Lawns and Trees: The Battle of the Ages

This post was authored by Chad Diller

Lawns and trees have been slugging it out for dominance for years, with homeowners picking their favorite contender and often swapping allegiance mid-fight. People want both a prize lawn and champion trees. The problem? This isn’t a truce that is easy to negotiate in most arenas.

As a company that offers services to address the full array of services for both lawn care and tree care, we have a unique perspective of trying to get these two foes to play well together. We would love to tell everyone that they can have the best of both worlds, but being a pro sometimes means making tough calls and training property owners through the reality of their struggle. The plain and simple truth is the fight between the lawn and trees can be easy to call in a lot of situations, even in the early rounds. The responsibility of the professional, whether a lawn service or a tree service, is to let the client know all the information about each opponent, so they can decide which fighter is going to win.

Lights Out: You may love that all that shade keeps you cool on summer afternoons, but your lawn is fading fast. Most turfgrasses prefer at least 5-6 hours of direct sunlight each day. This doesn’t mean you can’t have any trees, but if you plant them too close to each other or structures, the areas underneath them will be hard-pressed to get even a few hours of sunlight. The bigger trees get, the less sunlight you’ll be getting on grass underneath, meaning thinner and thinner turf as the years go on. You can try to seed these areas all you want, but even shade grass varieties can’t grow with less than 4 hours of light. You can have an arborist prune your trees to thin them out for filtered light underneath. This should help your lawn, and might help improve the health of your tree.

Low Blows:  While you’re not pulling any punches in growing a knockout lawn, be careful of below-the-belt shots to your trees. There’s no shame in trying to control weeds in your lawn and keeping your turf pristinely mowed. However, over-application or over-spray of fertilizers and herbicides can be quite the sucker punch for your trees. When possible, try to expand your mulch beds to give a buffer.  That way, trees and lawns can share less surface areas. This will help to reduce herbicide damage to lower tree foliage and roots close to the surface. Shady and sunny areas of lawns need a different lawn care strategy. Lightly fertilize shady lawn areas or they may thin out. Crabgrass won’t grow in the shade, so don’t even worry about adding it here. If you need to control broadleaf weeds, try your best to only spot-treat them under trees, paying attention not to apply herbicide to surface roots. Root systems should be preserved, so try to limit the amount of blows your mower may be inflicting by mowing less frequently, and at a higher cut.

Down But Not Out:  In our area, most property owners add limestone to raise the soil pH to close to neutral. This helps lawns to have better color and vigor. The problem is that many species of trees prefer a much lower pH and often need sulfur to lower levels. When you have grass and trees occupying the same areas, you’re going to have to issue a decision. It’s either the lawn or the tree. Concentrating on one side will expose some vulnerability on the other.

If you have a ringside seat to this lawn and tree sparring, you may be tempted to throw in the towel for whichever side you are cheering on. However, it’s important to remember that you can have a responsible, trained coach in your corner. Using the resources of industry associations like the Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA) can help you find tree services that are dedicated to preserving and improving the condition of your trees. You can also utilize organizations such as the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) to research which of these professionals may also be experienced in addressing both tree care and lawn care needs. 

This post was authored by Chad Diller

Chad Diller is both an ISA Certified Arborist and a Landscape Industry Certified Lawn Care Technician. He has been worked in the green industry for over 15 years in roles including service, sales, and marketing. As the Marketing Coordinator for Tomlinson Bomberger Lawn Care, Landscape, & Pest Control, he regularly contributes to their blog on related topics.