Anyone here with knowledge on grassy lawns? (and some gardening) Warning, long post.

[Caffienated_Caramel]

Hi, it's been awhile since I made a thread asking for advice. I wasn't sure if this belonged in Life advice or off topic since it's not an actual life problem...well not a human or animal life anyway.

Since spring is here, I've been reading up on lawns 101 and finding a way to revive my front yard because I'm a beginner. The most I've ever done with the back and front yard is mow the grass and rake leaves.

For where I live, I live in Southern Virginia (Virginia Beach. if that helps. Supposedly the transitional zone for grass.

For what my front yard is like... oh boy... There's a big old shingle oak tree with it's roots either emerging from the surface or just under, stretching halfway across the lawn. There was another tree but it was chopped down before my husband bought it and the dead roots are also close to the surface. So I have to be a little careful when mowing because I'm scared about the blades hitting a root.

Another issue is there's a lot of moss growing too. Part of it (if not all) is because of the tree's branches creating so much shade and it's very likely the soil is acidic (I haven't tested the soil yet) . I don't mind shade but I'm concerned when I see the moss and if that'll be an issue when wanting to grow a lawn.

The last one is weeds. Lots and lots of low to the ground kind of weeds. I have pulled weeds before but the ones I've usually dealt with grew higher. Like dandelions and dock. These kinds I've never seen before and I've just started learning what each one is that is currently growing in the front when I see them.

Those are the three big problems I have right now, well visually.

It was recommended to me to do a soil test before try to..deweed, level or...I have no idea what.

Ideally I kind of want to get rid of the tree and all the roots with it but I know it'll cost me and I was told breaking the sidewalk would be involved as the roots are under the sidewalk (looks like the roots tried to push it and failed so far). At the same time, I want to keep it and take care of it.

Obviously I want to get rid of the moss too but I have no clue how as I never dealt with moss before as a lawn pest. Do I dig it up with a shovel or other tool? It doesn't look it it'll go easily or at all if I do it by hand.

I wanting to get rid of these problems with little to no use of chemicals if I can avoid it before I begin to think about what to do next and picking out the grass seed I want.

For the gardening bit. I have a small triangular garden bed in the front yard up against the house. It gets more sun as it's furthest away from the tree. It has an Azalea bush that blooms pink flowers, yellow daffodils, a hidden pumpkin plant and of course weeds.

I did manage to get rid of three quarters of the weeds today. (It got dark before I could finish) I also dug up the daffodil bulbs (they're currently in a bucket). The new ones were stuck together. I haven't replanted them and I haven't decided if I want to replant them or put new breed of flowers in all together.

As for the Azalea bush, I want to keep and make healthier if I can. It hasn't grown up or anything so I never had to actually trim it. Inside and under the green leaves and flowers though, it looks...bare and dead. I know it's not or it wouldn't be green at all. Is that normal for a bush?

The biggest question/concern I have for the garden is the soil. It's very clay like after about four to five inches of digging. I don't really know if I should leave it like that or make it so it has some more drainage. I'm not sure if the garden bed floods or not from the rain because it had a layer of dead leaves for the longest time. ( I removed the layer to get rid of the weeds) On the plus side, the garden soil does have a LOT of earthworms.

That's all I can say for now. I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures of the lawn or the garden bed. I'll try and take some tomorrow so you guys can see what I'm talking about instead trying to visualizing it.

If anybody read this far, thank you for taking the time to read this and staying all the way through. I appreciate any advice you guys have for helping me have a nice healthy grass lawn. I'll answer any questions you guys have about the lawn or the garden bed as as best as I can.

[Seshat]

The interior of a healthy bush gets little sun, and therefore the bush doesn't bother to grow leaves in there - leaves are a plant's solar panels, after all!
So don't worry about the inside of the bush looking leaf-bare, that's normal.

You're unlikely to get grass to grow under the treeline of a healthy shade tree: that's also normal; most grasses like sun. There may be grasses that grow in your area that are shade-tolerant; ask a local or a garden specialist, or read up on local gardening magazines, books or websites.

