Where The Grass Is Greener Still

I planted a mixture of Buffalo Grass (Bouteloua dactyloides) and Blue Grama (Bouteloua gracilis) grass around our house 10 years ago. We had just moved in to the newly-constructed house and there was no lawn. This was 5 years before I became a Master Naturalist, but I had a bit of knowledge and knew that I wanted a grass that was native, drought-tolerant, and, above all, low-maintenance.

I did a bit of research and found the Native American Seed company. They offered a mixture of these two grasses and I thought they met my requirements, so I ordered about 20 pounds of seed.

Planting the seed was pretty simple - I rented a power tiller and prepared the area. I started spreading the seed with a small, hand-cranked, rotary spreader, but that didn't work too well. The seed was too fine and didn't dispense well. I found the best method was to just broadcast it by hand. I wasn't sure that I would get even coverage, but just kept going. After that, I lightly raked the soil to cover the grass seed.

I had to water it every day for about 2 weeks, but the seeds sprouted in just a few days. I noticed birds eating the seed, but they didn't seem to do much damage.

Here's a stand of Blue Grama along our driveway. This is taken after our recent rains and the grass has put out seeds. It seems to do this opportunistically after a good rain. I like the fact that it re-seeds itself and is getting thicker every time.

Grama grasses have a characteristic eyebrow shaped seed head and you can see that better in this closeup.

Ten years later and I'm happy with the results. I never water the grass; our normal rainfall, even through drought periods is enough to keep it going. It turns brown, but doesn't die. I've never fertilized it and only put a thin layer of compost on it once, about 2 years after planting. I only mow it a few times a year, mainly when needed, although it doesn't grow much higher that about 6 inches.

There are some potential negatives though. It's not a turf grass. It's never very thick and this allows weeds and other grasses (like bermuda (Cynodon dactylon) and King Ranch Bluestem) to move in.

I don't mind the negatives and the no-watering and low-maintenance more than make up for them.