Can You Grow Shade Grass in Your Houston Area Lawn?
Is it possible for you to grow shade grass in your Houston area lawn? Houston Grass South Owner Michael Romine explains how that happens in this video. If you have questions, please call us at 281-431-7441.
Summary of Michael’s Video on How to Grow Shade Grass
– – Something else that I would like to mention about grass and the shade, particularly the St. Augustine grasses. People call us to say, “I’m having a problem with my grass, in a shadier area, but my neighbor’s not having an issue. They have thick, green grass underneath oak trees.”
What happens is, when grass and trees are planted young at the same time, the grass can slowly adapt to shade. You get these oak trees and these houses in the suburbs, they plant these stick trees and the grass is getting plenty of sun, and over the years, the grass and the tree get used to one another together, and they acclimate to one another, and the grass will do okay, if you keep those trees well pruned.
If you don’t keep the trees well pruned, the grass gets too much shade to acclimate and it’s going to eventually zap the grass. This is a good example of exactly what’s happened here. At one time, this tree was really overgrown and so the grass underneath it got really weak. The tree has since been trimmed back, but the grass is just having a really tough time.
You Can Slowly Grow Shade Grass by Keeping Your Trees Well Trimmed
However, if you look over here in the yard next door, the grass looks really nice, but the trees are trimmed up really well, and they’ve more than likely been kept that way ever since the grass was planted. That makes a big difference.
Being willing to do those annual, to every other year tree trimmings, and being fairly aggressive with it can provide your grass with the sun it needs. When these trees get to be 15, even 12 years old, and as they get older you have to be willing to trim aggressively, to take any of those downward pointing branches, clean the insides out really well, and occasionally take some big branches to get that sunlight down there.
If you don’t do that, you will notice a thinning of the grass, no matter what kind of grass you’ve got, and you’ll eventually have a yard that’s needing to be replaced. So that is certainly something to keep in mind.
I just wanted to touch on that, that’s a question that we get a lot. Somebody loses their grass for some reason, whether it’s chinch bugs or overgrown tree, and then it’s such a battle once you lose that grass to reestablish grass under an already aged oak tree.
So, take care of that grass, water it regularly, and if you got lots of shade, don’t let it get away from you or it can be a tough, uphill battle getting it to come back.
Call Houston Grass South for the Best Quality Grass in the Houston area, and at competitive prices too. Call us at 281-431-7441 or send us an email with the contact form.
