BLOG: Grass-Growing Challenges in Heavy Shade

For years I’ve struggled to get my grass to grow in an area in my back yard shaded by large trees. Almost every year for 10 years or so I over-seed the area. Several times I’ve re-worked the soil, added new soil, peat moss and more seed. Sometimes I’ve done this in the fall. The grass always takes nicely at first and I water it till it gets a good start. Then, most years it thins out and dies as the weather gets dry and hot, even though I water it.

This year I may have found a new solution. About six weeks ago a friend of mine who really knows plant life, had a look at the shaded area and said I needed a “fine fescue” grass seed. The grass I had planted last fall was indeed coming up, but he said, “It won’t last.”

I had always used grass seed and other lawn products from Scotts and have always been more than pleased, except for this shady area. In past years had tried “shade” and “sun and shade” but by July it was like I had never planted fresh seed. Even the “dense shade” grass seed from Scotts that I planted last fall would not really hold over summer, said my friend. I checked the Scotts dense shade package and there is fescue seed in it, but a very small percentage.

So, on to the Internet I go to search for fescue seed.  I saw several places which re-sell seed but no real good info on fescue. Then I found a manufacturer, Pennington, which has a seed mixture that is primarily fescue. I found only one place in the south metro area that carries it, Tractor Supply Co. in Mendota Heights. Wow, this stuff is hard to find!

Once again I tackle the shaded area with gusto, following best practices including mowing the area short, heavy raking to disturb the soil (this is good cardio!), adding more soil and compost material, spreading lots of seed with a hand-held Scotts spreader (a valuable device!), adding starter fertilizer and gently raking the seed into the soil. Then, daily watering and waiting, and more waiting. Turns out, fescue grass takes a long time to sprout … at least twice as long as other grasses, which are sprouting after a week. At first I thought the seed was bad but now it’s coming up nicely, and pretty thick (this is after three weeks).

What remains to be seen is whether the grass stays there all summer. I’ll post again about this in August and show before-and-after photos.