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| We have a 4 year old home in Atlanta north burbs with Zoysia in the front yard and tall fescue in the back. The house has a walkout basement on the back and the backyard is on the east side and borders woods, so with the shadow of the house (3 stories) and the woods the backyard only gets about 4 hours of sun per day (some parts of it less than that).
I have seeded various tall fescues each fall and a lighter seeding in spring (Rebel, K-31 etc.). This year in the past month about 80% of the fescue died (or went dormant). The dead areas are laying down flat and the blades are very fine. It is very strange. I have sprinklers and was watering during a 3 week period where we got little rain and it was in the mid 90's. Is this to be expected as I know fescue does not like heat--- really what I would like is a suggestion on some other variety of grass that would hold up better to the heat. It seems all they sell around here is fescue. My neighbors on either side gave up and sodded with bermuda, but it is not doing well because of the lack of sunlight. So I am hesitant to sod with Zoysia to match the front yard and waste my $$$. Any suggestions are welcome, thanks! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by texas-weed 7A (My Page) on Sun, Aug 29, 10 at 0:10
| only gets about 4 hours of sun per day (some parts of it less than that). 4 hours or less? Good luck. Sounds like you need a chain saw and wrecking ball :>) |
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- Posted by texas-weed 7A (My Page) on Sun, Aug 29, 10 at 0:17
| Have you considered Saint Augustine? It is one of the most shade tolerant of all the grasses. Palmetto variety has excellent shade tolerance. Since you have Zoysia I assume you are OK with winter dormancy? SA goes dormant much later, and greens up sooner than Zoysia. In Atlanta I don't think SA would ever go totally dormant, just turn into a bluish light green to hues of purple and quit growing. It is only when you get a hard freeze that it goes completely dormant and turns straw color. |
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| Are you sure you don't have army worms? They attacked my fescue and killed it in two days. An area about 1500 sq ft. I treated and it is finally starting to come back. Look at Walter Reeves's website. He has an article about it. |
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| Texas-weed, I used to live in Houston so am very familiar with St. Augustine. Around here however, we can get down to single digits once per year and teens several times. We're told by the local experts that its too cold here for St. Augustine, that it would kill off instead of only going dormant. I think you have to be well south of Atlanta (Macon or so) to be able to plant it. Also, it needs about the same hours of sun as bermuda to thrive, so with the shade it probably would not work too well. In Houston I had struggles with it in the areas of my yard under trees etc. Not sure about army worms, I put down an application of one of those 3 month bag products (Spectracide I think) that is supposed to protect from the majority of pests, so I did not consider an insect problem but will look into it. |
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- Posted by texas-weed 7A (My Page) on Sun, Aug 29, 10 at 19:13
| mccoma Atlanta is Z8, same as Dallas. I live north of Dallas in Z7 and Saint Augustine is a dominant player around here and very popular choice in Dallas with yards with trees. Heck I even raise and sell SA here on the far. As for the shade issue, and even cold tolerance of SA it depends a lot on the variety. In Houston the dominant SA is Flortam. It does not tolerate shade too well and is not very cold tolerant. So I can understand your POV with your experience in Houston. Palmetto has excellent shade and cold weather tolerance. It thrives in both sun and shade. Point I am driving at comparing SA to Zoysia shade tolerance is SA is the hands down winner in the shade. You might also look around at sod farms with a Bermuda grass called TifGrand or Celebration. Both have decent shade tolerance that out performs Zoysia, but still not as good as SA. 4 hours or less of direct sun is pushing things a bit. Now there is one Zoysia out there that claims to thrive in 90% shade called Shadow Turf, but I have not heard one good review of it. It is only available in plugs of 72 for $90 and it grows at a snails pace. Extremely expensive stuff. |
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- Posted by texas-weed 7A (My Page) on Sun, Aug 29, 10 at 19:18
| One more thought, if you want to try Zoysia, the most shade tolerant you can find with good performance is Zeon and El Toro both of which are available in Atlanta. Emerald is another so-so shade performer and third in line but has poor cold tolerance. I do know it is available in Atlanta area. Good Luck TX |
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| Thanks for the input, I'm about 25-30 miles north of downtown Atlanta so maybe on the Z7 borderline. I have Meyer Zoysia in the front. I've heard that some of the other ones you mentioned are better however. I may just overseed with fescue again (best done after labor day here) and reassess in the spring. I'm thinking of putting in some beds up against the house which would be in the shadow area, maybe then I could get away with Zoysia in the remaining parts of the yard that get more sun. I don't think I've ever seen SA offered for sale around here, but may check that out as an option. For a more consistent look however, if I am going to scrap the fescue I'd probably go with one of the Zoysia's. |
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- Posted by texas-weed 7A (My Page) on Mon, Aug 30, 10 at 10:09
| Well I was going to mention using shade garden beds in the problem areas. There are hundreds or plants and ground covers that can be used and many of them are quite attractive with color like Azaleas which I know grow great in Atlanta. Meyer is the most widely used Zoysia in the USA as it is also the the first release. It is a very good cold weather performer and what I raise on the sod farm here in North TX. However it is not a good shade performer. Yeah I suspected SA might be hard to obtain in Atlanta but am a bit surprised as sod farms as far north as Virgina raise and sell it. As a last thought if you want to try something, it will not hurt and only cost you some time is next spring after your Zoysia greens up and growing well you can rip up sprigs and transplant them to the back. If conditions are favorable it will grow and choke out the Fescue taking over. Good Luck TW |
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- Posted by texas-weed 7A (My Page) on Mon, Aug 30, 10 at 10:12
| Forgot or you can order Zeon or El Toro plugs next spring as it is a lot less expensive than sod so if it dies, not much lost. |
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| Supersod had TifGrand for $175 a pallet a couple of weeks ago. Can't find Celebration anywhere in GA. I'm going with TifGrand next seaon...cheaper than cutting down trees. |
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- Posted by Trevor Wilson(teewo55@yahoo.com) onFri, Jan 28, 11 at 16:08
| I'm in Atlanta (Virginia Highlands) and I sodded with Bermuda Tifgrand in my front yard last year. It's fairly shaded seeing the sun 4 hours at the most, maybe a little more on the front half, farther from the house. I have a large tree that shades the lawn about 70% of the day. It has done extremely well. It grew slightly thinner in areas closer to the house that see only a few hours of sun, but it's not noticeable. I had fescue previously that had trouble making it through our warm summers, which is not the case with the tifgrand. It looked awesome all summer. This one is definitely a winner. |
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- Posted by greg(greg@dolezal.com) onSun, May 1, 11 at 12:45
| trevor, Who did your install of the Tifgrand? What was the cost per palet? |
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