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Shade-Tolerant Lawn Grass

For yards adorned with multiple, wide-spreading trees or shrubs, sunlight exposure must be taken into consideration when selecting a grass for the lawn. If the majority of your yard receives fewer than six hours of direct sunlight per day, or it receives only indirect or filtered light, it's advisable to select a grass especially well-adapted to shaded conditions. Alternately, if your lawn is partially shady and partially sunny, plant a blend of grass types or divide up the yard into lawn and shade-tolerant ground covers.

  1. Fine Fescues

    • Fine fescues are among the most common types of grass recommended for shady areas. Many varieties of fescue do well in the shade. They include chewings fescues, such as Barfalla, Checker and Highlight; creeping red fescues, such as Dawson, Ensylva and Ruby; and hard fescues, such as Aurora, Reliant and Waldina. Fine fescues are cool-season grasses with relatively hardy growth patterns. They tolerate drought well and thrive in shade. Many lawns and golf courses consist of fine fescues.

    Turfgrasses

    • Among warm-season grasses, several varieties of turfgrass demonstrate healthy, robust growth even in shady areas. St. Augustinegrass is exceptionally well-adapted to shade, producing blades with a deeper green color and responding better to drought in shady areas. Some varieties of zoysiagrass and centipedegrass also perform well in shady areas. Even among St. Augustinegrass, shade tolerance varies widely among individual cultivars. Seville, Delmar, Floraverde and Captiva do well with just five or six hours of sunlight. On the other hand, Floratam, a widely used cultivar, grows somewhat poorly in shade, needing over six hours of sunlight daily.

    Perennial Ryegrass

    • As a cool-season alternative to fine fescue, perennial ryegrass offers reasonable tolerance to shade. Among recommended cultivars are Birdie II, Citation II, Fiesta II and Regal. Perennial ryegrass is better suited to close mowing than annual ryegrasses. It also has more shoots per square inch. You can recognize perennial ryegrass by the ribbed surface of the blades and their shiny undersides.

    Blends

    • Many grasses are sold as blends of multiple varieties or species. For example, it's common to find perennial ryegrass sold as a blend of different cultivars. You may also find blends of Kentucky bluegrass and perennial ryegrass. While Kentucky bluegrass is not usually very shade-tolerant, certain varieties---such as Bensun, Bristol and Eclipse---fare better than others. It's also common to find blends of shade-tolerant Kentucky bluegrass cultivars with fine fescues.

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Lawn Basics
  1. Lawn & Grass Problems
  2. Yellow & Thatchy Lawn
  3. Overseeding Sod
  4. Grass Growing Products
  5. Lawn Tips
  6. What Is Scalping a Lawn?
  7. Grass Fungus Prevention
  8. Turf Grass Experiments
  9. Home Lawn Treatments
  10. Easy Lawn Care
  11. My Lawn Has Weeds
  12. Growing Early Grass

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