The Best Grass Seed For Vermont

Vermont's temperate climate provides a varied growing season, but cold winters and a tendency toward poor soil provide a challenge to those maintaining a lawn. Planting the right type of grass seed will help ensure success, and allows you to use fewer chemicals.

Grass Types
Cool season grasses do best in Vermont. The University of Vermont Extension recommends Kentucky Bluegrasses, especially the Fylking, Merit and Ram 1 varieties, as well as perennial ryegrasses and fine fescues.

Planting
Cool season grasses grow in the fall and spring. Plant new lawns in the late summer to early fall, when there is less weed competition, but overseed established lawns in the spring, until late May.

Fertilizing
The Cornell Cooperative Extension recommends using only phosphorus-free fertilizer and leaving legumes like white clover to grow among the grass naturally. Legumes produce nitrogen, which will fertilize the grass naturally. Apply chemical fertilizer only once per year, in the fall, if necessary.