Beat the shade this winter

With less daylight hours and weaker sunshine during winter, it’s important to keep an eye on anything that stops those precious rays reaching your lawn. So, how do you beat the shade this winter?

To start with – if you have some form of permanent shade over your backyard – install a shade tolerant variety of turf – more on this shortly. If there are areas that never ever see the sun, such as around your home, then consider some other form of ground covering before you begin the turf. Some options for heavily shaded areas where lawn just won’t grow are pavers, stones, a walkway/path or a garden bed.

Think about the long term shade affect on your lawn when planting trees and adding structures such as sheds.

If you already have permanent structures, close neighbours, large trees or an established lawn to contend with there are still things you can do to help your lawn deal with shade during the winter months.

• Water your lawn less frequently in shaded areas – water only when absolutely necessary but deeply
• Regularly prune trees, bushes and shrubs back to allow more sunlight to reach your lawn
• Never mow off more than one-third of the leaf at a time – always remove the grass clippings from the lawn to allow sunlight to reach the grass plants

Sir Walter

Soft Leaf Buffalo grasses like Sir Walter DNA Certified tend to do the best in the shade with most tolerating 50 to 70 % shade. This is about three to four hours of direct sun each day, or speckled sunlight from trees for the majority of the day.

Sir Grange

Sir Grange Zoysia is a new, highly shade tolerant turf variety which requires very low fertilising and maintenance due to it’s extremely slow growth habit. As a result, Sir Grange doesn’t require as much sunlight and can survive in areas of high shade better than most turf varieties currently available.

TifTuf

Another turf variety that has impressive shade tolerance qualities is the new TifTuf Hybrid Bermuda. TifTuf has increased gibberellic acid production which results in superior stimulation of photosynthesis. This means it has a better winter colour retention and the plants’ ability to have increased photosynthesis, means it has a greater ability to absorb sunlight. Overall this means that it needs 50% less sunlight than all other Bermuda lawn varieties available.

For all your turf varieties that will beat the shade this winter, contact the team at Daleys Turf. We are a Lawn Solutions Australia certified grower and proudly grow Sir Walter DNA Certified, Sir Grange and TifTuf.