Hi, List
Maybe 10 years ago, I turned a piece of lawn on the side of the house into a (mostly) azalea garden which surrounds a small teardrop-shaped patch of grass. My problem is that I can't seem to make that grass grow. The azaleas, however, are doing great. The ferns, pieris japonica and other stuff that keeps the azaleas company seem to do OK, too). This entire garden lies under a largish (60+ years) red oak and is enclosed by a fence and a four-foot hedge of Hicks yew. It never gets a lot of sun. FYI, this area is on the east side of the house.
A few years ago, I thought I'd freshen up the small lawn by turning it over with a tiller and replanting it with deep-shade grass seed, but it doesn't seem to have worked. Grass seed comes up, then seems to die.
Now I'm wondering if I need to, perhaps, thin out the red oak which, as I said, is a pretty big tree.
I'd appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks!
Mark