Most professional gardeners make a shade feature of the area under a shade tree: they might put a special arrangement of paving under it (being careful not to pave the zone where the tree needs open soil), or put mulch and garden furnishings, or mulch and shade-loving plants.
Read up on websites about shade tree garden features, including how to pave under a shade tree, and also read up on local-to-you plants that enjoy living under 'big old shingle oaks'.

For the soil: take a sample of your soil and do a PH test on it, and also try crumbling it and squishing it together. If it squishes into a solid ball, it's WAY too clay-y for most plants. If it crumbles into something about the texture of cake crumbs or kitty litter, it's pretty good. You've already said it's not sandy.
You can improve all soils by adding organic matter. That gets digested into 'loam', the ideal soil. If you dig into your garden and have earthworms, YAY! If not, see if your local nursery can supply you with the sort of earthworms native to your area - garden worms, not 'worm farm' worms - and add them with your organic matter.

You can also improve your clay soil by adding sand. This won't help nearly as much as organic matter, but may be cheaper. A mix of organic matter and sand might be helpful, and cheaper than just the organic matter.

If the clay is basically one hard mat of proto-ceramic, you'll need to use a tiller. You can try to hand-till it with a tilling rake (DO ask at a garden store for advice!), but you'll probably want to hire a mechanical tiller. It's hard work.

For the PH, the ideal PH depends on which plants you want to put in; so again, check with your local garden specialists.

Garden specialist stores (not the big box ones) often have people with a lot of local plant knowledge, and they're often happy to share that knowledge. You can pay them for it by buying your plants and other supplies from them: and the plants are often healthier than the ones at big box stores. For reasons you can read about in 'Morons in Management' and 'Cursing out Coworkers' from our Big Box Store-working members....

For the lawn weeds: if they're wide-leafed weeds, or wider-leafed than grass, use a high-nitrogen fertilizer/weedkiller combination. Adding nitrates to your soil is a Good Thing (unless the soil is INCREDIBLY nitrate-high, which almost never is the case). But by spraying a high-nitrate fertilizer onto the weed leaves, you're over-nitrating the leaves, which will kill the weeds. Then the dead weed becomes soil organics, and the nitrogen you sprayed becomes part of what fertilizes the grass.

For the grass, again find local knowledge. Different parts of the world need different grasses. Different soils need different grasses. Different levels of sun/shade need different grasses.
Also, ask yourself if you need a lawn at all. If you're not planning on playing on the lawn, maybe you'd be better served with a groundcover that requires less water and less tending: in Australia, we're moving away from lawns for just that reason. A prostrate grevillia or sedge-based garden with access paths through it looks great, and needs little more than the occasional weeding; and maybe some pruning with a whippersnipper. You can make a paved area or a deck for sitting in the garden and talking, or other lawn-area-like uses.

As for your feature garden; take a long walk around the local area. Find out which neighbours have lovely gardens, and note which plants are common to most of the lovely gardens. The ones which are common are the ones you want to start with! They'll be the easy-to-grow, hardy-in-the-local-area ones; ones you can most easily tend.
After you've made an established garden with locally-hardy plants, you can start making features of more difficult plants if you want to. I rarely do: I prefer a low-maintenance garden.
You can often talk to the neighbours who have lovely gardens and find out the names of plants, get local advice, and often be handed clippings of some of the locally-hardy plants. It's a great way to get free plants, and the clippings will just be bits they'd have pruned off eventually anyway!
Once your garden is established, pay it forward: or when you get clippings (or prunings of your own) of something they don't have, return the favour.

Note: there's a particular way to take a clipping that will be easy to 'strike' (ie, get to grow roots and become a healthy plant), and it's not quite the same as the ideal way to prune a plant. I keep having to look it up myself; but when you're taking a clipping for someone who's been particularly helpful, look it up and give them a proper clipping.


Short form:

For under the tree, don't use grass. Use mulch, shade-loving groundcovers, or a 'shade tree' type garden feature. Or perhaps there is a shade-loving local grass; but that's less likely. You might find a shade-loving low sedge, which is a grass-like plant species.
Ask a local garden specialist for which grasses are good for the rest of your lawn.
Treat the clay with organics and/or sand, to break it down. Earthworms will also help break it down. Use a tiller if necessary.
Your gardening-happy neighbours are a great resource. Get to know them.


