Ask Burton: Q: I have mud under my shade trees now instead of lawn. How do I get my grass to grow back? I water it and feed it, but it stays gone.

A: This is an inevitable consequence of a large shade tree in the landscape. The turfgrass would be happier without the shade you wanted the tree to provide.
Start by having a qualified person climb and properly thin out your shade canopy. Most large shade trees could use an occasional thinning of the canopy, with particular care taken to remove crossing branches, weak branch angles, or storm-broken material. Opening up the canopy like this will help any tree resist ice storm breakage better and will allow more sunlight to penetrate. Maintaining an existing lawn requires less sunshine than getting new turf, so if you’re proactive about properly pruning your trees, you can often keep a pretty good lawn.
Next:
The choices are harder for the portions of the lawn in the deepest shade that have already been wiped out.
Zoysia and St. Augustine are the most shade-tolerant permanent turfgrasses we use in North Texas. Both will live well in less light than Bermuda, but there are still limits. A huge tree can still cause these to fail eventually. If you sod these turfs and they still wipe out, don’t repeat the process. The result will be the same. But this works well when you’ve just started to be too shady for Bermudagrass.
Alternatively, you can install a bed of shade-tolerant groundcover around the trees. This is one of our favorite solutions, as a neatly maintained bed of English ivy, vinca major, or dwarf mondo grass are just a few examples; there are more!) It looks great and will live in the lowest light levels you’re likely to have in the landscape.
Lastly, and our least favorite, if you must have turfgrass, and only turfgrass will do, removing the tree will allow you to grow turfgrass properly again.