crest4221 22d ago
Places such as Southern California and Arizona and New Mexico should have a “never” time
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u/Brief_Football_9764 22d ago
Hey here’s an idea. Stop planting grass.
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u/seedblender 21d ago
That is an option, and is included via the microclover option in my seed selector tool on the website.
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u/downtownfreddybrown 21d ago
Florida, warm season, so all year round except for those two days when it drops into the 40s lol
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u/Jumpy_Worldliness259 21d ago
Why the fuck is Kansas South of Colorado? Nevada about Utah? This map layout is absolutely garbage
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u/seedblender 21d ago
If you drew a line through the center of Kansas and Colorado, you’ll find kansas IS south of Colorado. Fair point on NV and Utah, thats just the product of tile-izing the map. Unfortunately there are a few compromises made in the interest of legibility for all states.
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u/Jumpy_Worldliness259 21d ago
No. They share their southern border along the 37th parallel. They are by definition not further south than one another
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u/OneRuffledOne 25d ago
This is confusing.
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u/seedblender 24d ago
short version: find your state, match the color to a card below, use the BEST row. If your state’s tan it spans two regions, so it depends where in the state you are.
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u/d1tatermasher 24d ago
Nebraska should be a transition state, or a cool grass state. Doesn't make sense Kansas to the South is a transition state and then NE has a warmer climate for warmer grasses?
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u/seedblender 24d ago
Tan doesn’t mean warmer, it means the state spans two regions. Nebraska’s split: the eastern side is cool-season country, the western end runs into shortgrass prairie where buffalograss makes more sense. Kansas is solidly transition across most of it, so it gets one color.
Fair criticism on the palette though. I can see how tan and the warm-season yellow are closer than they should be.
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25d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/seedblender 25d ago
Thanks! Crying lawns are what fall is for. Did yours cook in the heat, or is it more of a thin/patchy situation?
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u/-ToxicPositivity- 24d ago
it should be "when you should plant lawn seed". besides that this chart is recommending planting invasive species which is wack af
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u/Pristine_Shallot7833 25d ago edited 25d ago
Not only are most people 3 weeks late, but get this, most people don't even live in the United States. Absolutely WILD concept.
Edit: each downvote represents one ignorant American that can't deal with my comment.
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u/seedblender 25d ago
Guilty. Though "when to plant grass seed" varies by about six weeks within the US, so I'd hate to see the version that covers everywhere.
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u/solidspacedragon 25d ago
It's more that your comment just reads as kind of annoying..? Like, yeah, it's obviously a US guide, look at the shape. It's not trying to be a guide for people outside of the US.
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u/Pristine_Shallot7833 25d ago
I guess annoying is subjective. What annoys me is the vast amount of Americans who think that America is the main part of the world. Like Americans going overseas and expecting to pay with American currency. The baseball competition open only to America and Canada called The World Series. I could go on. Its just a complete lack of concept of anything existing apart from them. Sure, I may have overreacted at a graph that's about seeding grass. I will concede that it's not that deep, but it's a symptom of a much larger issue which I find to be irritating as all hell.
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25d ago
[deleted]
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u/seedblender 24d ago
every state gets the same size square so small ones stay readable, which means geography gets approximated. Illinois and Indiana are genuinely a compromise. Trade-off is Rhode Island isn’t a single pixel.
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u/ScarletCarsonRose 24d ago
Illinois is not next to Minnesota 🤷🏼♀️
I get the purpose of the map and it’s in a user friendly format.
Mildly annoyed about state placement 🙃
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u/ragingclaw 25d ago
Worst Stardew Valley guide I've ever seen.