Growing a lawn on shady clay soil

jennieshrew

Has any one ever had any success at growing a lawn on clay soil? Our garden gets the morning sun and is in shade for most of the winter. One patch gets the afternoon sun in summer but thats about it. The soil is thick heavy wet clay soil. We have had a land drain put in which should help with drainage however our lawn (grown from turf) is in a sorry state. Any advice would be appreciated. Other than digging the whole lot up and digging in loads of grit and manure is there an easier option or should we give up!!

nodwah

We have lawns that are shady and on clay and I'm sorry to say I've never grown anything other than moss and weeds!
the part of the front garden that gets most sun has the best grass and the most of it that gets no sun for about 8 months of the year is pure moss so basically if you get no sun you get no grass!
The patch nearest my house I've taken up the grass and made a little patio and looks far better than it did before.

You could always try some grass seed mixture specifically for shady lawns - I've seen them in the garden centre - haven't tried them myself, can't be bothered!

jennieshrew

Thanks nodwah, I have bought some shade resistant lawn seed and will give it a go, has anyone ever tried this? The main problem is the clay as we have patioed over the majority of the shady bit. Even in summer the lawn is pretty rubbish.