Turfgrass and Shade | skservices

Turfgrass and Shade

Growing grass in shady areas is the most common challenge we have seen in home lawns and commercial properties. In this article we will attempt to provide you with some ideas and options for shady areas.

When considering turfgrass for shaded environments, it's important to recognize that no turfgrass truly thrives in shade; instead, some varieties merely tolerate it better than others. This is referred to as shade tolerance. Selecting the appropriate species of grass and implementing proper management strategies can make a significant difference in the health and appearance of your lawn. As a rule of thumb, once an area receives less than 4 hours of sunlight per day no grass will flourish… but depending on other factors certain grasses may be able to survive with less sunlight.

Grass uses sunlight as energy to power photosynthesis. During this process grass converts water and nutrients into sugars that are needed to grow the plant. Think of sunlight as the fuel needed to power all the plants’ processes. When grass doesn’t receive enough sunlight, it is unable to create the food needed to grow and thins out and eventually dies.

The first step in maintaining grass in shady areas is to figure out how many hours of sunlight is available per day. The amount of sunlight available will determine best practices. Practices being nutrition, weed control, mowing height, and irrigation frequency. Soil type and traffic are also important factors that influence best practices. We cannot stress the importance of each of these factors enough. An example of this would be grass grown in good soil with proper irrigation and nutrition may survive with only 1-2 hours of sunlight while the same type of grass in heavy clay soil without proper irrigation and nutrition may not survive with 4 hours of sunlight per day.

Grass selection: Given the unique challenges in the Abilene area, we normally only recommend 2 types of grass: Bermuda and Zoysia. St. Augustine and Fescue are also options but the odds of success with these grasses are very low.

Bermuda: Bermuda is the best choice of grass for our region when considering all factors. There are many types of Bermuda to choose from. Hybrid Bermudas are more shade tolerate than common Bermuda and can only be purchased as sod. In our experience, the hybrid variety of Tiff Tuf has been the most successful.

Cons: Despite its advantages, hybrid Bermudas still require at least four hours of sunlight each day, even if other growing conditions are favorable.

Zoysia: This is our recommended option for shaded areas lacking sufficient sunlight for hybrid Bermuda. The most widely used variety is Palisades. This grass demonstrates strong drought tolerance; however, it tends to brown quicker than Bermuda with inadequate water supply. While Zoysia will recover over time, it’s slow growth rate extends this recovery period.

Cons: Slow establishment, vulnerability to Zoysia patch disease, and is not recommended for high traffic zones.

St. Augustine: St. Augustine was once the standby in our area for shady areas but due to water rationing and cost, we now see tremendous issues in these lawns. St. Augustine has a higher water requirement than any other grass and more importantly needs water almost daily in our tight soils because of the shallow root system. We do not recommend planting St Augustine unless a customer has to ability to water daily during the summer months.

Fescue: This is a cool season grass meaning it will stay green during the winter months. Being a cool season grass, fescue suffers from heat stress during the summer months. We normally do not recommend fescue in our area. There are, however, a few unique situations where Fescue has been successful.

Maintaining a healthy lawn in the shade can be a serious challenge and there are many factors in keeping these areas healthy. Please feel free to contact us for more information. We will be happy to come out and discuss in detail the best options for your lawn and how we can tailor a fertilizer and weed control program to fit your needs.

~SK