I have spent a great deal of my time as an extension specialist over the past few years researching the possibilities of expanding the use of warm-season grasses in Virginia where they are better adapted than many of our cool-season grasses. I promise I have no devious conspiracy against cool-season grasses (I still have them in my yard!), but when looking at the USDA's Horticulture Zone Map, there is a large chunk of Virginia from Richmond to the south and to the east where warm-season grasses are often a better adapted species as perennial turfs. Bermudagrass has definitely made significant strides on sports turf across the state, even in some of our coolest climates. However, the real impacts to be made with warm-season grass acreage are in homelawn settings in Virginia's warmest regions.

There are a few reasons I opine as to why they are probably not more popular: 1) most cool-season grasses are inherently more aesthetically pleasing than warm-season grasses... as one of the lawn care professionals told me plainly 'they mow and stripe'. I do not disagree. 2) There are not nearly as many choices in either varieties or planting material (especially seed) with warm-season grasses. Therefore they are often more costly to purchase and/or install. 3) Winter dormancy. There will be typically anywhere from 4-5 months of almost complete loss of green color with warm-season grasses and perception (not reality, mind you... but since when does reality top perception?!) indicates that most believe cool-season grasses are green year round. The point of this article is to briefly discuss another way we can provide green warm-season grasses year round: paint.

Painting turf was just another standard late fall/early winter process on high end golf and sports turfs that I grew very familiar with while on the faculty of Mississippi State. It was a preferred option for many as compared to traditional winter overseeding with ryegrass or roughstalk bluegrass. The first few times I discussed this in Virginia, I got some strange looks about the validity and purpose of this type of 'green' grass. These paints or colorants are not to be confused with traditional interior or exterior house paints but these products have been specifically developed to cover, dry, and adhere to turfgrass surfaces for extended time periods. If you want to know more specifics about sources and application strategies, check out the NC State Turf Files website and search for Dr. Grady Miller and Ryan Briscoe's report on paint sources and performance when applied to closely mowed bermuda and zoysia surfaces. Their report and the accompanying pictures give one an idea of the variability in color and long term performance of a variety of paint/colorant sources. The report also details that there is as often as much 'art' as there is 'science' in achieving what an end-user would call a 'successful' painted product. There are definite considerations regarding delivery system, spray pressure, what type of pump, what type of nozzles, what type of dilution rate, overlapping patterns, level of dormancy of the treated grass, use of the turf etc. All things that should be carefully considered by professional turfgrass managers for sure. However, what I was most interested in a few years ago was how/if a homeowner could meet reasonable expectations with painting strictly from a DIY approach.

My test subject was Tom Rogers, a Master Gardener and turf enthusiast in James City County's 'Turf Love' program. Tom installed an approximately 4500 sq ft Zeon zoysia lawn (thanks to the donation of Buy Sod) as a demonstration regarding the potential of zoysiagrass in Williamsburg. Tom's biggest challenge was to ensure his wife that they would have a green lawn year round, and of course, a warm-season grass such as zoysia is going to enter winter dormancy soon after a hard frost or freeze. I assured Tom we would keep his lawn green by painting and that I did not think any special equipment outside of a standard backpack sprayer would be required; by trial and error, we would figure out how to make this work. I helped Tom spray his lawn in December 2009 just to see how things might go, and they went so well I have left it up to Tom to handle on his own in '10 and '11 and he has the process mastered (see photos from 2011) using either GreenLawnger (2009) or Wintergreen Plus (2010 and '11) as paint sources.

What we learned from painting as DIYers (i.e. a minimal investment in time, manpower, and equipment) was: 1) to achieve the color and coverage that lasts until spring greening on such a dense zoysiagrass turf, it takes approximately 2.5 gallons of total paint on Mr. Rogers approximately 4500 sq. ft. zoysiagrass lawn... this works out to be a fairly 'heavy' paint volume compared to label recommendations, but it is what we found was required to give us desirable color on such a dense grass when applying the paint solution with a relatively low pressure backpack sprayer, 2) the hotter the water in the backpack sprayer, the better when adding the paint, 3) applying the paint to the zoysiagrass while it still has a little color in the canopy provides a darker green turf for a longer time period (something strongly confirmed in the NC State research), 4) multiple passes (in our case, probably 4) had to be made over the Zeon zoysia lawn to ensure even distribution and coverage with a simple backpack sprayer... hand-held spray systems driven by engine-powered pumps have a lot of advantages!, and 5) don't get the paint on your driveways and sidewalks (or be prepared to wash it off immediately). I suspect these principles pretty much apply to any painting scenario.

Tom has had the greenest winter lawn in his neighborhood for 3 years in a row now and he also has observed that he has probably gained a couple of weeks of earlier spring greening. I still don't think the lawn is as eye-catching as a well maintained ryegrass-overseeded lawn, but the VT Turf Team in general discourages winter overseeding of zoysiagrass due to the competitiveness of the ryegrass with the slow-growing zoysia. One Virginia firm that has offered custom lawn painting for the last few years is Agronomic Lawn Management of Virginia Beach and owners Chris and Craig Ziegler have probably told me more about what does and does not work with equipment and technique than anyone else in the state. I even contend that there has to be a market for offer painting as a custom service to cool-season lawns in both winter and summer (and observed such in Atlanta a few years ago during an extreme drought). And these cool-season lawns almost always have some color in them, thus making it easier to significantly darken them with less paint that required for a fully dormant warm-season turf.

Painting turf is probably not going to make anyone rich but there are some distinct environmental, economic, and aesthetic advantages to this form of making turf 'green'. Both DIYers and lawn care professionals have another option in achieving an aesthetically pleasing lawn that truly is coming out of a bottle or a bucket.

Dr. Mike Goatley is a professor at Virginia Tech, concentrating in research, teaching, and extension. Dr. Goatley writes columns for Landscape Supply's LSI Connections Newsletter.