We moved into a new house in March; and I bought my lawn implements in
what, in retrospect, was the wrong order. Should have gotten a rake
and let the grass grow long; instead, my overwhelming leaf pile from
the gigantic oaks seems to have smothered all the grass.

So I'm trying to plan again for next year. Everything seems to be dead
now (not even brown stuff above-ground anymore). But I'm having a hard
time figuring out what the old grass was, for several reasons:

1. When we bought the place, everything was insanely green and long in
the back (the trees weren't blocking the sun out). I first assumed
this was just ryegrass that the previous owner threw down.

2. My next-door neighbor, however, still has living grass in his
backyard (even with the 90% shade conditions that I share); and it
looks kind of like my grass used to look like when I had some.

It was my impression that rye couldn't take the heat; so I assume my
neighbor's must be buffalo (it's not one of the bunchier grasses like
bermuda or st. aug). But if it was buffalo, maybe mine was too? On the
other hand, I thought buffalo couldn't grow well in the shade; but his
grass is doing at least mediocre in conditions in which I would figure
it would not get enough sun.

Yes, I could just ask him; but also I'd like to learn more about what
would work in this environment. Basically gets mostly sun in the
winter; and hardly any sun from late spring to early fall. Typical
90-year-old central Austin property.

Any suggestions on a grass I could drop in in the fall (if something
would work then) would be greatly appreciated.

---
Mike Dahmus
m dah mus @ at @ io.com