Then my suggestions in grass will sound familiar. Fine Fescue such as creeping red, or a blend of creeping red, hard fescue and chewings fescue. OR you can add in some tall fescue also which is more common and sold in shade mixes in the hardware store. Fine fescues tolerate a dry shade and have performed excellent in my yard through this past summer.

With that said though, you have to prepare the soil and I'm not sure I understand your description of it or where the asphault comes into the equation. Site prep is the first step.

If you wanted to seed the lawn, you can forget about it this year. With no rain and no way to water and being this late, your results wouldn't be good. I wouldn't suggest a spring planting either. The best shot is next september. That gives you a long time to prepare.

Thanks very much. I wasnt planning to seed this year -- I still have several days (weeks) worth of ivy-pulling ahead of me first, and would not want to plant anything with the current drought.

What is the reason for not seeding fescue in the spring? This was what I was hoping to do.

Sorry for the confusion, the asphalt is behind the house and I'm not planning anything with that area at the moment. No idea yet what to do with that (ripping it out is my ideal, but this will be expensive). The area I want to grass is in front of the house and currently ivy-covered.

We have a lot of mulch from some tree stump-grinding on the property. I have been using this to cover the soil after I have cleared ivy. The soil is the usual Atlanta clay-ish soil. I was hoping that the mulch would all compost down a bit and make a good enough base for seeding grass. Or will I need to add soil as well before seeding? Thank you so much.

Welcome, Mayland. If I were you I'd stop pulling out that ivy immediately and keep it until the drought is over. Which could be in a few months or a few years.

Ivy is not PC these days by conventional wisdom, but with the normal very modest attention it requires it is beautiful, tough, very easy care, a historic and time-honored Southern plant, AND drought tolerant. And particularly valuable in your case right now, yours has well-established root systems which will help it survive drought and children. Kids will wear thin spots in it but it'd take a football team practicing on it daily to actually kill it.

As far as this fantastic plant's one big negative, that it can be a pernicious weed, only the adult form form makes seed, and it's easy to remove any plant that progresses to that mature stage. And as far as growing up into the trees, it requires sustained neglect to get up there. A trim around the bases once a year will take care of anything that escapes the mower or weedwacker.

As far as mowing goes, it's far more environmentally responsible than lawn as it only needs to be mowed each one or two years depending on how trim you prefer to keep it. It needs minimal feeding, no artificial fertilizers required, to keep it looking nice, and with mowing it will never develop enough depth to harbor the rodents some people associate with it. And be easy for your kids to run around on top of.

Really the only other significant negative is that it's so out of favor these days, to the point that everyone is pulling it up six ways from Sunday without even considering the possibility that it might be valuable. But if this drought continues I predict that will change--big time.

I'm not sure the mulch would break down quick enough and you really want to have good seed-to-soil contact so having lots of bark in there isn't what you want but adding organic matter to the soil is generally a good idea.

And as for the spring planting, if it weren't for the weather the past two years, I'd say go for it. I won't plant anything in the spring anymore in this area. I learned my lesson. Last spring I lost a lot of stuff that I had transplanted due to unusual heat and the drought just made it impossible. After a couple months of that I got tired of hauling buckets and gave up. There is just not enough time for the grass to get established before the drought and heat set in.

I don't think you'd want to plant fescue seed right now because it requires warmer temperatures to germinate.

Most people don't seed fescue in spring because it is a cool season grass and it (the temperature) tends to warm up pretty fast around here, and the new fescue would not like that. Fall (September) is a better time to seed fescue. But it CAN be done in spring and people do it.

As rosie said, it is the mature form of ivy which causes seeds to form and be spread by birds. It becomes mature when it climbs. Keep it on the ground and it should stay in your yard. However, folks that have ivy under the premise that they will keep it maintained should remember that if they ever sell their house, the next owner may not be so responsible. And Atlanta (inside the perimeter) is full of owners that were not so responsible. Those old homes have trees that are full of it!

I personally would rather look at mulch/pine straw than a patch of English ivy, I don't care how drought tolerant it is. Beside, it is stealing water from whatever trees you have near it - competition for whatever moisture hits the ground.

Mondo grass can be a nice alternative. Be sure to get the dwarf mondo (Ophiopogon japonicus 'Nana') and not Monkey grass (that's Liriope).

Also, what kind of trees do you have? Some trees will not allow any grass to grow underneath them.

I agree for shade that fescue or mondo is best. I like mondo. It only needs mowing once a year or so (usually in late winter) and spreads quickly.

I would recommend that before you seed or sod, that you have some topsoil trucked in to put over the clay. We sodded our back yard and had the topsoil put down first. It makes a big difference.

Has anyone tried Irish Moss as an alternate ground cover? It looks very pretty, almost like a well maintained bermuda but without all the chemicals and mowing. I were to do an alternate ground cover, I'd definitely investigate IRish Moss.

Thanks so much, you have all given me some great things to think about.

QQ- I saw an old thread yesterday with a beautiful moss lawn. It looked wonderful, but it sounds like it might be quite fragile (esp with kids playing). I also wondered how drought-tolerant it would be?

We have a mix of pines and hardwoods. The shade over this area comes mostly from hardwoods but they are not that close (>10 feet away), so we wouldnt be trying to grass underneath them.

Rosie, we will be leaving large areas of the yard with ivy and/or mondo grass. The area I am trying to clear and plant grass in is not that big (well, not compared to the whole property which is about 2/3 acre), and the ground there is really uneven so even if we kept the ivy there, the kids couldnt run on it (big, deep holes and old bricks and rocks). I'm trying to level it as I clear it.

Sounds like fescue or mondo will be our best bet, I will look into both. I do like the idea of moss though - what do you all think about its drought tolerance?

Thanks so much for all your help.

Here is that moss lawn thread, its really beautiful:

How much foot traffic do you think this would stand? And how little water? Is moss slow-growing? I wonder how long it would take to get a complete lawn?

Here is a link that might be useful: moss lawn

I don't know. I said I haven't tried it. I would like to but don't have any where to grow it or any reason to do so. But if you do try it please post here with your experiences.

You might also take a looke at davesgarden.com and do a search there for the plant and you'll see people's experiences with it.

That moss lawn was amazing. I tried Irish moss for a very shady spot I had and it survived for awhile, but now it's gone. Maybe from the drought.

I went on a garden tour a few years ago, most of the homes were intown, they had moss or very mossy/weedy lawns because they had a lot of shade (old homes, old trees) My husband was drooling at the thought of no mowing.

Its so beautiful, but I dont think it will work for us. I found the website below, and sounds like it doesnt bear kids playing on it. They also mention regular "misting", so I think it wouldnt make it in a drought like this. Such a shame.
I'm just posting the link in case anyone who reads this wants to try moss.

Here is a link that might be useful: moss link