Why fight it? Mow the grass short, cover it with overlapping thicknesses of
newspaper (keep a hose handy to wet it down as you work), then add a layer
of bark mulch over that. Come spring (or in a month or two, if you're in a
warm winter area) you can plant ground cover. There's a lot of lovely
things to choose from that like shade and will accentuate the beauty of your
shrubs. You can lay a path of stepping stones if it's an area you walk
through frequently, or just leave a bark path. Once it's in place, it's a
lot less work than maintaining grass.

Cheers,
Sue
--

Zone 6, Southcentral PA




"MDixon1918" wrote in message
...
Hi, List

Maybe 10 years ago, I turned a piece of lawn on the side of the house into
a
(mostly) azalea garden which surrounds a small teardrop-shaped patch of
grass.
My problem is that I can't seem to make that grass grow. The azaleas,
however,
are doing great. The ferns, pieris japonica and other stuff that keeps
the
azaleas company seem to do OK, too). This entire garden lies under a
largish
(60+ years) red oak and is enclosed by a fence and a four-foot hedge of
Hicks
yew. It never gets a lot of sun. FYI, this area is on the east side of
the
house.

A few years ago, I thought I'd freshen up the small lawn by turning it
over
with a tiller and replanting it with deep-shade grass seed, but it doesn't
seem
to have worked. Grass seed comes up, then seems to die.

Now I'm wondering if I need to, perhaps, thin out the red oak which, as I
said,
is a pretty big tree.

I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks!

Mark