For lawns with HEAVY TREE COVER (less than 4-5 hours of direct sunlight to the grass), keeping grass growing is difficult!

In shade, you will never have the same type of thick, deeply rooted grass that you can have in sunny areas. Unfortunately, even with the best heavy shade grass varieties, sunlight is needed for the photosynthesis to sustain grass year to year. Even lawns that get less than 8 hours of direct sunlight in July will struggle.

Is my grass area shady?

In some cases (especially when you have been in a property for many years), you may not realize how shady the turf areas have become. You can easily look up your house on Google maps (https://www.google.com/maps/) or any other map provider and look at the satellite view. If the tree cover blocks the grass and you cannot see grass from space, this is heavy shade and the sun is not reaching the grass. 

What options do I have for shady areas?

There are a few options to manage shady areas:

1.    Remove trees (usually not a great option for most home-owners). If you do remove trees, you may have new problems. At that point, you may have shady grass in a full sun area and this can have additional challenges

2.    Prune the trees (at the appropriate times) to raise the canopy and get more sunlight to the turf. This may not eliminate the shade issue, but may give greater longevity to the shade grass.

3.    Yearly seeding (or perhaps every other year with heavy shade grass varieties and more sunlight). The expectation with Yearly Spring seeding will be:

a.    Seeding with appropriate heavy grass seed in the spring when the weather is appropriate (generally late-March April) (Fall seeding in heavy shade poses a problem because the leaf cover will not allow sufficient sunlight in most cases for germination AND the falling leaves can smother new seedlings.)

b.    Avoiding pre-emergent in the spring (prevents seed germination)

c.    Watering 2x/day for about 6 weeks once the soil temperatures are above 55 degrees (usually in May)

d.    Seeing grass establish most years by June. The shady grass will be thinner and more shallowly rooted than sunny grass. It is important to baby it- mowing high, no “zero-turn” mowers, no mechanical core aeration. The seed germination window for this spring seeding is “tight.” If you don’t get great germination between the time that the soil warms up and the time that the trees leaf out, your “window of opportunity” for that year is over. No matter how many times you re-seed in the summer, you will not see much germination without adequate sun to the soil.

e.    By August/September, you will see the grass thinning. Many times it will be bare by fall and/or spring thaw.

4.    Sod is not a great option- Sod is grown for sun and there are no true “shade sod” varieties, so sodding would be 2-3 times the cost of seed and would also fail by fall

5.    Replace the grass with something else. Many people will expand the landscape/mulch beds in shady areas and install shade loving plants/ground cover. There are also ground cover and other replacement options that can be walked on if you are not married to the idea of grass.(See below for ideas).

For grass replacement options, here is some information on plants that work well in the shaded areas :

https://www.stepables.com/scripts/STEPABLES_Dry_Shade.html

Stepables are low-profile ground cover plants that are designed for specific areas. This link has some that are specific for shade (others are also available for wet areas, heavy sun areas, and heavy dog traffic areas). Make sure that the growing zone of any that you choose includes Zone 5. The website includes a location finder where you can find local Menard’s and other garden centers that carry these plants. Many of our customers have used these ground cover as grass replacement in hard-to-grow areas.

https://dyckarboretum.org/three-native-sedges-made-shade/

Three Native Sedges Made for the Shade - Dyck Arboretum

One of the toughest areas to grow plants is in dry shade. There is a smaller plant palette that grows in these harsh conditions compared to more sunny locations in your yard.

https://www.thespruce.com/ground-covers-for-shade-2132600

12 Ground Cover Plants for Shade - The Spruce

David Beaulieu/The Spruce. Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis) is a native plant in northern regions of North America. Classified as a form of dogwood, this is a low-growing (3 to 9 inches) deciduous shrub that makes for an excellent ground cover plant in part shade locations.

www.thespruce.com

There are pros & cons to artificial turf. If you are looking for artificial turf, here are some options:

https://groturf.com/

https://synlawnchicago.com/artificial-grass/

https://perfectturf.com/

As always, please feel free to reach our with questions.

Kim Toth

Owner

Lawn Doctor

(630) 406-8535