Growing Grass Under the Princeton American Elms

Ever since there has been grass growing around and under trees in our yards it has been a job to keep the grass green, thick and lush under the canopy of these trees. Shade trees do their job well and sometimes to well. Some shade trees have high feeding roots that suck the moisture away from the grass and basically compete with the grass for water and nutrients. Like all American Elms the Princeton American Elm has deep feeding roots that go deep into the ground which secures the tree very well and does not have a lot of top feeding roots as do most other shade trees have.

8" Caliper Princeton in

Fescue Lawn..NICE!!!

The tree will always win this battle and the grass dries up and has nothing to feed on. Allot of these shade trees are also small headed and don’t shade as well as the more upright mature Princeton American Elms do.

Several studies have been done by the US Forestry Service that have concluded that American Elms are soil improving trees because the leaf drop adds a lot of potassium and calcium back into the soil thus improving it. The leaves also breakdown and decompose more rapidly than most other shade trees do.

I recommend taking a mulching mower and running over and grind up the leaf litter and let the grass come up thru the litter. This will help the soil around the tree by adding back vital nutrients and moisture that the grass and tree both need. But you will need to continue with the fertilizer program and watch the PH for the grass. The Princeton’s are much less adversely affected by a low or high PH, so I would adjust it to suit your grass needs.

Another point to be made is that the large mature tree canopy is very tall and upright with long graceful limbs that lets filtered sun light fall to the ground that the grass has to have. With the fact that the Princeton American Elm will give you years of shade, grass will grow under the tree if taken care of and the leaf litter adds nutrients back into the soil while not competing for as much moisture as other shade trees makes the Princeton American Elm the perfect shade tree. It simply does all of the good things listed above and then some. Oh yea, did I mention it sequesters carbon faster and produces more oxygen than just about all the native trees do in all of North America. I will cover that later in another report.

Scott Bowen, Grower, Sharp Top Trees