Grass Seeds for Shade

Fescues

• Fine fescues have excellent shade tolerance. Although the fine fescues prefer dry, shaded locations they can be used in moist areas. Creeping red, hard and chewings fescue are fine fescues. Tall fescue may also perform well in shaded areas but homeowners tend to avoid this grass because of its coarse texture.

Bluegrasses

• Supina bluegrass, or Poa supina, and rough bluegrass perform well in moist shaded sites and quickly fill in bare areas. Kentucky bluegrass is less tolerant of shade than these bluegrasses, even if a given variety is considered shade tolerant. However, Kentucky bluegrass does often perform well enough to make up a small portion of seed mixtures for shade.

Zoysia

• Zoysia grass may not be able to tolerate heavy shade conditions. However, zoysia grass is more tolerant of shade than centipede grass. The most shade-tolerant zoysia cultivars are Belaire, Cavalier, Diamond and El Toro; Meyer and Emerald cultivars have fair shade tolerance.

Velvet Bentgrass

• Velvet bentgrass is a cool-season grass used most often in cool, humid climates for applications that require extremely short turf like putting greens. Velvet bentgrass requires ample drainage.

St. Augustine Grass

• Of the warm season grasses, St. Augustine grass is the best adapted to shaded sites. St. Augustine grass lacks winter hardiness and thrives in high temperature climates. It can also grow well in a wide pH range but becomes chlorotic if the pH is above 7.5.

Seed Mixtures

• The University of Wisconsin Extension recommends percentages of grass species for mixtures in moist and dry haded areas. The suggested seed mixture for a dry shaded area includes at least 50 percent fine fescues, no more than 40 percent Kentucky bluegrass and the remainder of the mixture consists of perennial ryegrass. A mixture for moist shaded sites can consist of 10 to 30 percent of rough and/or supina bluegrass, a maximum of 40 percent fine fescues, less than 40 percent Kentucky bluegrass and less than 15 percent of perennial ryegrass.

Ornamental Grasses

• Although there are more options when choosing an ornamental grass for a sunny location, a few species are notable for their shade tolerance. These grasses include Korean feather reedgrass, tufted hair grass and Northern sea oats.