[BarakaRS]

I am currently in the process of nursing my lawn as far as I can towards a tier 3 lawn. Currently it's at a tier 1. My lawn is somewhat shaded so I'm not sure how thick I'll ever be able to get it without cutting some trees or branches at the very least, but I'm going to have fun trying. No to mention we sort of love our mature trees. I'm looking for assistance with what seed I should purchase and any other suggestions the community can offer to a newb DIY'r.

I have approximately 6,000 sq ft of turf. So far I've been spot treating the weeds and using the LCN's Cool Season Program pretty much to the letter, but I only started the program in April of 2018. I've got a lot of uneven areas that I'd like to thicken up as much as possible. Below are a couple pics showing the progress being made. The first photo really shows the patchiness in trying to combat. The second photo shows I've been somewhat successful, bit I've got a long way to go.

Thanks in advance!!

 

[SNOWBOB11]

Looks like you've made some decent progress so far. As far as overseeding you'll find the most shade tolerant grass is usually fine fescue. I'd say you probably have that mixed into your lawn already. You look to get a fair bit of shade from your pics so you might want to consider a ff/p rye seed choice for your overseed. If you don't get much more sun than what your pics show I'd say it's going to be a struggle for you at times and your probably going to have to overseed once a year or even spring and fall.

Welcome to the forum by the way.

 

[agillespie]

I am there with you on struggling with shade, but I'm ok with it. You look like you have a pretty good start on things.

 

[Stegs]

tttf can handle shade better than most grasses. Otherwise you may want to look at poa trivialis

Id try slit seeding in some TTTF seed, and stay on a slow release fert program like milorganite every 35-45 days

 

[gm560]

Are these pictures the most sun you get during a day? My front lawn looks pretty similar when the sun is high... but gets direct sun in the morning and afternoon. I had a 50 year old, mainly oldschool fine fescue lawn that I have overseeded a few grass types with success. PRG isn't what people think of when they hear shade tolerance, but I threw some Pangea down at the base of some maple trees where it was thin and have been shocked how well it has done. I also overseeded some Bewitched KBG into it and it has taken off. So much so that I am planning to do a full reno in a few weeks and try all Bewitched or a Bewitched heavy mix in the front.

 

[SJ Lawn]

@gm560 When did you overseed with Bewitched ? When did it take off afterwards ?

 

[gm560]

I overseeded last fall. I hit up Drew at SSS after doing a spring overseed with a mix that was mostly PRG. I lost a lot of it in the summer and his advice was in NJ I needed way more *** than I had. At the time I was ignorant to the fact that most people had little success overseeding with KBG.

I didnt see a ton of action in the fall, but this spring, it came in pretty strong. Parts of the lawn were really thin, so that could be why I had more success than people trying to overseed into an already thick bit of turf.

However, take this with a grain... I am now planning a full reno, so it didnt go THAT well.

 

[social port]

Based on that amount of shade, I'd try TTTF.
If that didn't work, I'd go with fine fescue.

 

[BarakaRS]

Thanks for the tips everyone. Does anyone have any specific brand suggestions for seed or should I just hit up a big box store for the usual offerings they have?@gm560 This is the level of shade that it gets in the morning through mid day. Afternoon let's more direct sun in, but not entirely. I'd love to get some KBG and TTTF threaded into it, but didn't know where to begin in the thought process.

 

[gm560]

Avoid big box stores. Not only do they sell inferior seed, it usually costs more because they mix in crap like seed coating. So a 20lb bag is actually only 10lbd of seed. Look at seed superstore or preferred seed. They have some mixes or you can buy individual cultivars and mix your own. Seed superstore in particular has a wealth of information on the website. Bewitched is the best shade tolerant *** cultivar. TTTF I'm not sure about, others can chime in.

 

[BarakaRS]

Thanks @@gm560 ! Never knew of SSS. I'll definitely look into what they have to say.

 

[jaygrizzle]

@BarakaRS you could also look at The Hogan Company. I have seen them recommended on here by many people so I called them to see if they would be able to help with my fall overseed. The owner of the company was running the phones when I called and he is super nice and helpful. I got 10lbs for $2 and change a pound. With shipping I'm guessing it will be around $35ish for 10lbs which is about half of what SSS was.

He basically admitted that they wouldn't make any money on my order because it was so small, but that they like helping people with their yards.