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Location is a suburb outside of Chicago area in North Illinois in zone 5b. Take a look at the area in front of the porch underneath the tree branch. The area has been reseeded every year, even with shady mix (from Scotts), but the grasses seems to die every year. Currently, the area looks green now, but if you look carefully, it's all weeds. Is there a type of grass we can try? Should we just give it up and grow a more shade tolerant groundcover? Paul |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| How much sun does that area get on a typical cloudless day? Do you seed in the spring, or the fall? |
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| I was looking at it again. I am thinking that it gets at least a few hours of sunlight. It was reseeded in fall (spring seeding in this zone is usually not all that successful). I believe the last product used on the area was Scotts Sun and Shade. The stuff in the area consists of creeping charlies and some clovers. Since clover also need sun, one might assume that there may be enough sunlight there. Supposedly, the most shade tolerant grass is St. Augustine, but that won't grow around here. A search through the internet indicate red creeping fescue and velvet bent grass would be best in the shade in my area. Should I try seeding with all red creeping fescue or still try for a mix? Is there a particular cultivar of fescue that would work best? Still need to get rid of the charlies. I was thinking a detaching rake followed by an application of weed killer since I heard creeping charlies are difficult to eradicate with weed killers. Paul |
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| I do see some grass in the picture, but I see more weeds. If you want to grow grass in a heavily shaded area there are a few options. Fine fescues are hardy, relatively low maintenance, and have a lot of shade and traffic tolerance. Poa supina is a lighter green grass, that is very shade tolerance, and once established spreads aggressively and tolerates a lot of traffic. Improved poa trivialis is a medium green grass that spreads, but is very soft, and handles traffic poorly. You won't find these at the big box stores (well some of the fine fescues you will, but not the better cultivars). The better performing fine fescues you can buy online. You can find out which ones do well in your area at the ntep website (www.ntep.org). Before you seed that area you need to kill everything first. Use round up. Round up takes 1-2 weeks, so if you want to seed around Sept. 1, you need to apply round up around August 15th. Don't seed now, the best time for the grasses I mentioned are in the late summer for the Chicago area. |
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- Posted by nearandwest 7 (My Page) on Mon, Jun 6, 11 at 10:45
| So, just out of curiosity, how important to you is that low hanging branch? It looks like more branches than leaves. You would be doing yourself a favor by removing that low hanging branch. However, this is not the time of year to cut it. The cut you make would be an instant opening for insects and diseases. Winter would be the time for removal. Just a thought. |
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| Not sure about the low hanging branch. It's actually not my house but I am helping out one of my relatives. I suspect that he likes the tree branch there or he would have gotten rid of the it. I suppose if it's not green by summer, I'll see if I can get him to trim it, but here are other trees above blocking the light. As many of you have notice the lawn is infested with creeping charlies. I plan to use a dethatching rake and rip most of them out and then apply some weed and feed, then retreat as needed. The problem is that it's too late to reseed until late August. I am wondering if something else can be planted there in a hurry like rye grass or something. It's like 100 degree here today, so it may be too late for that, too. Is Poa supina better than red creeping fescue in the shade? It's certainly harder to get and supposedly not so drought tolerant. Paul |
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| You will save time and have better results with Round-up. Weed and feed is never a good idea and will probably be a waste of money for this situation (personally I think it's always a waste of money). Wait till the late summer, now is the worst time to plant a cool season grass. Poa supina is supposed to be one of the most shade tolerant cool season grasses around. It does require more water than the fine fescues. It's not hard to get, but it is expensive. Here's some info on killing creeping charlie: http://www.extension.umn.edu/yardandgarden/ygbriefs/h510creepingcharli e.html |
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| Talked with the relative again. Apparently their memory is faulty and they didn't seed after all but used sod. This mean they were probably sodding with KBG. I haven't heard of red creeping fescue sod. May be around Aug, I should do the following: 1. Cover that area with a tarp to kill of all of the weed. Paul |
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| Why the tarp? Is it that you don't want to put Round-up down for fear of the chemicals? Round-up is pretty harmless and becomes inert after a short period of time (a day or two). If you still aren't keen on using it there are organic alternatives available. The tarp method will work, but it takes a lot longer. Don't till the soil, you will just bring up more weed seeds and it will make the area lumpy and uneven. You can add a layer of topsoil, but make sure it is good stuff, or else you will probably get more weeds. |
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| Actually, I am pretty organic and have never used any weed killer and actually still get rid of weeds manually. However, the relatives are not organic at all and would not mind round up. I had assumed that round up would stick around for weeks and that's why I was thinking tarp. If round up works then perhaps that would be the way to go. The plan is to do 50/50 top soil/brush compost before reseeding. The issue right now is what to do in the mean time. In this area, you can't really reseed until Aug. If we kill off the weed, there's like a big barespot for the entire summer. I suppose one way to get around it is to mulch it with some annuals. Paul |
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| You can seed a few days after applying round up, it deactivates very soon after application. Round up works beautifully, it will kill everything in 1-2 weeks. I suggest you just mow the weeds like grass till late summer. They will prevent a mudpit from forming, and at least they are green. |
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