The area under trees (shady) should or could be handled separately. If you
wait until fall and seed during the recommended Sept 15 - Oct 15 window,
your grass will be about 4-6" tall when the leaf raking season hits. You
know how that story ends. If you seed shady areas in the fall, the later
part of August is usually a better time if you can water as its typically a
dry period.

Spring seeding a shady area can result in a decent lawn if you don't wait
too late and are able to water etc. You are not bothered with crabgrass and
the temperatures are modified due to tree canopy.

If you're getting ready for market, IMHO it would be worthwhile to try a get
a lawn going. If you have deep dark shade forget the turf and go a
different route.

You didn't mention what type of trees you have or the cause of the shade.
Certain types of trees, such as dogwoods, magnolias, silver maples, don't
give turf much of a chance so explore your other options.

Most of the commonly available grass seed blends for shade will work. Most
have creeping red rescue as a part of the blend. Many of these types of
fine fescue do well in poor soils but do not like excessive fertilizer.

--
Baine


"Sean Scoggins" wrote in message
. com...

"Baine Carruthers" wrote in message
...
If you're wanting a cool season lawn I would wait until fall. You will
be
much happier with results, unless you have a shady lawn. This will also

The "shady lawn" comment caught my eye :-) I have a yard that I am
currently rennovating to get the house ready to sell. So, I don't want to
spend a fortune, but I would like some grass. I had pretty much decided
to
skip it because I hope to have the house on the market this summer, early
fall -- too early for a fall grass planting. But, most of the area I
would
like to seed is under 2 giant oak trees and very shady.

Are you saying that the grass might survive even with immature roots
simply
because it won't get beaten up by the sun so much? If so, I wonder what
kind of grass you would recommend? On a related note, does anyone have
any
recommendations for hiring a company to seed my shady lawn this spring?
Ideally they would till or otherwise break up the soil (it is quite
compacted and much of it is bare dirt) and then seed and mulch with straw.
As the "things to do before we sell" list grows I am wanting to just throw
money at things like lawn seeding instead of doing it myself :-)