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Florida Gardening

What type of grass sod to plant in shade area under Oak trees?

13 years ago

I have been trouble getting grass to grow under an Oak tree with mixed shade and sun area. What type of grass sod should I use? I have heard of St Augustine or Palmetto. Which will be better? Will it show the difference if I have already St Augustine grass on my front lawn vx placing Palmetto? Thanks for your help.

Julier-2010

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Comments (5)

johnjsr
13 years ago
Palmetto is a type of St. Augustine that does well in the shade. The most common varieties of St. Augustine like Floratam will not grow in the shade. Palmetto will do fine in the sun too and it's said to be bit more drought tolerant. It will blend in visually with your other (Probably Floratam) St. Augustine grass.
john
gatormomx2
13 years ago
There really is no grass ( turf) that does well under oaks.
Oak trees don't much like grass under them either.

From the link St Augustine For Florida Lawns
"'Palmetto'
'Palmetto' was a selection found by a Florida sod grower in 1988 and was released in the mid 1990s by Sod Solutions. It is of intermediate growth, with shorter leaf blades and internodes than many other cultivars, but is slightly larger than the dwarf St. Augustinegrass cultivars such as 'Seville' and 'Delmar'. It has a nice growth habit and does well in full sun or partial shade, but not in dense shade. It is sometimes referred to as drought-tolerant, but research has not shown that it has any greater degree of drought tolerance than other St. Augustinegrasses. It often has problems with disease, particularly in Florida's humid environment. It tends to have a lighter green color than many other cultivars."

The link below has good info too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Turfgrass in the Shade
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I have a huge oak in my side yard where nothing (including grass) has ever grown - just dirt. I never worried too much about it, but last year, as an experiment, I decided to try to "lasagne" it, in preparation for making a little woodland garden there, and I am most pleased with the results, though it's far from finished. I actually skipped the newspaper part since there wasn't any grass to speak of, but just gradualy started with thin layers of grass clippings and leaves and whatever else I could think of that I had random bags of in the garage (blood meal, manure....). I started the layering in June. I put in hostas and bulbs (narcissus and muscari) in the fall, and have started to add some sweet woodruff as filler. I just ordered some myosotis alpestris from the Bluestone 50% off sale which I think will also do well there, and may move some phlox divaricata there. It's already so easy to plant things in - a pleasure, really. The soil improvement has really been the key. It's not the shade or the roots that are the problem - as usual, it's the SOIL.
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Why remove the leaves? The plants love them, but I know if you're dealing with an HOA, you may not have a choice. I had bromeliads, gingers, amaryllis, crinums and philodendrons under my oaks. I planted the philodendrons by laying them up against the oak tree trunk and covering with a pile of dirt. They eventually grew up into the tree and were gorgeous. I loved not having to rake under the tree, or even fertilize much, because of the leaves. Never "planted" a bromeliad. Just laid them on the ground and let them do their thing. The gingers only need an inch of dirt over them to grow. The giant crinum was planted quite by accident when I was given one which I tossed under the tree and forgot about. It rooted into the ground, still growing on its side, and bloomed like mad every year. The amaryllis I started as tiny bulbets given to me by a friend, so I only had to dig a tiny little hole and cover with dirt to start them. They took a few years to bloom, but they did, and multiplied like mad. There is a grass that will grow under oaks. It's called "Bitter Blue" St. Augustine, and it's not that easy to find. Mine was there when I moved in, and wherever it grew out from under the shade, it died, because I didn't irrigate the lawn. Still, it thrived under the oak. Monkey grass is also easy to plant and grow under oaks, because you can pull the clumps apart and just plant the sprigs. It fills in rapidly. Same with the green or variegated ornamental sweet potato. Just root some cuttings in water and plant them as soon as they have tiny 1/2" roots on them. Of course, you can always mulch and use containers for flowers if you want. A lot of people do that.
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I'm afraid you can suffocate your tree if you add more than 2 or 3 inches a year of soil and etc. over the roots of your trees. Been there, done that, and I am still paying for it even after I removed most of the soil. Having said that I have a whole garden area under my oak tree including pathways. The soil should be in good shape because of all the leaves (that's if you left the leaves on the ground) that fall and decompose. I have planted all types of tropical plants and salvias under this tree. If all your trees are fairly close you may want to add a landscape design that includes, if you have it, some of your sunnier areas. This will be different from just putting circles around each tree. This may be a larger project then you may want to take on but it can be done a little at a time. The feeder roots of your oak tree are usually around 12" deep so I would stick with putting smaller starts of plants in, one gallon size or less. Stay away from the 3 gallon size. Good luck and remember if you are not happy with the way the plants look you can always change it.
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ritaweeda
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We had Palmetto installed under a huge Chinese elm years ago because it was supposed to do better in the shade. It lasted for about a year and fizzled. It didn't die out completely but it never looked good. The best thing for plantings under shade trees are shade-tolerant plants and ground-covers and heavily mulched beds. It's best not to fight nature, it always wins. I found that out after moving onto wooded acreage. We don't fight the trees anymore, I let nature plant under them. We had the trees and underbrush cleared out to 60 feet all around our house and planted lawn, but when it hits the woods it ends there, we let it take care of itself except for the twice-yearly bush-hogging.
coffeemom
13 years ago
Forget the grass. Bromeliads are good for covering the dirt where the grass won't grow.

Or just mulch the area.
katkin_gw
13 years ago
That's just what I was about to say, forget the grass and make it a planting bed with bromeliads. :o) That's a great picture.

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