Alright, here’s the game plan I’m running in Dallas from a recently purchased house with a large shaded area:
Present condition: half the yard has Bermuda which is doing well. The other half has really struggled due to several trees and the former owners put down Bermuda sod a few times with no success. I just racked up all the dead sod and tilled up the yard a couple of inches.
The Plan: Pennington Dense Shade (tall fescue and fine fescue blend). I’ll throw down the seed pretty generously in the approx 1,300 SF of tilled shaded areas. After that, I’ll cover everything with about 1/2 inch of generic topsoil from a big box store. Lightly pat it all down so there’s good seed-to-soil contact.
Watering: I’m hitting it with the sprinklers 3x a day (sunrise, around 1 PM, and again around 6 PM) for about 3 minutes per zone.
If anyone’s had success (or failure) with Dense Shade in Dallas, I’m all ears.
Questions:
- Will this grass look weird next to my Bermuda?
- should I add any other fertilizers?
by DallasOil
4 Comments
I would try to keep the Bermuda if it’s your first season. Don’t go off previous owners unless there’s more to the story. I have neighbors that neglect their Bermuda completely, then just get new sod. Looks okay for a few months living off the sod soil then meets the same fate.
It will be a challenge with that much shade but keeping fescue alive not to mention looking good through a Texas summer will be near impossible.
This is my Bermuda under an oak tree. Granted it’s one juvenile oak and faces southwest. But it can be done.
https://preview.redd.it/6iqxldygyotg1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dc8ff5a093b01abb4990f3ca266ccb24122cd094
Welcome to the lawn care game. The best part about being a home owner is the “fuck it maybe this will work” trials you can run. I say go for the dense shade blend and see if you can’t have intentional green growing there.
As far as blending into your bermuda…little to no chance just based off of growth preferences like ideal height of cut. Also the blended grass types will make treating weeds and maintenance fertilizers difficult to manage.
We are very much in spring so sunlight hours will change over the next 6 months so you may be able to get a zoysia going that is more shade tolerant than Bermuda and can blend better
What kind of grass do your neighbors have? Looks like some of them are doing ok. I’d copy what the best lawn on your side of the street does. Some of those fescues can’t handle consistent over 100 days like Dallas gets.
I hate to rain on your parade but keeping fescue alive in our climate is going to be a doozy. Maybe it’s possible, but you will need to bring your A game every single week.
St Augustine is what to do for shade, but the blade type is so thick and different from Bermuda that most people don’t like seeing a mix of the two different grasses so I understand why you chose fescue.
Once the seedlings get established you must wear them and get them on a once or twice a week deep watering schedule so they’ll develop deeper roots. Otherwise you’re conditioning the roots to stay shallow which is a death sentence in our climate. (While they’re seedlings you’re absolutely right they need to be watered multiple times a day to stay moist).
Best of luck. Keep us updated