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The best grass type for shady areas depends on your region, your preferences, and your yard’s microclimate. Overall, the best cool-season grass for shade is ryegrass or tall fescue, while the best warm-season grass for shade is St. Augustine. But again, this can depend on what you’re looking for in the grass. The best grass for your shady yard might be one that looks good to you, one that tolerates high foot traffic, or grass with other characteristics that make it fit your lawn needs. 

In most municipalities, lawn care and mowing companies require at least a business license to operate legally. However, requirements can vary by location, and some areas mandate that landscaping companies be licensed, insured, and bonded, or even hold a general contractor license. Before hiring any lawn service, confirm they are fully insured. This protects you from liability for injuries on your property and also protects the company's employees. You can use Angi's state license lookup tool to verify a company's licensing status in your area.

You can reseed a lawn that has dead grass, but it is best to remove the dead patches before you begin. Removing the dead turf and testing the soil will help you determine what is killing the grass so you can make the necessary amendments to prevent the problem from recurring. Once you have made the appropriate adjustments, you can rake, fertilize, and reseed. If your lawn has many large dead patches, it may be more effective to remove all the existing grass, amend the soil, and start over from scratch.

Power seeding and aeration are both excellent ways to improve lawn health, but they serve different functions. Aeration focuses on improving soil health by creating channels that allow more water, oxygen, and carbon dioxide to reach the roots. In contrast, power seeding is a method of planting grass seeds, often by creating narrow trenches in the soil. One service isn't better than the other; they are complementary. It is beneficial to aerate your lawn before power seeding, as this makes the seeding more effective by helping the germinating seeds access the resources they need. It's a good practice to aerate your lawn once or twice a year, regardless of whether you plan to power seed.