Are you having difficulty growing grass in the shady areas throughout your lawn? Our experience reveals that these areas mostly exist under and along the drip line of trees. Sometimes, having a super lush and hardy lawn in these areas is simply not possible. Shady areas are the slowest areas to wake up in the spring and turf grasses thrive best in full sun. Here are some tips on how to give your shady lawn areas the best chance for the development of a healthy turf.

Soil – Tree roots are one condition that can hamper the growth of your lawn in shady areas. Even though most tree roots grow deeper in the soil than grass roots some tree roots will be shallow enough to compete with grass roots for nutrients. Also, when temperatures go up these same intermingled tree & lawn roots are vying for the same limited amount of soil moisture.

Still, there are a few things you can do to help your grass grow under this circumstance:

1. Core aerate around the tree once or twice a year, loosening the soil around the tree to reduce soil compaction and allow grass roots easier growth.
2. In the hotter months, concentrate more irrigation cycles on these areas.
3. Limit the amount of traffic in these areas.

Prune your trees – Most Michigan lawn grasses need anywhere from 4 to 6 hours of sunlight each day. Removing low branches or thinning out excess interior branch growth might make the difference in getting enough sunlight down to your grass plants. Tree removal is an option, but would hopefully be a last resort. In general, properties with large trees are valued higher than properties without trees.

Seeding – A sodded lawn that was once thick may, over time, start to become thinner under the ever increasing shade of a tree canopy. That is because most sod is comprised of Kentucky bluegrass and this type of grass loves the full sun. As the amount of shade increases overseeding will need to be done with a fine fescue grass seed. This kind of grass is sometimes referred to as Red Fescue, Chewings Fescue, or Hard Fescue. Fine fescue grasses are more tolerant of shade than Kentucky bluegrass. Grass seed packaging will state which types & percentages of grass seed is in the package. For sunny areas look for higher percentages of Kentucky bluegrass seed and for shady areas look for higher percentages of fine fescue seed.

Fertilization – Grass growing in the shade needs nutrients, just like grass in the full sun, but not as much. In high shade conditions grass plants will do fine if they receive 25-30% of the fertilization that their counterparts in the full sun receive.

Mowing – Fine fescue grasses in the shade need to be mowed a little higher than Kentucky bluegrass in the full sun. The blades of fine fescue grasses are thinner than Kentucky bluegrass. They need to be kept longer so they can capture what limited sunlight is available to them in a shady setting.

Seed & repeat – Successful seeding with any type of grass will be better in sunny areas than shady areas. If proper post-seeding care is given you can expect 80-90% of the grass plants will germinate and grow in a sunny area, however, even given the proper care, the success rate in shady areas is probably going to be closer to 50-60%. Don’t expect that a one-time overseeding of a shady area is going to give you satisfactory results. Depending on the level of shade, you will probably need repeated overseeding either in the spring or fall, or both spring and fall.

If you are planning a spring overseeding do not apply a crabgrass pre-emergent to your lawn. This will stop most of your grass seed from germinating. It would be better to apply a starter fertilizer, which will aid in the growth and development of the new grass plants.

In very shady areas it might be a constant struggle to maintain a decent lawn. Keep in mind that even though you may not have the same thickness of grass in shady areas as you do throughout the rest of your lawn, it’s better to have some grass than none at all.