Another Experiment
This is a total experiment ... I
over-seeded the buffalo grass with another low-care native grass from
the short-grass prairies, Blue grama grass, (Bouteloua gracilis).
It's supposed to
sprout in 5 or 6 days, so for a couple of weeks the lawn is getting a
couple of minutes of water 3 times a day to encourage the seeds. Then we'll cut
back as the Blue Grama gets established.
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| Blue grama. Bouteloua gracilis at Minnesota Landscape Arboretum Photo by SEWilco from Wikimedia Commons |
If it works, I'll know when we see seed heads pop up in the late summer. The birds will love it, and maybe it will help choke out the Bermuda grass.
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| Blue Grama grown as an ornamental accent in Japan. |
5 comments:
See anything coming in yet? I'd imagine the blue grama is a distinct appearance to the buffalo grass.
I'm living in Albuquerque, and I installed Turffalo (buffalo grass developed by Texas Tech) into my lawn about a month ago. It originally started out as all fescue, but alas the dogs are winning in the war of Dog Urine vs Lawn.
I figured as the fescue dies out because of the lack of watering I'll be doing, the buffalo grass would take over. Once the fescue is completely gone, I was thinking about sprinkling some blue grama in the Turffalo as well for shits and giggles.
Looks like you beat me to the punch. Take pictures of it coming in.
I can't report on what's happening, because I'm a few hundred miles east of that lawn working onan old house.
It has a similar appearance to the buffalo, so we won't know if it made it until we see seed heads.
I don't think Buffalo will win against dog urine either. It's not a heavy feeder and may get brown spots from the urine just like the fescue.
I know it'll get brown spots from the dogs. I'm wanting something that is a low water user that will fill itself back in.
Sorry about the delay in answering.
It will fill back in, but only when it gets enough water. During a low-water time, it stops growing and just sits there.
We get a huge burst of growth and runners when the rains start, especially if there's a soaker.
The SO says he's seeing some blue grama seedheads in the lawn, so it apparently survived a bit.
"I figured as the fescue dies out because of the lack of watering I'll be doing, the buffalo grass would take over."
It's going to need water to root and spread ... To kill off fescue just give the buffalo a heavy watering once a month. It thinks that's great, while the fescue will die.
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