Question
QUESTION: What kind of grass would you reccommend for a yard that is damp and shaded (I realize if I cut back the trees, it would not be damp).  I was told a Red Fescue.
ANSWER: Hi David;
What type of grass you have deopends on what area you live in, and what types grow best there.
It ius too hot in the summers where I live for fescues.
We do well with either Burmuda or St. augustine etc.
Anmy grass you plant will need some sun, at ;least 4 to 6 hours a day.
Maybe you also need to test your soil.
If it stays damp, maybe there is too much clay, and it is not fraining well.
If you have hard clay, you need to till in some bark mulch to loosen it uo, so that grass will grow.
I think you will have to do some tree cutting to get enough sun on your yard to grow the grass too.
Charlotte

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QUESTION: I do have clay.  How about perforated pipe drqains.  How do you instal one?

Answer
Hi David;
You would dig a trench to install it in, but that won't help the clay as much as tilling a lot of bark mulch into it.
Clay soil won't let water drain through it, so that is why your lawn stays damp. It is so tight grass roots and those ot other plants can't grow through it, so they just die.
If you put about 4 inches of bark mulch and till it in with the existing clay soil,to a depth of 8 inches, you wil have 8 inches of soil that will allow grass to grow.
6 inches of bark mulch and till 12 inches would be even better.
That is the least expensive way to go.
You would give a lawn an even faster start and a faster start to better soil enrichment if you tilled in alfalfa meal, and lava sand.
Use 1 bag of lava sand per 100 sq.ft of soil, and one bag of alfalfa meal per 1000 sq.ft.
There are a lt of nutrients in lava sand and alfalfa meal.
Another thing to make the soil richer, would be to add 15 to 20 pounds of Agricultural corn meal per 1000 sq.ft.
You would still need to trim out some of those tree limbs to get some sun on the lawn.
If you can get 4 t 6 hours of sun per day on it, and emend the soil like that, you should be able to get almost anything to grow.
If you follow an organic lawn care program, after that first expense of getting the soil ready to lay in sod or plant grass seed, your expense will be very little, and the soil will continue to improve and enrich every day, because you will have all thos mcro-organsms in the soil working on it around the clock.
With no chemical fertilizers, weed killers etc, you will have a healthy enviornment for toads,lizards and grass snakes to live, and they will eat all the harmful insects that invade your lawn.
Weeds will not thrive in rich soil, so when the soil is rich, any weeds that come up will start to die out right away. After a couple of years of the organic program, weeds won't even get a start.
I am copying out my lawn care program for you.
If you follow it, you will have a weedfree, thich grassy lawn.
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You will constantly improve your soil if you go on a totally organic program, and don't use any chemicals at all.
I have beenm on such a program for the last 9 to 10 years, after breaking my back and ruining my body trying to maintain a decent lawn, with only mediocre results.
the organics has freed me from about 90% of the physical work, about that much of the expense, and the results are a think, beautiful yard with no weeds or harmful insects.
Man!!! Wish I had known all this 50 years ago !
The corn clutem meal is an organic product.
If you use organics, and then use chemicals, you will cancel out the organics.
Chemical fertilizers kill all the beneficial microbes, nematodes and other beneficial insects and critters that work around the clock improving your soil.
Beneficial microbes enrich the soil. Chemicls do NOT.
If you put a little too muchj chemical products on the lawn, it will burn your grass, and do a lot of other damage.
If you put too much organics on it, all you do is waste a little time and money.
Sugar does absolutely nothing but nourish the beneficial micrebes. THEY do the work.
Weeds will not grow in rich soil. If they cme up, they will start to die out right away.
The first time I use sugar was in the spring. I had not put any chemicals on the yard since the fall feeding, so they were all worn out of the soil.
I had a lawn about 50% full of dandelions, crabgrass, johnson grass, clover, dollar weed and some other shallow rooted weeds like chickweed etc.
a couple of weeks after I put down the sugar and watered it in, I had about half as many weeds. Nobody had pulled a weed or anything. My husband had just mowed.
I went nuts, like a school of sharks in a feeding frenzy, and ran out and bought more sugar, put it down and waterewd it in.
A couple more mowings, and there were so few weeds. In a few more werks they were all gone.
The next spring about half as many weeds as before came up, but in a few weeks they were gone.
All I had done was the sugar in the spring, and I did that again in the fall.
I used baking soda disolved in water for black spot on my roses and powdery mildew n my crepe mytrtles. That works much better then the chemical fungicides I had used before.
I started getting a nice herd of lizards, toads and grass snakes in my yard.
I had a BIG grub problem every year. I haven't had that since, nor do I have those nasty tent catapillars dropping on my head from the trees.
I see lizards running in the trees and along the fence. I never see the grass snakjes, which is fine with me. I seldon see a toad, but they are all there.
Sugar; I use 4 or 5 pounds per 1000 sq.ft. I just broadcast it by hand, and water it in well. If you spill a blob in one spot, no problem. No burning or other damage.

Watering; I always water to a depth of at least 6 inches. Deep watering like that encourages a deep root growth. That protects from heat, cold and drought damage, and prevents thatch. I water with soaker hoses, and run them till the water is close to the edge and is about to start running off the yard. then I turn it off and wait an hour or so for it to soak in, and turn it on again. I keep doing that until it is wet down to a depth of 6 inches at least. Even here in our Texas heat, I water only once a week, unless it stays well above 100 for a week or more, which it sometimes does. then I look at the grass, and if my St. Augustine is folded up, lengthwise, I know it needs water. It folds the blades up to reduce the area exposed to evaporation. Burmuda, when it gets thirsty, bends it's little blades a little, like it is bowing.
My earthworms and cock roaches etc tunnel through the soil, and that keeps it aerated. Their castings add nourishment. Cockroaches are beneficial. They normally live in the soil and feed on other harmful insects. We put down pesticides, and kill their food supply, so they come in our houses to get food and hide from the pesticides.
I use fresh rosemary to keep them out of my house.

Baking soda disolved in water, about 2 TABLESPOONS per gallon of water, sprayed on top and underneath all the leaves, prevent molds and fungus on plants. You can also use it for fungus in the soil, or you can apply agricultural corn meal and water that in. About 10 pounds per 1000 sq.ft.

Corn gluten meal is an organic fertilizer and weed killer.
It won't interfere with the sugar.
None of the organics calcel each other out.
Alfalfa meal is another good food to add. Just sprinkle it on in about the same thickness the sugar goes on, and water. It is full of nutrients. So is lava sand. Yopu can add it to the top of the soil, dig it into the soil, or add it when you are adding soil, or putting soil in a comntainer for a plant.
Alfalfa meal, as well as generally nourishing the soil, helps promote larger and more blooms in blooming plants and house plants.
You can also make a tea of it for foliar feeding or for watering house plants.
Put 1 cup alfalfa meal in 5 gallons of water and let steep overnight. Still and use to water plants, or strain it and put it in a garden sprayer for foliar feeding.  Be sure, if you strain it, to dump the dregs on the soil somewhere, it is still full of nutrients.
You probably won't need more fertilizert than that. I didn't use anything but sugar for about 8 or 9 years, and last spring, I leartned about the alfalfa meal and lava sand, so I use them.
If you have more questions, write to me.
I am very happy to share what I have learned, and am learning.
Charlotte