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shade tolerant grass
- Thread starter Mando
- Start date
id plant ground cover personally. Your local departments might actually have seed for you to grow native plants as well vs bringing in some evasive grass type not common to your area.
A mix of plant life/grasses is always best for any application as if disease or conditions are not perfect for ONE type you wont loose out on all of the growth. More often than not in a older forrest area too which is heavily wooded the soil below the trees is not very good.
A mix of plant life/grasses is always best for any application as if disease or conditions are not perfect for ONE type you wont loose out on all of the growth. More often than not in a older forrest area too which is heavily wooded the soil below the trees is not very good.
keltik
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The grass in my yard is a "tall fescue" variety IIRC. it grows better on the shady north side of the house and near the fence. but it is also not competing with giant trees for soil resources. I don't think grass was meant to grow in a forest. Grasses are meant to grow in open plains and fields. Grass is a grain bearing plant like corn and wheat and barley. Corn and wheat don't grow in forests.
specially ones with little to no light penetrating the canopy.
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I've seen grass growing vigorously in the woods on two courses; black falls in vt. & primland in va. It can be done, but in primlands case it looked like an intensive site prep job was done first. In my case, the soil is excellent, so thats not an issue. Stinging nettle is currently the most prevalent weed, but I'm knocking it out with herbicide.
Zoysia grass is really tough stuff but it's a warm-season grass so I don't know how well it would do in the mountains. I'd maybe try a mix of zoysia and fescue (cool-season) to cover my bases.
could always thrown down a bunch of herbs. Chives, dill, mint, onion, catnip, parsley all grow like crazy and smell amazing plus they seed a ton so they will keep spreading and battling out the evasive stuff.
You really should just find a very similar restored plot of land and see what is growing there specific to the exact area. Grasses just don't hold up well to a lot of foot traffic. I am still waiting to try out some of the newly engineered "steppables" which are a touch ground cover that come in many different varieties in a grass/moss like hybrid form. Great for around rocks and tight areas.
You really should just find a very similar restored plot of land and see what is growing there specific to the exact area. Grasses just don't hold up well to a lot of foot traffic. I am still waiting to try out some of the newly engineered "steppables" which are a touch ground cover that come in many different varieties in a grass/moss like hybrid form. Great for around rocks and tight areas.
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It's possible, but not easy and not guaranteed. I just got back from Wildcat Bluff in Iowa and was impressed by their grass. A county worker told me it took "thousands" of hours of volunteer labor to prep and plant it. Start with the local county extension agent and a soil test.
Having some kind of ground cover helps a lot with erosion and soil compaction. Courses are starting to be pulled out of the ground or redesigns forced because we beat up the ground on wooded fairways so much. You can easily start to lose big trees and hurt the health of the forest when you erode away the soil covering the roots and start stomping on them all the time and compacting the soil around them.
Yay for rain gardens!!
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To each his own...I love the look of wildcat...stinging nettle looks natural and all, but I despise the way it takes over.
keltik
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This is a very valid point. but how well and how long does the grass keep in an "unnatural" application? How does it affect the ecosystem? Not that stomping crowds of plastic chuckers help anything to begin with.
yeah that's why I mentioned ground covers which flower and seed. Many animals/insects benefit from these as well as being a more natural part of ecosystems. Its becoming a huge trend in real estate with even integrating plants into driveways or rooftops to catch run off.
In the future I can promise you will see many less huge green grass lawns in neighborhoods. They are horrible for the ecosystem from all the applied routine chemicals/fertilizers and provide very little habitat. These kind of transformations are happening heavily in the SW of the US.
In the future I can promise you will see many less huge green grass lawns in neighborhoods. They are horrible for the ecosystem from all the applied routine chemicals/fertilizers and provide very little habitat. These kind of transformations are happening heavily in the SW of the US.
keltik
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yeah pay the lawn companies to do half ass work and cost homeowners more as well as waste a ton of water :| 1990s-2000s development ideas of bulldozing it all and removing every last tree have started to see the problems involved with it from huge landslides, sinkholes, erosion, watertable issues include sewage and potable water systems being contaminated....
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Orchard grass was developed for partial shade -- the "orchard" refers to the fact that it grows well under orchard trees.
Grass that goes to seed dies. You mow it to keep force it to direct its energy into its roots. It then becomes a perennial ground cover.
There are all sorts of perennial ground covers. Most take several seasons, protected from foot traffic, to get established.
Grass that goes to seed dies. You mow it to keep force it to direct its energy into its roots. It then becomes a perennial ground cover.
There are all sorts of perennial ground covers. Most take several seasons, protected from foot traffic, to get established.
I have a beautiful lawn and I won't feel bad about it. I spend way too much time on it. BUT, I would prefer to play on mowed clover on a disc golf course. The clover acts like velcro for stopping a disc, and the flowers are beautiful across a field.
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This is not true for all grasses.
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