Question
I live in Westminster, Co.  I have a small back yard(aprox. 2100 sq. ft.) with 6 trees in it.  Needless to say, it is very shady.  The grass is very patchy.  I want to get it to be dense because I have a dog and children who need a soft, non-muddy place to play. There is also a sprinkler system installed. This would make tilling up the lawn difficult, if not impossible.  What do you recommend?  

Answer
I always say a house is not a home until you have a dog, children and a piano. Problem is, the dog and the children don't seem to be compatible with a beautiful lawn.  And yet your biggest problem isn't the traffic.  It's the trees.

Grass just won't THRIVE in 'VERY SHADY' light.  Grass is a full sun perennial. Some grass will tolerate less sunlight than others.

So your first step, Sheila, is to get more light to that grass.  You have to open up those 6 trees. (And please tell me those trees are NOT conifers.)

Get a good arborist to remove as many shade-producing branches as you can, especially the ones near the ground.

But that's not all.

Tree roots compete with anything planted under them for water and nutrients.  They win the battle for those just like they win the battle for sunlight, with sheer size.

Trees are great.  You can hang tire swings from them and build houses in them.  Birds and squirrels live in them.  Children climb them.  They look beautiful.  But it's VERY difficult - at best - to grow grass under them.  You'll have to give this your best shot.  Starting with the light.

Directly under the trees, you can just surrender all plans to grow grass, Sheila.  With kids hovering near the trunk the way kids love to do, the concentration of traffic is going to make it all but impossible to cultivate any species of lawn there.  Pick your favorite groundcover.  Hostas, pachysandra, ivy.

Let's see what kind of grass your Zone 5 will grow.

The Seedland.com website map indicates Bluegrass, Creeping Red Fescue, Tall Fescue, Kentucky 31 Fescue and Native-Buffalo Grass can thrive in your part of the country.  

Of these, the Creeping Red Fescue will take the most shade of any of the listed grasses.

The National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (www.ntep.org/states/co1/co1_fortcollins.htm) recommends Kentucky Bluegrass and Buffalo Grass as cool- and warm-season grasses for your region.  

Recommendations for Bluegrass (www.ntep.org/data/kb00/kb00_02-1/kb00co101t.txt) and Buffalo Grass (www.ntep.org/data/bu02/bu02_06-6/bu02co105t.txt) varieties are based on extensive testing in your region ("Total Eclipse" Blugrass and "378" Buffalograss were top rated).  Buffalo is considered a low-maintenance, slow growing, drought- and cold-tolerant turfgrass known for efficient use of water and fertilizer. Best of all, it is a great grass to absorb the pitterpatter of little feet.  

But Buffalo and Kentucky Blue demand sun.  You may not have great results with these if you don't have a lot of light there.  The Fescue looks like your best shot.  Or you can try a blend.  Seedland (www.seedland.com) has a dense shade mix.  Look over the varieties and see what looks good.  You'll have to use your judgment, since you're the one removing limbs to increase the light landing on your lawn.

Sowing should be done as soon as possible, when temperatures are still warm during the day and crisp in the evening, as soon as you think your soil is ready.  Sow light, rather than thick, to give individual blades the least competition and the most light.  Water carefully - watering is where most homeowners mess up by the way -- and when you finally get to mowing this grass 3-4 weeks later, keep it high; longer blades will be able to photosynthesize more better greens.

Now, you mentioned a soft, non-muddy place to play.  Sounds like you have been getting lots of mud back there, clay soil pulverized and trampled while wet.  

That's tres bad for the soil.  

To fix it, you don't have to Rototill.  Aerateing will be good, but best thing for the soil before you sow your grass is to ROUGHLY incorporate humus and manure, even peatmoss, to make it grass-friendly again.

Know how they say the best things in life are free?  Well, my favorite amendment these days is free.  And trust me, I am serious when I tell you to go down to Starbucks tomorrow and ask them to give you some of their USEDcoffee grounds.

Starbucks has started making special bags so people like us
can take the used coffee home and put it in our gardens.

It is not too acidic -- just slightly, and the good it does it incredible.  Earthworms LOVE it.  You need more earthworms in your garden.  Birds love to eat them, and they invigorate your soil in the most amazing, chemical free way, just right.

Go home, dump all this on the clay, hoe or shovel it around and get a rake to level it.

At this point, I hope I do not need to address the dangers of herbicides, pesticides and fungicides to children and dogs, as well as the grownups who love them.  

In a nutshell, let me draw a refresher image:  A lifesaver-sized vial of DDT, considered one of the safest pesticides ever used, poured on 4 kindergarten children, will kill 2 of them.  

They do not have to drink it.  They do not even have to taste it.  Just get it on their skin.  

This stuff is very, very bad.  It does not break down in shade, it is introduced to your home via little feet, and it stays there for years.  You breathe it, you touch it, it lives with you.  The exposure is long and the effects last a lifetime.  Don't go near those pesticides.  Check labels.

One more point about pesticides:  They have a debilitating effect on the soil.  You screw up the Nitrogen cycle with every dose, you destroy microbial life, Earthworms, ladybugs, all God's creatures with those chemicals that kill kill kill.  And once the balance of Nature is off, things like fungus begin to appear and then you have a REAL disaster on your hands.

Besides, chemicals will not make your life any easier. Sure, these products (with friendly names like Weed and Feed, or RoundUp) may be sold on every corner now, at the hardware store, at Home Depot, at the garden center, on the internet.  Stay away from them.  Friends don't let friends use pesticides.

Now, when it comes to those pets and children of yours...

We can assume children and pets come with friends.  This is great!  But not for your grass.

You are going to have to mark their territory.  Remember that old Perry Como song, about the shore running to the tide, It's Impossible?  Well, Sheila, it is impossible to grow grass under trees without light while children are running over it.  Im-Pos-si-ble.

Let me say that again: IM POS SIBLE.

First thing that comes to mind is that you will be nicely watering your shade-tolerant grass and along come those little feet again, this time bare and running through the lawn screeching as they jump over the sprinkler.

This may be a losing battle, Mrs. Douglas.

There's nothing more irresistable to a child than running across that grass in bare feet.  Except maybe running across it when there's snow on the ground.

Well, with your sprinkler system, maybe you're on to something there.

Running on mud wrecks soil structure in a major way.  It's bad for your laundry situation too.  But the damage it does to the soil is not something you can Shout Out.

Figure out where the children are going to congregate.  Hopefully you have already figured out where the croquet, the treehouse, the kickball diamond, the pool, the jungle gym and the tire swing are going.  Forget grass there.  For the rest of the lawn, put down slate or stone steps to mark a traffic area and keep feet off your grass.

For the corners, Hemlocks are a choice for a few corner spots to add height.  This is the only evergreen that will thrive in shade by the way.  Helleborus, the Christmas Rose, is tricky but blooms in the dead of winter and likes shade.  Azaleas will bloom nicely in the shade very spring.  You can put these under trees and they will thrive.  Just water and fertilize as needed.  Use these to mark off the areas you want to discourage the children from frequenting.

Although I admit I do not know how you are going to do that.  You don't want to be one of those houses with a sign outside that says "Keep Off The Grass".  You WANT children to come over to play.  You WANT the dog to run around and enjoy its dogself.  It's all part of a great and wonderful life.

Grass?

Who cares.

Give it your best shot.  Never underestimate the power of prayer - the entire Douglas Family needs it for this!

Then sit back, and enjoy your wonderful life.  Thanks for writing.