Growing Grass in Mixed Sunlight Areas

One very common question for us is how to deal with growing grass across the variations of sunlight levels on a typical commercial property.

You have areas that are covered with trees that provide a reduction in the sunlight in the 50% range to building shadows that shades up to the 80% range.  Some grasses don’t do as well in shade as they do in full sunlight.

On the topic of shaded lawn recommendations, the Midiron Tiff is an excellent lawn for Arizona because of it's drought tolerance, and ability to withstand high traffic. It is a member of the Bermuda family and does much better in full sun. Also typically Tiff lawns look best when cut with a front reel mower. But these are very high maintenance and therefore more expensive to operate.

At  Greens Keeper Landscape Maintenance, we recommend Palmetto St. Augustine. Palmetto St. Augustine can do very well both in full sun, and in shady areas. Additionally with Palmetto St. Augustine there is the benefit of year round growth with the elimination of the need for the winter lawn over seeding. In the coldest of the winter months, St. Augustine lawns do slow in growth but look nice year round. The main draw back to a St. Augustine lawn is it's higher water requirements.

We often see remnants of last years winter lawn that most likely had been kept alive in the shady areas until some time in July. It doesn't take much more if not the same amount of water for St. Augustine as it would to keep the Rye grass alive most of the summer in the shady areas.

There is two ways we could go about planting St. Augustine.

Option one would be to seed, or sod the shaded areas, but this would lead to somewhat of a patchwork look with multiple types of lawn in one front yard. Option two is what I would recommend for the best uniform look, but would definitely cost more.

Option two would be to kill off all the existing Bermuda lawns with a non selective herbicide as soon as possible before any scalping takes place, and while we still have warm enough days for the Bermuda grass to grow. This is very important as otherwise we won't get a full kill on the established Bermuda. After the Bermuda is dead, then all the areas could be planted with St. Augustine.

Again, the main factor for the St. Augustine to be successful would be for the complete killing of the Bermuda first. It might become necessary to wait until spring to get the best results on the Bermuda since poison is not effective on dormant, semi dormant, or distressed Bermuda lawns.

It doesn’t matter to us whether you want lush lawns, desert landscaping or some type of landscaping in between, we can help.  To find out how give us a call at 623-848-8277.

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Greens Keeper Landscape Maintenance, LLC
623-848-8277
http://www.commerciallandscapecare.com
greenskeeperllc@cox.net