MURDERER!

After a three year experiment on
naturally occurring plantlife and its effect on canines (My dogs liked the tall grass) ,I've just purposely murdered everything in my back yard. Fleas and lost toys made mowing more than an adventure.I've been reading up on xeriscaping in Texas and came across Buffalo Grass as a possible replacement groundcover. Has anyone had experience with it? Is it drought tolerent, stand up to foot traffic, etc.
Thanks!
Barry

Very good choice for here in Texas barrykooda. Loves the clay and only requirements is.2 inches of water per month is all.. Would be the choice for down here in this heat.
Sent personal e-mail to you as well on this matter with more info.

Thanks!

Coco
Does buffalo grass cover/spread quickly? I've been hearing about it and am thinking of replacing my St. Augustine w/it. And can it grow in shade as well as sun? Thanks for any advice.
Paula

CoCo,
please send me some info re. buffalo grass as well!
Dimitri

Well Coco,
I think I'm set.I went to the online place you suggested and ordered 4 of the 72 plug trays of Buffalo Grass and , in the mean time, I checked around local landscapers and found one that had a bunch of 6" pots of it that they offered to me at $1.50 each. I only got 25 to start and am preparing the yard as the planting instructions suggest and will start planting tomorrow.
Thanks again!
Barry

Hey Coco,
Well, I added bone meal and humus and tilled 500 sq feet three times down to about 4 to 6 inches, watering the soil after each tilling. Now I've just finished drilling holes and planting 360 plugs of buffalo grass and watered it down. Guess all that's left is to wait......and water.......and wait and water and wait..........................................water.........wait..............FERTILIZE!............water......wait.....
Thanks!

Info on Buffalo Grass; It forms a durable turf,withstanding traffic, pests and diseases. Loves clay. It's robust,sod forming species that spreads quickly and vigorous runners, creating ainviting soft blue-green lawn. When dormant in late fall through spring it turns a soft beige color. It requires minimal mowing, little or no fertilizer and never have to use lawm chemicals.
Buffalo Grass is a warm season grower best adapted to low rainfall regions that receive only 10-35" of annual precipitation and elevations below 7000 ft. To stay green through the hot summer months, it only needs 2 inches of water per month. Grows quickly.
All information is taken from the 'High Country Gardens' magazine which you can obtain for free by visiting their web site at ...www.highcountrygardens.com or calling toll free at 1-800-925-9387.
Cost of their plant trays are; 1-3 flats @ $35.00 EACH; 4-12 flats @ $33.00 EACH; 13 or more flats @ $31.00 EACH. Of course their price may change so will have to check with them on prices.
Sorry that it has taken me so long to get this posted.

Gotta get some!We used to have St.Augie in our front yard.But this drought stricken region has killed it.There is very little left where we water our trees and plants[unlimited watering >>plants,trees,shrubs; sprinklers>> once a wk.,last year,once every two weeks!]On one side of our front yard,the smaller area, has never done good,water or no water,no matter what kind of grass we try b/c of the shade .Maybe I've found the answer!Will definitely try it!
To Jerri, if you are reading send us some of that RAIN!...Jane

Luvublooms
You will still have to do alot of watering once you plant this Buffalo Grass until it gets established .....then you can cut back on the water but the first 2 years you will have to water really well for it to get going.
We just got 3 1/2 inches of rain this last week end and believe me we really needed it. In the upper 90's again today so drying the ground out fast.

I figured that it would take quite a bit of watering to get it going. I planted 360 plugs and will probably water every day for a week at least . I found a local nursery that has a couple hundred 6" pots of Buffalo grass on the side of their building. Apparently, it didn't catch on like they thought it was going to and they just abandoned it. It's a bit weedy but they only want $1.50 each so I planted 25 of them and they're doing well. The ones I got from High Country , as Coco suggested are small plugs (1 1/4") but they're FULL of runners and are looking really healthy , even after 2 days in the soil. I think I'm going to be very satisfied.

I have mostly St Augustine in the front yard and it takes way too much to keep green here in the heart of zone 8.

http://barrykooda.com/images/trucknhouse1.jpg

This message was edited Thursday, Jul 5th 11:39 AM

barry, hows that grass looking? I'm interested in it now. We have bermuda, but it gets pretty high and thick.

Update please!

Hmm. I thought Buffalo Grass was frowned on for fire reasons, not for being invasive (except that it would grow back after the fire and not allow other things to regrow). Anyone know about that? I read something ages ago and I don't know that there was a real problem with it.

Hadn't heard that.

I wonder if Buffalo grass is the same thing as Bufflelgrass. Buffelgrass is a fire hazard in our part of the country. When it burns, it burns so hot that native plants are killed and then it comes back keeping native plants from reestablishing. It is found thoughout the southern US, although it is not native to North America. It is highly invasive. It is expected to transform the southwest into a grassland while greatly reducing native plant diversity.

Good point. One of the difficulties encountered when using common names.

We have a Buffalo Grass front yard and I suppose like everything we find pros n cons. There are the clear advantages of low water (and mowing) needs. Thats a pretty big pro in my book. I also love the soft green color.

Now for the cons. Because it stays dormant longer, the weeds get a headstart and you have to stay on top of them or they get out of hand. It is more sensitive to chemicals and the weedkillers kill it too, so weeding is a manual job. We are also having problems with invasions of Rye and Kentucky from the neighbors yards which we are just going to remove and resod this year. It appears that it is quite slow growing and it has been slow to cover bare patches, perhaps because I don't care for it properly? The mailman has also worn a path in it as he crosses in the same spot every time.

