Fall Lawn Treatment

What is your climate zone?

this section of the yard?

tree and partly under a cherry tree. At this time of the year, it gets direct sunlight from 7-10am and from 12n-2pm. The ground was covered with pine needles until a month ago when I raked it clean. Good soil, but just water has not produced any new grass.

Don't know technical zone name. Mediterranean's climate, San Diego County, Calif, inland about 15 miles, 500 ft about sea level. Soil tested and all is within recommendations.

Here's a rough sketch of the area

Some pine needles are more acidic than others. Pine trees prefer slightly acidic soil, so you don't want to change the chemical makeup too much otherwise you can affect the tree.

A better approach is to test the soil, and if the tree is healthy, then determine which plants/grasses thrive under those conditions.

For me, I wouldn't plant grass because I hate the idea of having to mow it and water it all the time.

You could put some decorative grasses there, like liriope or monkey grass or clumps of taller grass like pampas grass, and put low growing shrubs that like that particular location. You could include pavers or some other combination of plantings.

If you can't get grass to grow voluntarily there, it may not be getting enough sunlight. If that's the case try a deep shade loving grass, but those sometimes are hard to keep alive and can be water mongers. I planted the shade loving grass and just kept re-seeding every few weeks until it filled up the space I wanted. But, here it gets pretty hot in the summers and stresses out and dies off in the heat.

If you're going for seed, it would be a good idea to till up the top 2 to 3 inches of dirt and smooth it out before you put the seed out. Some will take, and some will get eaten by the birds.

(second try posting this - it didn't show up the first time I sent it)

Pine needles are acidic. You'll need to add lime to the soil before you plant grass seed.

A chain saw. The grass will never thrive under the pine

Instead of flapping your lips and spewing hot smelly air,

why not offer some useful advice to the Snuffy and tell him the kind of grass to use?

I did - in another post. Didn't you read it?

I had a cherrie tree, a few spruce, a few cedat an apple and a flowering quince. No grass under the cedars or the spruce - With the spruce, no grass for over 3 or 4 feet beyond the circumference of the tree. No problem around the apple or cherry (but I took out the cherry last year ) I've raked out the needles, limed the heck out of it, and tried EVERYTHING to get grass around bottom of the one spruce and cedar - I planted Perriwinkle under the othe spruce and cedars in the corner of the lot.

ection of the yard?

and partly under a cherry tree. At this time of the year, it gets direct s unlight from 7-10am and from 12n-2pm. The ground was covered with pine nee dles until a month ago when I raked it clean. Good soil, but just water ha s not produced any new grass.

I've never seen success growing grass under a pine tree. For a small area that size, I'd just mulch around the trees. Areas where you can grow grass, a quality shade mix would be appropriate.