Need some suggestions about grass

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iheartmaytag

iheartmaytag

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Joined
Mar 19, 2008
Messages
4,760
Location
Wichita, Kansas
I know this is way off topic, but you guys are so knowledgeable and helpful I am hoping you can help me with this problem.

The grass in my front yard is/was Bermuda grass. Because Bermuda likes sun it was rater sickly before I had to have the yard dug up to replace the water line. In addition the shady conditions are caused by a very large 73 year old cedar tree.

What I need to know, what kind of grass will grow well in shade--I am thinking a thin leaf fescue/bluegrass mix. Will this grass tolerate the cedar tree?

Your help and knowledge is much appreciated.
 
Many types of grass seed are a mix of different types. I belive you will be able to find a commerical ready-made mix (as I did) that includes components that like sun and/or shade...so something in the bag you buy is bound to thrive in your location.

My understanding is that it is better to water infrequently (say once a week) and put down two inches (lots) of water, rather than every-other-day just a bit. The roots grow deeper with the former and shallower with the latter. Then if you CANT'T water, the grass is more self-sustaining when it has deep roots.

Best of luck!

And remeber, the grass is ALWAYS greener over the septic tank!
 
And remeber, the grass is ALWAYS greener over the septic tan

Toggles you, and Erma Bombeck are funny. And you don't know how true this is. You would not believe how thick and green the grass is in the back yard right over the sewer line.

I think my main concern with the grass, is Fescue/Bluegrass tolerant of the acidy soil the cedar tree creates ?
 
Having the nicest most lushalicious sea of green velvet on my street here's what I do. Put down the weed and feed early you should have by now. NEVER cut your grass less than 3 inches and NEVER NEVER EVER dethatch your lawn with one of those machines UNLESS you are absolutely positively without a doubt sure that you have a true thatch problem. So manypeople who think they have a thatch problem don't have one. Dethatching your lawn can wreck it by removing thatch which is essential to protect and keep the lawn moist in the dry hot weather. It's also an invitation for weeds to set in. Use a mulching lawnmower and use it correctly which means every few days at the peak growing times. Letting it get too long then mulching with your lawnmower smothers it with too many clippings.
Under cedars is difficult because the soil gets very acidic from the needles, cones etc..go to the garden centre or TSC and get a big bag of granular lime for about 5 bucks and spread it with your spreader per instructions especially under the coniferous type trees. It neutralizes acidic soil making it easier to grow grass there, of course how much light under there gets is a big factor too..would have to see it.
You're in a different zone so there may be better choices for shade grasses but the rules apply pretty much the same no matter what type of grass you grown.
Fertilize your lawn as recommended a few times a year but don't over do it. These lawn grasses aren't all that "natural" to begin with and they need to be fertilized to stay looking good. Natural fertilizers work some but never as good as living better with chemicals.
AND to offset the chemical pollution studies are finding that grass lawns actually do help clean the air just as trees do and they reduce the heat load in urban areas.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it. LOL
 
Here in California, my experience with bermuda grass is that it will invade everywhere it can. If it was doing OK in the cedar tree area, it will likely fill in again. I'm not a fan of bermuda because it's so invasive but Roundup has helped me keep it out of areas where it's not supposed to be. It turns brown in the winter and I have a big patch of it in the back yard that was looking ugly until about a month ago. In areas of shade it's not so aggressive so you might be able to sprinkle some lawn patch seed that will fill in. I used a bag of patching seed back in February where I had a large tree stump ground out and it's a full-on area of thick lawn already. It gets full sun but has no competition from bermuda. The less sun, the more an attractive type of grass will fill in and keep the bermuda out.

Ralph
 
We use a lot of tall fescue in northern Alabama. It's not the best lawn grass, but it tolerates sun/shade conditions well (hybrid Bermuda pretty much needs full sun) and it survives hot summers, which I'm not sure the bluegrass will. Plus, it grows most in spring and fall; it doesn't grow as fast in the summer, which means less mowing in the hottest part of the year. And, it stays green pretty much year round. Mow fescue high, no lower than 3 inches.

