What is shade damage?

An area (or areas) or your lawn is not receiving adequate sunlight. As a result, your turfgrass is thinning. *Note: Even the most shade-tolerant grasses will become thin over two to five years.  

Turfgrass Light Requirements

• Full Sunshine: Bermudagrass
• Full sunshine to very light shade: Hybrid Bermudagrass (Includes Tifway419, Tifway II, TifSport, Patriot)
• Full sunshine to light shade: TifGrand Bermudagrass
• Full sunshine to partial shade: Emerald, Zeon Zoysiagrass (Of the Zoysiagrasses, Zeon is the most shade tolerant)
• Full sunshine to light shade: Meyer, Empire, other broadleaf Zoysiagrass
• Light shade to partial shade: Tall Fescue

Most shade tolerant grass in Atlanta requires six hours of direct sunshine or eight hours of filtered light under tall trees. Tall Fescue must be reseeded/ replanted every fall.  

Definition of Sunlight Levels

• Full sunshine: Eight hours/day (or more) of unfiltered sunshine
• Very light shade: Seven hours/day of sunshine filtered through high pine foliage or very scattered hardwood trees or seven hours/day of unfiltered sunshine
• Light shade: Six hours/day of sunshine filtered through high pine foliage or scattered hardwood trees or six hours/day of unfiltered sunshine
• Partial shade: Eight hours/day of sunshine filtered through high pine foliage OR five hours/day of direct sunshine
• Shade: All-day sunshine filtered through scattered hardwood trees OR direct sunshine only four hours/day
• Dense shade: No direct sunshine touches the lawn all day. Examples: shade between two houses whose shadows prevent sunshine from hitting the lawn all day or turf under a heavy canopy of mature hardwoods.

What are the Options for Shady Areas of My Lawn?

• No turfgrass will grow well in shade or dense shade. For shady areas along existing plant bed(s) consider expanding your plant bed lines with mulch and/or planting shade tolerant plants.
• For shady areas under tree canopies, consider creating a mulch bed. Mulching under a tree canopy will not only improve the appearance of your landscape, it will benefit the tree’s overall health by removing turf which competes with the tree for nutrients.
• For shady areas caused by low-hanging tree limbs, consider pruning the tree limbs to increase the amount of sunlight available to the turfgrass.
• For shady areas caused by your home or other permanent structures, consider installing shade-tolerant plants and/or a stone walking path.
• Use Suncalc to see how much sunlight you get

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