On 9/21/2008 2:13 PM, Chris Nelson wrote:
The house I moved into this spring has a beautiful magnolia tree in
the back yard but there is essentially no grass under the tree. It
was a little sunken and I filled with top soil and reseeded with a
shade mix early in the summer. The grass came in well but then died.
We had a fairly wet summer and I didn't fertilize after the starter
fertilizer so I don't think I "burned" it. I checked the pH and it's
nearly neutral. Is there something about magnolias that would keep
the grass from growing well?

Also, there's one branch that's a bit low and I'd like to prune it.
Should I do that in the fall or the spring?

Where are you? That is, what is your climate?

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/