Lawn disaster - please help!

[Catabogus]

We had new turf laid 2 years ago in our new garden and it took well to start with. The problem is that the garden is north facing and very shady with lots of large trees. In no time at all the lawn was full of bare patches.

I have reseeded/filled patches several times with “extra tough grass seed”, “shade-tolerant grass seed” and the like - but it’s now worse than ever. At the far end there is more mud than grass, with just a few clumps of tough-looking grass like islands in an expanse of brown, and even the weeds/moss don’t grow (frankly I’d be happy to have them since at least they’d be green!)

I’d be happy to have something other than grass (what though?) but it needs to be able to tolerate two small children running all over it daily and occasionally kicking a ball around. I can’t really face reseeding it 4 times a year (which is apparently what our next door neighbour does).

Any suggestions or ideas appreciated! Thanks very much.

Grass doesn't grow well at all in the shade under trees (see any area of woodland) - your best bet would be to put down bark mulch in the shaded areas. It will cover up the mud so the kids don't get dirty, and will look much more attractive as well. If there are lots of worms and not much in the way of moss, then it is unlikely to be a drainage issue or soil problems.

Look for shade-tolerant ground cover plants such as ajuga reptans (bugle) and plant them in the furthest corners. As they spread out in years to come, hopefully it will coincide with your kids not playing energetic games under the trees any more!

You might find ivy is the best bet. Tough as old boots.

The go-to for dry shade is cycamen, but as they like the top of their corms to be at the surface, they wouldn't like to be trampled.

Woodruff is pretty tolerant of shade and not too fragile. Perhaps Geraneum phaeum.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/65820/lippia-nodiflora/details

Ignore the bit about tolerating some drought, it can tolerate a lot of drought, way more than you are likely to get in a shaded area. And the more it gets trampled, the better it looks.

We didn't have a great experience with Green Thumb. It was expensive and the lawn wasn't that great. It was less than a year old when we used them and we ended up with a lawn full of red thread which they charged us extra to treat. I now use Miracle-gro feed and weed, top dressing and chuck a bit of grass seed around.

sounds silly but has anyone/anything been peeing on there? that kills grass Straight away

If you’ve worn bare patches where you walk to the washing line/shed etc, then install paths to those places. It will look much neater and stop you having to walk through mud in winter.

I suspect your problem is kids playing in a small space. There’s only so much trampling that grass can take. I would accept your fate for the few years that the dc are young, and then when they stop running around out there constantly you can do something to improve the garden.

The tufts of grass in your photos show that it will grow, given a chance.

I'd say it's the kids playing on it in the winter, and people walking over wet grass causing the problems.

Can you put a path down for the washing line and shed access? That would lessen the traffic.

I’ve just posted about our lawn which is exactly the same. We’ve had it returfed twice not really sure what to do now, although having read this I might try some fertiliser. We do have a lot of tree round the lawn.