Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Shade grass opinions
Hi ladies,
Lurker here with a question. Our property is on a shady lot that gets mostly dappled sunlight, and maybe 3 hours of direct sun some areas. My issue is the front yard. There's enough sunlight towards the street end of the property that we have grass there, but towards the house, there is no grass except some random monkey grass which I hate and want to rip out, or at least transplant it to where it looks like accent grass. I can't seem to convince DH that we should try grow some shade grass like fescue in the shaded part of the yard. He's convinced it won't grow and he thinks we should just go with the forrest floor look.
I'm totally fine with working with what our property offers naturally, but I don't want a forrest floor look and have a hard time believing that the shady portion is incapable of growing shade grass. After all, the backyard is shady as well and there's grass in the entire yard. Would you recommend getting a bag of seed and giving it the ole' college try? I would love to do sod but that's not in the budget.
TIA!
Re: Shade grass opinions
We have the same problem in our front yard. When the development was first designed, they lined the street with cute little baby trees (two to a housefront). Well 50 years later the trees are HUGE and we only get sun directly against our house. The rest of the lawn is basically moss.
Last fall we thatched the whole thing and laid down some seed. It seems to be growing. Depending on the size of your lawn, that could take awhile and it's backbreaking work.
Another alternative is EZ-Seed by Scott's. We used that as a quick fix for a few patches of dirt and it's growing like crazy. Only problem is it's very expensive and to seed a whole lawn with it would be costly.
Here in zone 7, the typical recommendation for shade turfgrass is creeping red fescue. That could be what works best in your area as well, but with mature, established shade trees, you will have an uphill battle. It could be that the grass in the back yard had a chance to establish before the trees made as much shade as you have now.
I'm curious to know what makes you so opposed to the "forest floor" look? Trees are far more valuable, from an ecological as well as an economical viewpoint.
What I don't like is bare dirt, which is what we have. I have no problem at all with trees, and I'd even like it better if there was just ground cover in the areas that don't have grass. But we have bare dirt. It's not attractive, it gets tracked into my house, and it's gross when it rains. I want to go the grass route because then the whole front yard would have grass.
Our whole yard is in some form of shade so I know exactly where you are coming from. Does this area in the front get higher traffic or have more compact soil? The fact that the grass is growing fine in your backyard and not in your front makes me think there might be more to the story.
Red fescue or creeping red fescue is what we use around here. You can give it a try but of course it will take a while for it to grow (the grass you see growing right away is an annual). It may always be an issue growing grass in that area so if you don't want to constantly be working that part of the yard I'd consider something else. You don't have to have a forest floor look. You can turn it into a large flowerbed with a winding path and maybe even a bench or fountain. There are lots of shade perennials that are much easier to grow than grass. Trust me! My flower beds look much better than my yard.
You could also try making it a moss lawn though it will probably dry out in the summer dry moss still looks better than mud. Irish moss (not a real moss), vinca minor/major, pachysandra, ginger, ajuga, or any other shade groundcover would be a low maintenance option though it will probably mix in with your grass. If it's an area you walk in you could add flagstone with moss or other groundcover in between the pavers. That is what we did last year in a particular area of the yard we couldn't get the grass to grow and is walked on a lot. This year I'm planting a variety of mos between the stones.
One last option would be to add a front patio. I know it sounds strange but I've seen people add a small flagstone patio with flower beds around it. They set a bench and little cafe table and treated the area like a front porch. We also did some flagstone with polymeric sand work last year too and we love it! It's a nice look that prevents weeds and ant hills.
You can turn that eyesore of a muddy lawn into a nice focal point to your whole yard! It will be a little more work upfront but be easier to maintain than trying to get grass to grow there.
On bare dirt under trees, I would use MULCH only. I wouldn't plant anything. You may have better luck just popping in a few shade perennials here and there, and adding benches and pottery.
My old house had pretty much full shade and was sloped, so there was no way to really get grass to grow much less cut it. I did groupings of liriope and then filled in between with mulch. It looks better than just the bare dirt and is very low maintenance.
Another option is ivy. I personally hate ivy and spent years trying to rip mine out, but it can look nice if well maintained and will grow in the conditions you describe. It could potentially be contained in your front yard.