About Grass That Grows in Shade

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About Grass That Grows in Shade - Provided by eHow
Get grass to grow in the shade by watering it frequently, using compost and lots of grass seed on the area and cutting a few low branches off the trees to allow in sunlight. Plant a shade garden in place of grass with tips from a sustainable gardener in... View Video Transcript

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Yolanda Vanveen

Video Transcript

Hi, this is Yolanda from VanveenBulbs.com and in this segment we're going to talk about grass that grows in the shade. Now we've all had an area of our lawn that is shaded that we've tried to grow grass in and whether we're successful or not it's always a challenge. So there's a few hints that I can give you to get grass to grow in shade but if none of them work then you're just going to probably have to give up and grow a moss garden in that area especially if you live in the northwest. But here's some of the reasons that you cannot get grass to grow in your shade. And number one is because you don't water in the shade. This is kind of my shady area of my front yard and it's in the fall, it looked pretty good over the summer actually because I was watering all the time but I haven't been watering lately and because there's these big trees above me, everything is turning brown. You know if I would put some sprinklers out here and water really well, this would green right up just like the grass in the sunnier areas have. So the number one reason that your grass is not growing in the shade is because its drying out. So just water it and you'll find it'll help a lot. Another trick that I found that helps a lot is just putting a little bit of compost over your area if the soil is just clay or sand or there's no nutrition down there just by putting a little layer of soil and just putting lots of grass seeds in that area then doing that in the fall and the spring every year for do it for a couple years it usually will grow in very, very well. Another trick is just cut a couple of the branches out from the lower parts of your trees and it'll allow a lot more sun to come in and so as soon as you get a certain amount of sun in your yard, the grass will grow really well. So grass seed it, just put tons of grass seed on it and water it really well in the spring and the falls especially in the months that it's still growing but you're not getting any rain on it because of the trees, water it. And if none of those work, here's my key. If you've got an area that's so shady that weeds won't even grow, you've only got moss and pine needles, then you probably should give it up on the grass. I hate to say it. You can talk to your local nursery or garden center and find out if there's certain varieties they might recommend but outside of that, I would start a beautiful shade garden. Put some raised beds in, put a bunch of hostas and fuschias and begonias and all types of cyclamen and calla lilies, just the large white and the green callas because the other callas that grow in the sun, the colored ones need the sun, but the other ones will do the shade and create your own shade garden in that area because you're going to have a very difficult time growing any grass in that area. So good luck, water it and grass seed it and you still might have a nice garden.