How to turn your brown grass green

If you live where summers are hot and winters are mild and cool, it's likely that your summer lawn turns brown in the fall. You can leave it, and simply wait for warm temperatures to return in spring, or you can overseed it with cool-season grasses that will thrive through your mild winter. Here are the steps for overseeding:

• Mow you lawn as low as possible with a heavy, reel-type mower. After mowing, go over the lawn with a dethatching machine to create the optimum seedbed
• Rake up and compost the debris.
• Sow annual or perennial ryegrass at 9 to 10 pounds per 1,000 square feet.
• Spread 6 pounds of a high phosphorus 16-20-0 fertilizer or equivalent (1 pound of actual nitrogen) per 1,000 square feet
• Spread 1/8-inch layer of organic mulch.
• Keep moist with regular watering until germination.