grass in shady area
By Katy22
United Kingdom 
Hi, I have planted grass seed (b&Q) for shady lawns in the area. The garden has 2 high walls which prevent most sunlight getting in and an overgrown tree which my housemates don't want to have cut down. I did trim it back as much as I could without starting a fight ! I have kept the soil moist, and watered with some plant food incase the tree is stealing all the nutrients from the ground. I also aerated the lawn a bit too. None of the grass has grown yet, (after 2 weeks) do I need to wait longer or should I try and transplant some of the grass which was remaining on the lawn or more seeds? about 1/3 of the lawn was grass and the rest bare earth. I will post a photo if anyone needs it to visualise!
20 Mar, 2009
Featured on:
lawn care
Answers
im definately getting some ferns for the shady corner. i love the hart tongue fern, I saw a whole covering of it under a small piece of forest in west wales (where i used to live) and it was awesome!
21 Mar, 2009
Ooooh, I'm with you on that one! Btw, when I mentioned membrane, I meant the black one that you get from builders merchants (much cheaper!) with tiny holes in it, which allows water to seep thro', but not light, so weeds don't grow thro'!
23 Mar, 2009
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You may need to wait til the warmer weather arrives before you do anything. I would just wait a little longer. Being in the shade means it won't get any warm sun, so it may need the warmer air before the seeds get kick started and germinate. It sounds as if you've done all you can for now anyway!
Alternatively, depending on the size of the lawn, you could just turn the whole lot over to growing shade loving plants like Hosta's and ferns. Or you could remove all grass, lay a membrane down, plant the odd structural/oriental grass and shingle it. You could be fighting a losing battle with ordinary grass in the long run.
20 Mar, 2009