Think of fall in the eastern U.S. and fall foliage is likely to be high on the list of things that come to mind. People will drive for hundreds of miles to admire a forest ablaze in bright red, orange, and yellow leaves. More than one vacation, wedding, or other special event is planned each year with the hopes of hitting peak fall color in an area. Kids love tromping through the fallen leaves and making them crunch as loud as they can. And I’ve yet to meet anyone who enters the woods during the fall and proclaims how ugly the woods look with so many leaves on the ground.

Growing grass in the shade is a problem for which there are no easy answers. Grass is a full-sun plant and when planted in shaded areas (defined as a site that receives less than 4 to 5 hours of direct sunlight daily) it performs poorly. The filtering effect of trees significantly reduces the amount and quality of light grasses receive.  This has an adverse effect on photosynthesis, the process that produces energy needed for the grasses to grow. What we see from this effect are grasses that are thin, weak, and have a lower tolerance to disease, drought, and foot-traffic stress.