IME, those bermuda-fescue mixes that are sold all over the place here never work. The lawn always winds up dividing into bermuda patches and fescue patches, and it looks terrible.
 
Pour the contents of the baggie into one end of a cake pan. Then tilt it while sifting through it with your driver's license so that all the seeds fall to the bottom edge of the pan. Then, carefully remove....oh, wait. You mean lawn grass. Never mind!
 
Ralph,

The bane of my front lawn is annual bentgrass. It grows sideways in a mat, which sheds water fairly effectively and blocks the growth of other more accepable grasses. Then it dies off quickly if it's not watered constantly. It sets see and is invasive.

One of these days I'm going to have to tear out all the grass there, water well, spray any emergent grasses with Roundup, several times, and then reseed or better yet put in turf. I prefer the seed because the typical turf you can buy at a home center is coarse grass. I prefer the kentucky bluegrass etc. At the same time I'll probably rip out the old steel sprinkler system (unused for the past 10 years) and put in a new system.
 
Have you considered Zoysia? Yes, it turns yellow/brown earlier in the fall than others, and takes a bit longer to green in the spring, but, it tolerates drought and traffic, and is fairly insect resistant. You pop in plugs and they spread, taking over anything already there eventually. We're looking at doing it after we have the roof done.

Just a thought!

Chuck
 
Bumper-sticker: Gas, grass or @$$. No one rides free.

~Good lawnmower and toys and it won't feel like work.

Sometimes, no matter how good your partner,...it's work.
 
Thanks Pete,

It is pure work when you ride a machine like a horse, on its back with little control.
I've got Susan Summers beat with the ultimate thigh master!
Anyway, I have the best of both worlds, riding as well as walk behind.

I'm looking over my shoulder and he's looking back at me with his tail in the air.......
Get your minds out of the gutter men, it's just Thomas!
LOL

Also, in this area, Dandelions are running rampant up here and I'm fighting them with two bottles of weed killer.
Round-up in one hand and Bayer's Advance in the other, lets see who wins...
 
come on guys...you all have washers...grab that big hose you got and let it pour on the lawn....green grass...no seeds..no chemicals...no weeds....especially dandelions

works for me......although i do miss the Chem Lawn guy...lol
 
have you thought about

removing all the grass under the tree, going for a large circle of mulch planted with hosta? We had that in Wisconsin and Virginia where we had many big shade trees. It was amazingly beautiful and virtually maintaince free. I would only put lawn in areas where it is going to perform for you, if the lawn looks like crap, it looks like you don't care, when you obviously do!
 
Dandelions...you have to put down a pre-emergent type weed & feed fertilizer by about mid march to stop those from popping up, much later and it's too late and you'll have em.. Saves a lot of hassle having to spray them later. I hate them.
By the second spring and another application you should have hardly any coming up all year. Just the odd escapee.

The other thing I hate is grass growing where it's not supposed to in flower gardens eetc.. I bought some stuff last summer by Ortho supposed to only kill grass and not flowers etc... didn't work. I was sorely disappointed :(
Even Roundup today isn't half as good as it used to be. I think they've watered it down somehow.
 
And to some they're drink aka paint remover.

Interestingly didja know that the lowly dandelion is one of, if not the most nutritious green to eat and the whole plant is edible per the USDA facts and figures on nutrition, surpassing everything in the grocery store pretty much. I learned that from my time breeding canaries, they love to eat them. I did eat some occasionally in salad and so long as you pick the fresh new leaves they're not that bad. Can't taste them actually with salad dressing. We grew them by the kazillions back on the acreage but I never let them get established in the lawn surrounding the house.
 
Oh yeah Rich, I agree about sod. It's way too coarse. Our lawn is 80 years old, a messy mish-mash with a similarly dated galvanized sprinkler system. All I want to do is keep it looking halfway decent, water rationing permitting, and hopefully tear it all up and re-landscape with less grass at some point.

Ralph
 
Dandelion water (after boiling a pot of them) is a rusty red--because it is all iron, for you gals and guys that need iron supplements. This is why boiling removes the bitterness.

However, too much iron leads to heart-attacks, and most men don't need it; so be careful........
 

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