Another grass question.... (Howe: maintenance, yard, area)

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

My solution in 5 houses (so far) has been to create hardscape with flower beds for shade-loving flowers/plants. No straight edges! Curve everything gently. Either paver or heavily mulched walks. A sitting nook with a small table & chairs. Neil Sperry has excellent recommendations in his book/on website and the book has some photos of his private property which has a lot of shade.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

Don't ever plant any vines unless you are cool with them taking over everything. Dreaful stuff! Keep it away from your house, outbuildings, your trees, your fence, etc, unless your fence is stone and you are cool with it being covered in vines.

Mondo grass grows in the shade. Most other varieties don't - they lie when they say they do. I have a mix of mondo grass (only grows in clumps, not exactly like a carpet of grass) and a tall flower called Turk's Cap on a full shade west side of my house. I love the turk's cap. It makes cool flowers and it's supposed to be a perennial, we'll see if it comes back in the spring. Both don't require much water.

You know what I said I tried some Buffalo grass in a test spot that was actually Mondo grass it didn't live.

I'll check out the Turk's Cap - thanks.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by 2URGSE

1. How many hours of sun does the lawn get? Buffalo grass is not known to be a shade tolerant grass.

2. Shadow Turf. Can grow in 80% shade. I have personally not tried it, but the some people from a lawn enthusiasts website have seen good results planting it under dense canopies.

4. Raleigh St. Augustine will still require at least 4 hours of sun a day. The spots under the tree not getting that will start thinning out.

Yea. I miscommunicated. That was Mondo grass that I tried not Buffalo grass. I'll fix the original error.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by SouthernBelleInUtah

My solution in 5 houses (so far) has been to create hardscape with flower beds for shade-loving flowers/plants. No straight edges! Curve everything gently. Either paver or heavily mulched walks. A sitting nook with a small table & chairs. Neil Sperry has excellent recommendations in his book/on website and the book has some photos of his private property which has a lot of shade.

One of my areas seems might work with a similar plan. The spot gets very little direct sunlight.

[4Movingeast]

Agree with SouthernBelle that those shady spots are great places for those pretty plants that can't go in so many other places. Hosta, ferns, caladiums, impatiens in the summer- i think most of those can be under trees with no harm to the tree. Big no to ivy! And whatever that purple stuff is that proliferates like crazy! Not that I dislike the look of it but you can't get rid of the stuff!

[MurphyPl1]

Originally Posted by derekv

I would also suggest a shade friendly groundcover. Neil Sperry has a list of the ones he recommends: Week 5 with Neil Sperry: Look for dependable ground cover varieties | Neighborsgo Community News | Schools Information | Local Crime Reports | Events

From that list my absolute fave is Purple Winter-creeper. Looks a lot like Jasmine but it turns purple/burgundy over winter, then the new growth is lime green. I swear it's awesome just as it's turning in the spring with the new, the purple and the dark green that didn't turn.

[octo]

You can try Tall Fescue seeds. That is supposed to be shade tolerant.

[synchronicity]

Originally Posted by octo

You can try Tall Fescue seeds. That is supposed to be shade tolerant.

I'd be surprised if it was that shade tolerant, although I might give it a shot. Up North the recommended variety for shade was always fine fescue (a much different creature). Tall fescue also has to be mowed tall in shade, and I suspect most lawn people (assuming one hires that out) won't do that without specific direction (and even then probably will mess up periodically and cut it short).

[TheOverdog]

That was Mondo grass that I tried not Buffalo grass.

It could be that you got a bad batch. I think mine is dwarf mondo, but without proper care (and watering) the first year, it's not very hardy. I'd say 25% of mine died when attempting to replant, in that way it's more like a flower than a turf grass.

[MckinneyOwnr]

We had excellent results with Zoysia (Cavalier) when redoing our backyard. The parts of our yard that had shade most of the time held up, whereas our previous Bermuda grass never grew there. It was an excellent grass and looked and felt great.

One caveat though... make sure there is NOTHING growing in the soil before you plant it. Our yard was being leveled, and had lots of dirt and sand poured on top of the existing Bermuda. So, I didn't think we'd have to worry about the Bermuda growing through.

I was wrong. Bermuda grows much faster than Zoysia, and you absolutely NEED to kill any and all grasses and weeds growing where you decide to use Zoysia, otherwise it will invade the zoysia and crowd it out. We sold that home, but if we hadn't, I was probably going to redo it again and kill all the existing grass and start fresh with zoysia again so I wouldn't have any Bermuda growing through. I hate those damn runners in Bermuda.