Ryegrass won't survive the summer heat, it's planted when the summer grass dies back in the fall, and dies when it heats up. Whatever you do, don't plant regular bermuda grass, it's the worst.

Thank you Leslie! Since it gets so hot in the summer, the kids will probably only play outside until April or May anyway. I was wondering if it's too cold to plant ryegrass now so we can enjoy the yard until the heat comes. What do you recommend instead of bermuda as summer grass?

By this time its usually too cold for it to germinate, but its been so warm this winter, who knows? It might work for you. Unfortunately, I think the only alternatives for summer grass require either sod or planting plugs, which is labor intensive but cheaper. I've had both tiff and St Augustine grass, and liked them. I've heard zoysia is good, but I have no experience with it.0

Ryegrass is a bad idea: it doesn't stand up to traffic well. As a winter green lawn, it's a rank grower that chokes out any perennial grass you have, and dies looking patchy and ugly. The water and fertilizer it takes to get it going actually weakens the perennial turf grasses.

Get a good no-pollen Bermuda lawn growing and forget overplanting in the winter.

Or for a lower traffic lawn, Buffalo grass.

By "no-pollen" I mean seedless sterile varieties planted as sod.