We are sodding our backyard dirtpatch this year and we won't be using Buffalo. It fits well into our xeric front yard landscaping and I do like it, but I consider it somewhat ornamental, we don't really use the front yard for anything. The back yard that will be more used and I would like it to have a more classic lawn look and feel and have it be greener for longer. I know Buffalo is meant to be fast growing and stand up to foot traffic well, but that has not been my experience. It also doesn't have that feeling soft grass between your toes feeling.

We have a local nursery that sells sod for .75c a square foot. They don't sell until it greens up though, so we have to wait another month to do our resodding.

Well folks,
I'm back!
I haven't updated the Buffalo Grass thread since 2001 and here's the skinny.
After irradicating everything on 1/2 of the back yard and tilling it all under, I drilled holes for and planted 300 plugs of the Buffalo Grass I got from highcountrygardens.com. The plugs grew fairly quickly and had long runners much like unmowed Bermuda grass. As it filled in, it looked so much like the Bermuda on the other side of the yard that I couldn't tell them apart. After 3 years, I'm totally convinced that I purchased 300 plugs of Bermuda and mow it with the rest of the yard and curse High Country under my breath.

OH NO!!! I AM SO SORRY!!! Bermuda is a curse. The only way I can keep it out of my flower beds is to use roundup religiously on it around the edges. And I hate Roundup. You have to be VERY CAREFUL not to let overspray get onto your plants.

Not even round up gets it down here! I would get Highcountrygardens and get some money back! and then some

Yeah,
I like Bermuda about as much as I like Hackberry trees. My wife and I dug up these weird plants a while ago with HUGE, grapefruit sized bulbs in a place that used to be the location of a short lived artists comunity near here in the late 1800's. We had them for 3 years before they finally bloomed and a Daves Garden member identified them for me as Crinnums. I planted 20 or 30 of them in the median in front of the house and filled the rest of the space with Mondo grass. Apparently there was some Bermuda in there somewhere and now it keeps being overgrown with the spindly runners that get up to 18 inches tall. I pull it out all the time but I'm definitely losing the battle.

I have always got fantastic customer service from High Country Gardens. I'd give them a call and explain your quandry!

I've always heard good things about them and I would have called if I'd figured it out sooner. If I'd been more knowledgeable at or near the time of purchase but after 3 years, I wouldn't expect them to do anything. There's no way I could prove I didn't let Bermuda infiltrate and take over.

Goodness, that's too bad. It does sound like they sent Bermuda. For yards with enough sun and not a lot of rainfall, Buffalo Grass can work, or so I've heard. 609 Buffalo Grass from sod does well in areas without too much foot traffic. Some people have also planted either Buffalo Grass seed or a combination of Buffalo Grass and Blue Grama from seed. Native American Seed sells many kinds of native grass seeds.

If anyone is still watching this thread:
I have never heard of bufflegrass, but Buffalograss IS native - apparently, the ONLY totally native turf grass for North America. (been reading about this) B/c it is native and xeri, fertilizers would actually hurt the growth of this plant.
So don't waste money on these additives. This is not a con, but a plus. The only con is in the slow establishment of the plant from seed, but if you have the money, you can get the sod.

There are recent cultivars that go dormant later, are shorter for no-mow lawns, and thicken up better. 609 was mentioned, but I think there are others, like Topgun and Cody.

Different parts of the country have different cultivars that work best there. Here in TX, I am finding, it is important to get seed/sod from as local a source as possible. The desired distance being less than 100 miles, or as close as can get.

It is good to form a barrier between a newly planted Buffalo lawn and the neighbors' invasive one. After your lawn has established and the barriers removed, the invasive neighbors' lawns will not like the xeriscape of the Buffalo lawn and this is where the Buffalo can flourish over introduced species.

Buffalo does not grow well in shade - even partial shade from what I have read. For native xeriscaping with a "grass turf" in shade, look to local sedges. Talked with a guy who LOVES them as a lawn alternative. The only care they need is to have leaves raked or blown. I have the sedges in my woods and where there is little leaf litter, they thicken up, but where there is leaf litter, there are only thin patches. They take traffic rather well and are evergreen in my area.

With the water saved from xeriscaping, the gas saved from mowing, money saved from having to fertilize etc. and TIME saved from doing all, isn't it worth trying?

I've had buffalo grass for 4 years now. I love it. I don't ever water it. I mow it about 3 times a year.

We really wanted Buffalo grass here for our front yard ( Zone 8b) ( 40 Miles north of Houston in the Piney Woods) but we were told by a grass supplier that it wasn't recommended..Too much rainfall...We tried it any how..I weeded diligently for 3 years but the Buffalo just couldn't out compete the Bermuda that is planted everywhere in this area.. Eventually the Bermuda overtook most of it.. Recently some kind of grass has come on it's own and it out competes everything..I don't know what it is but it stays pretty low, does OK with our Xeriscape attitude and with the wildflowers that also grow in the "lawn"..I guess it's staying..
Congratulations to all of you who can use Buffallo.. It's beautiful...

Bermuda grass and crab grass were invented by the devil I think. Her in The high Desert they get in everything. This year I waited till the winter and put preemergent everywhere I had desireable beds and some areas near them ( I live on 5/8 acre) Then any sign of grasses coming up in those areas I put really concentrated generic round up that is stronger than the strong round up, it is called green light vegitation killer and it is way cheaper . If it is close to roses etc. I put it on straight with a Q tip when there was no chance of rain. I had to do it a few times but all summer for the first year, there is virtually no grass coming up. Of course you know you can`t put the pre emergant if there is seeds that you want to come up but I think the main thing is to kill the sprouts before they spread and reseed. I need to kill some spots that my neighbors grasses are spreading but that is nothing by August.