What can be done to maintain healthy grass and trees in the same landscape?
Proper planning and maintenance are required for trees and turf to be compatible. Thinning grass under large shade trees, surface roots that are raised above the soil line, trunks damaged by lawn mowers or trimmers are all undesirable effects of trees and turf growing too closely together. Maintenance practices for trees and turf are different, and treatment of one can unintentionally damage the other. Tree and grass roots exist together in the upper 6 to 8 inches of the topsoil where they compete for oxygen, water and nutrients. Most grass species will not grow well in areas that get less than 50 percent open sunlight. By selecting shade tolerant grasses for your area, planting trees that do not root near the surface and protecting the critical root zone with a mulched island that extends out to the drip line, you can eliminate many of the problems that develop when trees and turf coexist.
