Against the advice of some, I over-seeded with Rye. It greened up nicely and stayed that way for about a month. I started to notice some yellowing. Within another month about 60% of the over-seeded area was yellow. Somewhere in there I applied a bagged organic fertilizer at the high end of the recommended application rate.

While my lawn is greener than most, which are completely brown now, I wanted a green winter lawn.

Does anyone have any guesses as to what is going on?

I have a guess but that's about all. Organic fertilizer works by feeding the soil microbes. In the winter there are some soil microbes still active but many of them don't seem to be doing much. I suspect the problem with the lack of greening in the winter is due to having the "wrong" mix of active microbes for that purpose.

It seems like the active microbes in the winter are mostly storing (for lack of a better word) fertility so it an be released when the rest of the soil microbes awaken with warmer soils.

Thanks for the possible explanation.

The rye is looking a little healthier since the really cold weather rolled through. I can't explain it.

Funai - where are you? I'm in North Texas and cut the grass yesterday. Mine is staying very lush and green right now but I had the issue you are talking about a few weeks ago. I think the lack of microbial activity sounds dead on - one way to fight that is with foliar feeding. I used Hasta Grow (lawn) on mine and the results were immediate - greened right up while the rye planted in the common areas of the subdivision looks dormant. When we get really hard freezes the tips get crummy but then I cut it when a few days of sun and warmer weather are forecast an it snaps back...

I decided not to observe winter this year, the rye is green, the 1500 pansies and violas I grew from seed last fall are starting to bloom and spread nicely and the tulips are coming up now.

Winter gray/brown/dead is a choice, I voted "Not only no, but helllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll s no"

When did you plant?

I did this too, if its cut too short it will turn yellow.

Looks incredible now. Green, lush, and mostly grass. I got an application of CGM down about three weeks ago right before some heavy rains. Between the rye crowd out and the CGM, I have a fraction of the weeds my neighbors are experiencing, whose lawns are brown with patches of green weeds.