dead lawn

[shortness]

My lawn is dead (brown) where the lawn is in the shade for most of the day. I have already "weed and feed" the yard, and I have areated the yard, also. At the end of the yard where the sun shines, it is green. Please help!

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

What kind of grass do you have?

How tall are you mowing it?

How are you watering it? (like daily a little bit every day or weekly for a long time each time)

Do you have any other problems you know of?

[shortness]

I water it 2 to 3 times a week until it is soaked, and I watered it real good after I put the "weed & feed" down. I have not cut it because it is dead grass, but when there was a little grass, I was not cutting it too low, about medium height.

It is St. Augustine grass.

[williamevans]

Some thoughts on dead lawn (or more correctly on established lawn if yours is truly dead):

1. Water thoroughly, but only as needed (I do about 2 to 3 hours of watering every two weeks in cooler weather, 3 hours of watering every week in hot weather, IF we have had no rain in Dallas). No light lawn watering. I do water some potted outdoor plants every day or two in heat.

2. Don't use weed and feed (chemical damage to soil). I use only organic fertilizers and soil amendments (alfalfa, molasses, bat guano, corn gluten meal, etc.) three times a year. Pull weeds by hand, kill big ones very selectively with vinegar and stay away from bushes, trees. Also, corn gluten meal is recommended organic way to kill weeds, but only during germination time (before the weed is growing).

3. Apply molasses, organic rock, humate to soil as you can afford.

4. Beneficial nematodes help with bad bugs, don't kill good ones. I apply these two or three times a year to control fire ants, etc.

Finally, grass will not grow without some sun. Try a ground cover in the heavy shaded areas. I have had success with Asian jasmine.

Hope this helps.

William Evans.

[GroundCrew]

You have to have at least 4-5 hours of direct sunlight for St. Augustine. You will have to do something other than turf--e.g., ground cover.

[shortness]

Is bermuda grass a good grass for shade? I was going to buy bermuda grass seeds and see if that grows. Would this work?

[jmeier]

Bermuda won't even take crack at growing in shade

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

I don't know how I missed the replies to this thread. Sorry for the long delay getting back to you.

My St Augustine grows in the shade of several live oak trees. It gets no direct sun at all, so I know it will grow in shade. If yours is trying to grow between two tall buildings, you might have trouble, but if your light is filtered all day, I don't see a problem.

You're watering way too much and too frequently. This encourages shallow roots (no drought resistance) and fungal disease. Williamevens watering program is highly commendible. You cannot go directly from your watering program to his, but you can get there this season. Just start backing off on your frequency of watering. Cut one watering out immediately and start to stretch between waterings. Don't water until the grass shows some stress. Then water deeply and wait until it stresses again before watering deeply again. Once the turf is adapted to deep watering, you will never again be able to soak it. It will absorb water for days at a time.

Weed and feed takes two products that might have some (questionable)merit and makes one horrible product. Forget about that stuff. Instead, set your mower deck as high as it goes. Then have your local welding shop weld it in place so you are never tempted to scalp the lawn. St Aug LOVES to be mowed high all year long. Tall St Aug will send roots deep into the soil making your infrequent watering program much more effective. Tall St Aug will show much less drought stress and may even remain dark green all winter for you. And besides the grass loving being tall, the weeds hate being shaded out by the tall St Aug. There are other microclimatic reasons to mow tall which get technical immediately, so I'll spare you the details in this already wordy reply. In any case, you get more bang for your buck by not using weed and feed and mowing the grass tall. You'll have to mow just as often.

Reread williamevans reply. He's going in all the right directions.