The Woodlands

The Woodlands is heavy tree cover on sandy, root-bound ground, which is why so many lawns here thin out on the north side of the house and never recover. These backyards take the opposite approach: turf that does not care about shade, cut to curve around pool coping, patio slabs and existing root plates rather than fighting them.

Several of these run paver-and-turf strips across the pool deck, and two carry cut-in practice greens. All of them share the same build underneath — excavate, grade to fall, compact a drainage base, then seam and anchor the turf at every hard edge. In a tree canopy this dense, drainage is the whole job; leaf litter and standing water are what kill a badly based install.