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OK now we're getting somewhere.
From what I understand fine fescue is the most common turfgrass in that region. In your case it might be a good choice because it does fine in a dry shade. It's more drought tolerant than tall fescue.
Zoysia actually does better mowed lower.. 0.5-1.5". And it's high maintenance. You have to stay on top of it, the thatch and diseases.
You've obviously going to need to irrigate and I've always found Seashore Paspalum (P. vaginatum) to be very intriguing because it can be watered with sea water and you can reportedly use ordinary salt to control weeds since it does tolerate salt and salt water. It's a very deep rooted grass and it can be mowed low or high. Here in the states, it's used in some golf courses on fairways and greens even. It doesn't need a lot of fertilizer either compared to some of the others. And from what I hear it's more shade tolerant than the others except for maybe st. augustine.
If you can get ahold of some of that you can try it in the shade and see how it does.
The bottom line is, if you thought growing grass in tennesee was hard, just wait until you try it in an arid climate. Have you done a soil test, by the way?
OK now we're getting somewhere.
From what I understand fine fescue is the most common turfgrass in that region. In your case it might be a good choice because it does fine in a dry shade. It's more drought tolerant than tall fescue.
Zoysia actually does better mowed lower.. 0.5-1.5". And it's high maintenance. You have to stay on top of it, the thatch and diseases.
You've obviously going to need to irrigate and I've always found Seashore Paspalum (P. vaginatum) to be very intriguing because it can be watered with sea water and you can reportedly use ordinary salt to control weeds since it does tolerate salt and salt water. It's a very deep rooted grass and it can be mowed low or high. Here in the states, it's used in some golf courses on fairways and greens even. It doesn't need a lot of fertilizer either compared to some of the others. And from what I hear it's more shade tolerant than the others except for maybe st. augustine.
If you can get ahold of some of that you can try it in the shade and see how it does.
The bottom line is, if you thought growing grass in tennesee was hard, just wait until you try it in an arid climate. Have you done a soil test, by the way?
We love our zoysia. We can go away and not worry about it. We don't have to water it. It kills weeds in its path. We de-thatch about every 5 years. Ours does not grow in shade. It is not as attractive and the blades go sideways rather than straight up, which I don't think would be ideal for hitting golf balls over.
Our neighbor laughed when we put it in, saying he would never get it. We'd pass him, in the hot sun, weeding. Now, he's a member of the club. We broke him. He has zoysia.
I don't like planting things where they don't want to be and having to pamper the heck out of them. It does not make sense to have to dedicate years of our lives to keep such a plant growing on the lawn.
thanks a lot again
I can find paspalum vaginatum (sod or plugs) but I'm quite sure is less shade resistant than my zoysia el toro; I friend of mine as a nice paspalum lawn but it only grow in sun; it can stand on partial shade but require more sunlight hours (no less than 6).
Fine fescue is not growing well in my garden; every year get burned from june due to high temperatures (even if whatered daily); it only resist on very shady areas; in addition it has a fine leaf, which it might be not ideal to integrate my zoysia, a medium size leaf.
My zoysia el toro is really nice looking in the area that takes 4 hours of direct sunlight; the problem is the area that takes less sunlight (the 30% of the lawn). I believe that's better to integrate a 30% than replant the entire lawn with something else (and honestly I don't know what to plant!!) but I dont' have experience with overseeding warm and cold season grasses.....
A very interesting story. have to ask the obvious question. If this grass is so important and you know it does not do very well in shade, why don't you get rid of some of that shade? I know that means cutting down some trees but is the grass that important? I have spent years trying to grow turf in places it just doesn't want to grow so I finally got wise and decide to go with the natural order and stop trying to do things MY Way. I'm not suggesting you are doing this but I can relate to your frustration.
When I decided to put down the zoysia el toro I knew that this was a sort of experiment, due to the sun exposure of my garden (warm season grasses are now becoming more popular even here). A friend of mine suggest me to go with st.augustine, sure of a good result. Since I don't like the coarse texture of stenothaprum secundatum I decided to give a chance to the second most shade tollerant grass, which was in my knowledge the zoysia japonica el toro. I was then prepared to a sort of failure. The results untill now are, in my view, quite good, since I have to deal with some limited suffering areas and not an entire suffering lawn.
Before that every year I had a nice looking lawn (cold season grass) until late may, then an-almost-dead lawn after the summer, something that make no sense for me since I enjoy my garden during the spring and the summer. And I don't like just seed and re-seed something that is suffering and does not like growing in my garden.
I can get rid of some shade by pruning some plants (as I did yesterday) but some of them are to nice to be removed. The main problem is due to the small orange tree (you can see it in the firs picture), which I really love, and the cycas plants (30 year old). All the rest of the shade is due to surrounding buildings. If I could remove the orange and the two cycas plants my grass would be just fine, but I love them more then "el toro"!
Still haven't heard if you've done a soil test, ckecked for insects and if the situation is improving or getting worse.
Even if zoysia "tolerates" shady conditions, it isn't going to thrive in the shade. I'd keep the plants over the grass. And I'd just put in mulch in those areas. Wider mulch rings around the trees and extend the beds. And just to clarify, I'm not advocating mixing species, particularly. I don't think that's going to pan out in the long run. But if you can get a few squares of it and see how it does, you may opt to replace the entire lawn with something else.
No soil test, it is something nobody is able to do here; but I can ask to some friends of mine, just to be sure, I will let you know. I checked for insects: except from ants somewhere (not in the thin areas of the lawn), no other insects. The global situation of the lawn is stable: the good area are still quite nice and thick, the thin areas are getting thinner but they don't increase in extension. I will post pics tomorrow (I mowed the lawn this morning).
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