You need three things for a healthy lawn. Sun, water, and food (fertilizer.) If your lawn has all of that in the correct amount, gyour Gainesville lawn will grow and eventually thrive in 98% of scenarios. If you don’t have the three components in the proper amount, it doesn’t matter how much time, effort, or money you throw at the problem, you’re not going to be able to grow dense grass.
That’s a hard pill to swallow for many of our customers who have a lot of shade in their Gainesville yard. But if you consider how much sun you need in Gainesville, Florida lawns for our most common grasses you can see why shady lawns are challenging.
St. Augustine. Requires about 4-6 hours of sunlight to establish. Once established, St. Augustine can do ok with less sunlight and will actually acclimate over time if a tree has been planted that casts a fair amount of shadows. This is crucial to understand if you have a neighbor who has a healthy St. Augustine lawn that has a fair amount of shade. The St. Augustine was established long before the trees matured and cast more shade. If you already have a lot of shade, you’re not going to have any success sodding with St. Augustine unless you give it at least 6 hours of sunlight.
Zoysia. Can survive in 5-6 hours of sunlight, and is regularly advertised as more shade-tolerant than St.Augustine due to early studies. However, most St. Augustine grass vareties have proven over time to be a bit more shade-tolerant than Zoysia.
As you can see, most lawns require a lot of sun which can be a challenge if you have mature trees on your property and a ot of shade.
So, if grass isn't the answer for these areas, what is?
Acceptance! Embrace your shady lawn and quit fighting a losing battle against nature. Don’t invest in sod that ultimately won’t take. Don’t waste your time or money on thinning your trees. The best way to fix the problem is to invest in a workable solution for a shady lawn in Gainesville.
You can have a beautiful landscape in the shade. There are many ground covers and shrubs that do well in little to no light in Alachua County and TMLC has designed and installed hundreds (if not thousands) of landscapes for shady lawns over the past 2 decades. In fact, the majority of our landscape projects are for customers who have accepted they’ll never be able to grow grass in their shady lawn and want a shady lawn solution.
If you need help with a lawn or landscape problem we would love to earn your business. We install landscapes ranging from $2,500 up to $50,000 +, and have been helping our Gainesville, Florida neighbors create beautiful outdoor spaces since since 2004. Give call us at. Give call us at (352) 378-5296 or info@themasterslawncare.com.