i would think you could plant rye grass, but i'm no expert. i feel your pain, as it took me several weeks to feel like doing anything in the garden after gustav. a couple weeks after ike passed to the west, we finally started putting things back in place, but i haven't yet removed all the plants from their safe hurricane haven (opentopped dogpen). i say (with tongue in cheek) that gustav blew away my desire to garden.

if you have some areas that need brightening, how about scattering some pots of mums, or colorful foliage plants.

hang in there, things will get better!

Not too late to overseed with rye. I usually do it at this time of year. Waiting to get the dead branches removed from the live oak before I do it this year.

If you haven't already, consider having the tree stumps ground. That'll give you plenty of mulch to use in existing beds or new ones you might choose to create. It's a great time of year to do that. And you can either plant now, or wait till spring.