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New lawn from seed - Best type of grass to suit my garden?

DigsyDigsy Posts: 2
in Problem solving
Hi there. My first post so be gentle. :)

I am about to lay a new lawn from seed and need some advice on what kind of seed I should choose to best suit my garden.

Quick description: My garden is about 7m x 7m with shrubs in borders on all three sides not adjacent to the house. It is exactly north-east facing, and is overlooked by adjacent two story houses on the north-east and south-west sides. The north-east, south-east, and north-west sides have 6 foot fences and borders filled with established shrubs in metre-wide borders. The corners to the east, south, and west used to have large conifers which have now been removed.

A bit of history: About twenty years ago I laid the old lawn from turf, no idea what kind now, and it looked fine for a few years. However, through poor maintenance (I am not a keen gardener) the area of lawn closest to the house (south-west) became invaded by "weed" grass. The part farthest (north-est) away stayed quite fine but tended to dry out to the point where it looked almost dead in the summer months.

However, as the borders (and particularly the conifers) became more established, the lawn in the east corner became pretty much dominated by moss. For a couple of years I tried to eradicate this and re-seed but it would look fine for one season and then die off over winter. When I came to lift the "turf" to remove the old lawn, this corner had absolutely no actual grass on it at all.
Overall I would say the garden is quite shaded. In fact it only receives direct sunlight early in the morning as the sun rises though the south-east area which is not obstructed by a house. Even so the fence on that side still casts a decent shadow. In the summer months the sun is high enough in the sky to shine on the north-east, south-east, and  north-west areas quite late into the afternoon, but during the winter when the sun rises in the south-east and sets in the south-west, the lawn area really only gets direct sunlight on the north-west side in the mornings. 

So, what I need to try to establish is what made my old lawn fail by:
1) Getting invaded by weed grass in the south-west side.
2) Getting invaded by moss in the eastern corner.

Was it the lack of consistent sunlight, or the borders and conifers sucking available moisture out of the soil, bad maintenance, or a combination of all three?

Finally, what would be a good type of grass seed to re-sow with?   

Thanks in advance!

Posts

  • amancalledgeorgeamancalledgeorge Posts: 2,736
    I think you've rationally answered your own question. Hoping for a lawn without sunshine and lots of effort is not feasible. If that was my patch I would find an alternative.

    I know that it is the convention to have uniform borders surrounding a patch of grass but there is so much beyond that. Your layout seems really boring as it is, I'd mix it up a bit by playing around with enlarging some borders and making it feel a bit less symmetrical.
    Would maybe a neat area of gravel look nicer and frankly be easier to look after while it also offsets the more lush planting beautifully?

    You have already a design overview of the space, try new proportions with a more fluid border that is not inform depth to add a more immersive quality to the planting, it could be a verdant oasis even without the ubiquitous lawn.  

    Here are some ideas of what I mean 



    To Plant a Garden is to Believe in Tomorrow
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Shady plots will always struggle and are a lot of work if you want grass to thrive. You can certainly get seed to suit shadier sites, but there will always be moss and other weeds coming in because the grass will be weaker. If you're not bothered about the odd patch being less than perfect, it's easy enough, but if you want an immaculate sward, it's a lot of work to achieve and maintain that. 
    If you actually use the grass - ie there's dogs/people playing on it, that makes it even more difficult. 
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • DigsyDigsy Posts: 2
    Thanks for the replies, both. I don't think my garden is quite as overlooked / shady as in the examples posted but I'm not really sure "how shady is shady", so over this week I went to the bother of making a sun map. Each square is roughly 1m x 1m and the numbers are the hours of direct sunlight that the lawn area gets. The more shady areas are far from the Black Hole of Calcutta - there's plenty of light about - but it is not direct. As we are about half way between the longest and shortest days this should be a good average for the year. In summer I expect it to get roughly 50% more and in winter roughly 50% less.

    Does this constitute "shady"? Let me know what you think.


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