What do you do if you have a shady area that needs grass? Well, don't fret! There are some types of grasses that are specifically designed to thrive in shaded portions of your lawn. Try a fescue in this case. However, you can still use general grass seeds as well in those shady areas, but you have to care for it properly.



Mow at the proper height and frequency for the type of grass. Water the grass deeply. Prune or thin nearby trees to permit more sunlight to the grass. Consider mulch or shade-tolerant ground covers for densely shaded areas. If you have heavily shaded areas in your lawn where the grass is thin, consult your lawn care specialist for recommendations on improving the lawn. To find out which of the above best-of-breed grasses will work for you contact a local lawn care professional or contact your local county extension service. They will be able to tell you through trial and error which ones will work for your situation.

You also want to be careful about mixing different species together. For example, Fine Fescue and Kentucky Bluegrass are both recommended for cold areas, but the two don't go well together in the same lawn. Fine Fescue is a bunching grass, while Kentucky Bluegrass is a spreading-type grass. You'll end up with clumps of fine fescue growing up out of your Bluegrass lawn and it will look just bad.

So, make your choice and get ready to start! How?

The way you plant your grass seed depends on what shape your current lawn is in. You need to evaluate your situation and go from there!

Let's say that you already have a lawn, but there are places that need to be filled in and thickened up. Your best bet with this type of lawn is to aerate it and over-seed.

An aerator is a machine that will poke a hole in the ground (thousands of them actually) and remove a core of soil and leave it laying on the surface. These are called core aerators. Some aerators will simply push a spike into the ground creating a hole, this type is not as good. Check with an equipment rental store to find an aerator that will work for you.

To start with, mow your grass as low as you can safely, don't throw rocks and dig dirt with the mower, but get it down to about 1" high. This will stunt the grass and slow its growth allowing the new grass that you will seed to get started with limited competition from the existing grass.

After mowing take an aerator, and go over the entire lawn at least twice. Depending on the model you use, the aerator will poke holes every 2 to 8 inches apart. If you can look down at the lawn at any point and not see spots that don't have holes larger than 6", you are doing fine. If you have a spot larger than 6" without holes in it, you won't have very much grass come up in that spot, so go over the lawn as many times as it takes to be sure you have holes everywhere.

Once you're done aerating, you will start spreading your seed, but you need to accurately measure your lawn first. Everything you do in lawn care depends on the measurement of your lawn, so do it correctly the first time and write it down so you can refer back to it whenever you need to.

The amount of seed you use is important. If you don't use enough you won't get the desired results. Most professionals will use 350 pounds per acre for lawns. Divided out per thousand square feet that is 8 pounds per thousand square feet.

Rent, buy, or borrow a seed spreader. This will make your job much easier! Do not use your hand and just throw it around, you won't get even coverage.

Spread the seed using half of the required amount spreading it in one direction, use the other half spreading the opposite direction creating a cross hatch pattern on the lawn. This way you are assured of getting even coverage.

After spreading the seed take a drag of any type, a piece of chain link fence, a board with a rope tied to it, or what ever you can drag behind your mower. Drag the lawn, this will push and drag seed into the holes you created and break up the little plugs of soil that the aerator left on the ground, it will cover up most of the seed giving much better germination and a thicker lawn.

Once you complete the dragging, spread a starter fertilizer. You can actually do this first if you want to, it really doesn't matter. A starter fertilizer has a higher middle number than first and last numbers which means more phosphate.

You will need to put down 8 pounds per thousand square feet of a 6-12-12 or 4 pounds per K of a 6-24-24. This will give the ground the nutrients needed to germinate and start a turf lawn, thus the name "starter fertilizer".

After about a month the new grass will start to yellow off some or maybe turn pale green, this is showing you that it is time to fertilize again. Apply 6# per K of 15-15-15 this will provide the nitrogen for green and growth and phosphate and potash for root growth and overall vigor.

After the grass is about 3 weeks old you should be able to start mowing. Be sure to cut it high. Fertilizing will also need to be done on a regular schedule. We'll cover these issues in later chapters.