St. Augustine shuts down completely in winter shade.

Some ideas:

1. How much foot traffic? If low, try Dymondia margaretae.

2. Fescue is the most shade-tolerant, but thirsty.

3. Get rid of lawn, put DG, and add a couple of lounge chairs for laying on.

4. Synthetic turf. The new stuff is really good.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dymondia

I had a problem area that had sun in the summer and shade in the winter. No matter what grass I planted, it died because of the shade in the winter. Than I purchased some shade turffalo and that did the trick. It does brown a bit in the winter, but always comes back. And it is a bit $$$. If you were in my area, I could give you some plugs ;)

Karin

Here is a link that might be useful: Turffalo Grass

That turffalo sounds very interesting. I have zoysia in the same situation and it still has not recovered from the winter shade.

If I had a very small space, I would put in artificial turf. I'm considering it for my front yard, because the zoysia needs rejuvenation and I don't feel up to the weeding again.
Renee