Crabgrass looks sort of like grass. My neighbor must love it by looking at his yard : ) I sometimes wonder if he overseeds with it in the Fall.

Um....Crabgrass, now there's an idea. And, silly DH wants to do a deck and a 1/2 basketball court ;-). DS insists he already has a baseball field.

But, crabgrass, perhaps that's our answer ;-)

It sounds like you have 2 problems, and really a third. Shade, slope that result in lack of good penetrating moisture.

A guy who goes by dchall has listed how he improved his soil's water holding ability by using a soaker hose. Do a search on him and try that as your first effort. Basically he tells you how to water slow and deep so as to get the soil good and saturated. When it gets used to that it accepts and holds water better.

Next, before you give up on grass, after you get your soil to accepting and holding water better with the tips dchall offers, try exactly what some call a weedy grass anyway. Poa trivialis. Its a type of blue grass that is known for doing better in the shade and on compacted soils. Of course, that is a cool season grass and presumes you are not in an area that is too warm for them. If you are, you might try a hybrid called Shadow Turf that is bred for the shade.

Learning how to get your soil and especially your subsoil well watered could cure most of your problem. But, if it turns out that and some of the grasses that like shade better don't work because you have a heavily shaded area, then you might want to try ground covers.

I think there is a groundcover forum on G-W that would likely give you a lot of info. With kids, the first one that comes to my mind is clover, I think it is pretty soft and can be mowed just like grass. It used to be in many lawn seed mixes.

this thread has some pretty good lawns going on some really bad looking soil. maybe you shouldnt give up on grass so quickly.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/lawns/msg031151132739.html?13

Okay, here are some pictures. The soil on top is the amended stuff from last year -- underneath is pure orange clay! As you can see, there is nothing but dirt, except the one patch of beautiful grass/weed over by the old tree stump. You can see all the forest cover behind us and when the trees fill in, we have much less light. The green carpet is under the swing just to keep my kids shoes from turning orange. Yes, I know it needs mulch, but originally, it was going to be lush grass and we were going to ditch the set, LOL. And, the land does slope, though it is hard to see in pics. We had to have drain placed around the house.
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In your area, I think the easiest solution would be to mix fine fescue and dutch white clover. You'll need to water to get it going, but once established, those 2 should take the shade and lack of moisture pretty well.

Before you go trying anything you better get a soil test. You need lime and need to get rid of some of that fence.Grass will grow most places but you have to give it what it needs. I'm betting you need to lime. Your soil is acid along with the problems you stated doesn't for a good lawn make. Lawndivot12

Thank you Billl and lawndivot! Um, I look at those combos, and I didn't even think of the fence being a potential issue. Hits head -- thump! thank you -- and off for another soil test.

A couple of issues.

How long ago did you put in top soil and sod? Normal levels of reasonably acidic soils are not going to burn through a top level of added good soil and the soil that comes with the sod in any short period of time. Unless you are watering it with battery acid, it should have done well for a reasonable length of time if you kept it adequately watered and decently fertilized.

Second, your pic shows an entire yard, fence to fence, that is completely bare. Shading from the fence, if a factor of any significance, by itself might affect the viability of grass for two to three feet from the fence - max.

Odds are you have other issues affecting a back yard with top soil and sod added to it.

Any one or more of those suggested above might be contributing.

Adding lime might be one of the things you can do to help get it headed in the right direction. But, you probably have a number of steps you need to take to alleviate what can be described a wall to wall disaster.

The pics tell a thousand words. No grass is going to grow back there except for the Poa in the last pic. No warm season grass is going to survive in that much shade.

Texas-Weed, do you think fescue/clover mix might stand a chance with that much shade? Otherwise, after another soil test, we may need to go to alternatives like the bball court :-).

Fescue in Alabama? I don't know, are you near the coast or north part of the state?

We are Central Alabama, to the west. Right outside of Birmingham.