Question
I have battled for years attempting to maintain a lawn once the acorns begin to fall.  I'm pretty good about raking and blowing, but I STILL wind up at the end of the fall season with very little grass left and a front and back yard that you could hardly call a "lawn".  It dies down to the dirt, then fills in quickly with moss, weeds and clover.  I am surrounded by huge oaks, but they are well maintained and trimmed and we do get sun periodically throughout the day.  
Is there something that I can add, like lime, for instance, to help the chemical balance of the soil?  I NEED HELP!!!  I am so tired of working so hard for such dismal results!

Answer
Thank you for your generously worded note of appreciate. I'm glad I can clear this up. Unfortunately, it is going to be a difficult problem. I'm sorry we can't do more.

Adding lime, as you suggested, would not really help significantly with this problem. Oak tree roots are like sponges, seizing all moisture and all nutrients, leaving nothing behind for anyone else. Not even the groundcovers, which must have nerves of steel to survive.

Usually I say, Go ahead, it can only help to add Lime to most situations.  But here, it would probably be an insignificant fix.  If your soil was to acidic, the grass would be yellow and chlorotic.  Not just dead.

The Clover - if it is not yellow clover - is a good thing to have in your lawn.  Clover is a little Nitrogen factory, it makes Nitrogen out of air and pours it into the soil for the grass.  Yellow Clover is a weed and should be removed.

Building up the soil is your best hope.  That means that you should NOT rely on chemical fertilizers with names like Scotts on the bag.  Reason being, if you make that mistake, you will eventually have salts build up in the soil and then you'll be in real trouble.  Fortify the soil; get the microbes to multiply and they will generate nutrients.  With the oaks dominating the landscape, it can only improve your chances of growing satisfactory grass.  Humus, Peatmoss, and odd sounding bags of things like Mushroom Compost will be perfect to sprinkle over your soil.

Keep me posted and let me know if you have any questions.

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Emma, you came to the right place.  I will help you with your lawn.

I will ask you a few questions and you may have the answers, you may not.  I'll also give you some information and a bit of advice.  So you can stop worrying about this and move onto more important things.  Our gardens and grass should be a source of joy.  Not a cause of insomnia.

Do you know what kind of grass you are growing?

I'll take a guess here.  Correct me if I'm wrong.

You're growing a non-spreading grass - Fescue, perhaps. And you're growing Fescue because fine-leaved Fescues like Creeping Red Fescue and Chewing Fescue are the champions of shade tolerance.

Perhaps you mixed it with, say, Kentucky Bluegrass.  Another non-spreading grass.  Or perhaps you are growing a warm season grass and selected St. Augustine, the most shade-tolerant Southern turf.

All this poor grass is competing with the roots of a family of large, stately, beautiful oak trees which you have carefully pruned to raise the tree canopy during the summer and get as much sun down to your grass as possible.  At least, I hope you have.

If you haven't, that may part of your solution.

To quote the University of Minnesota Cooperative Extension Service: "To grow any turf worth having, you need an area that gets roughly 50% sunlight.  This can be filtered through trees or it could mean several hours of full sun and the rest of the day, diffused and/or filtered light."

Aggressively spreading grass like Bermuda, for instance, can take a little competition for nutrients, water and light - but Bermuda suffers under shade.

Tree-shaded lawns can be overwhelmed by autumn leaves.  

Fine Fescue is shallow-rooted and grows in clumps that can tear when you rake acorns out of them - better, get a plastic rake or even a leaf-blower.  Take leaves up frequently throughout the season to provide all the light you can.  Remember, late summer/early fall is prime grass growing weather - warm days and cool nights boost metabolism as well as demand for nutrients and light.  If you don't give your grass all of those, it will starve.  You cannot compensate for a shortage by raising the amount of another need.  Grass needs all of everything.

So.... let's try to get a handle on how much sun we are talking about, and how much water, and the nutrients availability.

First, please go to "Choosing the Best Grass" the Walter Reeves website (http://www.walterreeves.com/lawns/article.phtml?cat=6&id=43) and determine the amount of sun your grass is really truly getting in the summer, when the leaves are on the trees.  If you are growing Kentucky Bluegrass, and you only have Partial Shade - which may be what you really mean when you say you have "sun periodically" - the grass will be ekeing out a living under your oak trees.  You'll have to change grass or change the light.

If you are getting a good amount of sun, as in, "Partial Shade" - 8 hours of filtered sun - you need a grass that can grow in Partial Shade.  Not Kentucky Bluegrass.  Not Bermudagrass.  Those need "Very Light Shade" or "Full Sun".

How's your fertilizing been doing this summer?  Are you mowing high, to accommodate the longer bladelengths that shade-living turf needs?  Are you leaving those clippings on the lawn, or are you raking them up - and with it, all that soil-building Nitrogen?  And back to that question - what kind of grass are you growing and how have you been fertilizing?

If your Oaks are truly mature - and remember, there are people who would kill to have a huge, old, picturesque Oak in their yard - for grass to flourish, it is time for Plan B: groundcovers.

The California Oak Foundation(http://www.californiaoaks.org/ExtAssets/oakcaresec.pdf#search='oak%20tree%20tap%...) points out, "Only drought-tolerant plants that require no summer water should be planted around old established Oaks, and they should be planted no closer than six feet from the base of the tree."

That eliminates ivy, azaleas and any vegetation that does not fit that description.  Pachysandra and Hosta seem to be the most successful groundcovers grown under trees in New York landscapes.

Finally, all Oaks are not alike.

There is White Oak, Red Oak, Black Oak - all Quercus.  When young, they develop a strong, deep tap root that makes transplanting them difficult.  As they mature, lateral roots spread, sometimes in an extensive network, and then they build their own tap roots, all intended to absorb all available water and food for the tree.  Sometimes, even a groundcover won't work.

The shallow, spreading root system of the Water Oak dominates in a ruthless battle for nutrients and water, causing severe problems for grass and plants planted underneath.  Pin Oaks and its relatives may be less ruthless.  But given the time, most Oaks will mature into substantial horders of nutrients in a war that grass simply can never win.

Back to your acorns.

While we're contemplating the next step, you may have an urge to rake up the acorns.  Instead of raking this year, why not use a leaf blower attachment with a mulcher?  Black and Decker used to make one.  Are the acorns sprouting out there before you get them up?

No, it is not the acorns.

Now, what kind of grass did you say that was?