Edit to add:

I forgot about the moss. Unless the moss is on your buildings and causing you problems (such as bypassing a moisture barrier), leave it alone. It's a sign that your garden has relatively healthy air and moisture. Do some googling, research moss gardens, rockeries, and other ways to make a feature of your mossy area (and keep the moss away from manmade structures it might damage).
If you find the particular mosses you have ugly, discuss the issue with your local garden specialists. But personally, I'd take the presence of moss as a good sign for the future health of the garden.

[Kittish]

For the moss under the tree, why not leave it and encourage it to grow? Moss is generally attractive, soft on the feet, and a decent ground cover. If you do any paving under the tree (like a small sitting area), encouraging moss to grow between your pavers would probably wind up looking rather nice.

[EricKei]

As an additional (free or cheap) resource: The local Extension Service may be able to help -- The one here (MS) can accept soil samples, et al in order to advise you on the types of grasses that might work best, scheduling of when to prep (e.g., putting down weed preventative even if you don't have any weeds yet) and plant, when to fertilize, and the like. Most areas have something similar.

e.g., My brother recently decided to turn his scraggly backyard dirt utopia into a proper lawn. We knew that the area allowed for 4 or 5 types of grass, so he brought in a sample; they told him "bermuda and soyja (sp?) work best in that soil around here," helped him with schedules and the like.

[Caffienated_Caramel]

Sorry to keep anyone waiting for pictures. Here are some I took a few days ago before the lawn was mowed. Again I apologize if they're not great. I was in a bit of a rush at the time.

And I reached maximum files. Here's the tree in full view.



Since some of you mentioned keeping the moss, I do admit, I like the feel of it but I don't know how to keep it or even make it grow if it can be done. There really isn't much. Do I just spray it with a water spray bottle like you do in a terrarium?

As for the garden, Hubs mentioned growing vegetables or berry bushes. I don't feel comfortable growing food in a place where people can just walk right up to it can pick them off. Or even going as far clearing a whole bush of berries. I want to keep the edibles in the backyard.

Thanks for the link Eric.

Seshat: Organic matter...actually I think I still have some compost in our compost box in the backyard. I'll see what I can do about mixing it in. We have some neighbors that live across from us and next to us that have pretty gardens. Having me talk to them...I'm really shy...

[Kittish]

For that garden area, if they'll grow in your area, hollyhocks at the wide end. Should take three, maybe four of them to nicely fill that end. They come in some really spectacular cultivars, and the time I grew them in a flower garden, basically all I had to do was put up stakes for the flower stalks and water them every few days.

For the narrow end, maybe another azalea? With some low lying ground cover type flower in front of them both? Creeping phlox might work if the area gets full or near full sun. Periwinkle if it's mostly shaded.

For the moss under the tree, just give it water... Be careful doing things like raking. Other than that, I don't know.

ETA: That really is a pretty tree. I hope you decide to keep it.

ETA the 2nd: If you don't object to digging up bulbs every year, you could also consider filling the wider end with gladiolas, tiger lilies, or asiatic lilies. Irises might work as well, and those probably wouldn't need to be dug up every year.

[Seshat]

The ungrassed area under that tree is normal for a shade tree. (At least in Australia!)

I'm NOT going to try suggesting specific plants, because our ecology and yours are so, so different.

Given the location of that shade tree, I withdraw my suggestion for a rockery: because it's next to a footpath (sidewalk?), a rockery would be a tripping hazard. Go for low-lying, soft-to-walk-on hardy groundcover, with no flowers. (Flowers attract bees.) Mosses would be great, so would some grasses (that aren't typically 'lawn' grasses), and some sedges. You might also find some flowerless clovers, prostrate 'shrubs', ivy, and some dwarf foliage plants.

Take the photo to a garden specialist, tell them which way is north, bring a soil sample if possible (taken from under the tree), and ask their suggestions for appropriate ground covers. (Buy from them; they're providing the expertise.) A photo like that can tell a garden specialist a LOT about your garden!

If you've decided on keeping the moss, ask them for ways to encourage it and help it spread; and perhaps complementary mosses and lichens that might fill in patches where your existing moss doesn't want to grow.