South Florida Shady Lawn

[Tbarn917]

Hi all,

I moved into my house about a year ago and the backyard was 80% soil, 10% leaves, and 10% pine straw. There is an abandoned irrigation system in place that I didn't have the time to tinker with so we laid Bahia sod so we could utilize the south Florida rains to keep it alive. Now a year later we have some areas that are thriving and other areas that are back to soil from the shade of a large oak tree and two rowdy bloodhounds.

We have a few areas that are in shade all day. I tried a shade tolerant seed from Pennington which grew nicely for a month or so and is starting to die off. I don't really have any weeds and even my Bahia doesn't sprout the seed heads so it really doesn't seem to be spreading to the bare spots.

Any recommendations for the shaded areas and durable grass for the dogs? I really don't care what it looks like (clover, grass, moss whatever). I just want to minimize the dirt from coming in with the dogs. We don't want to mulch because the dogs are dumb and will eat it and it will also be difficult to clean up leaves when they fall. I also am confident that I can revive the irrigation if that helps with advice.

[Lindsaylew82]

What about mulching with pine straw?

You could plant it heavily with hostas! They're a shade loving plant that comes back every year. Not sure if they have a dormant season in Florida... Maybe some of the more floral fragrant hostas? You need to use that irrigation!

Dwarf mondo grass is a good shady ground cover. It spreads quickly, and densely, fairly drought resistant, and it looks really good with very little maintenance. Cons are that it can be invasive when boarders aren't managed, and I have found it dang near IMPOSSIBLE to remove.

Oak leaf hydrangeas do well in the shade, and lots of the floral gingers do well too.

[imafan26]

If it is not deep shade but does get at least 4 hours of sun. Dwarf St. Augustine is a shade tolerant grass.

[rainbowgardener]

I like the idea of planting the shade area in ground cover. There's an evergreen wild ginger (not the culinary kind) that is very nice. Or violets or creeping phlox or ajuga.

Other possibilities, not as low growing, cast iron plant, sword fern, bracken fern, (bracken fern grows in drier areas than other ferns).

[Lindsaylew82]

Ooooooooh I like bracken fern!