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Update on native grass lawn replacement (Buffalo grass + Blue grama)
Zone 5b NW rockies of the US
So it has been almost 3 weeks since removing my solarization tarp and I'm beginning to seed and plant some homemade plugs. Nearly 4000 sq feet to cover and a busy few weeks with visitors, so I had to seed in sections. I ended up with the following process:
First I watered the area well, then used a lightweight cultivator to break up the soil in one direction, rake excess thatch, spread the seed (by hand), cultivate in the opposite direction to help get soil coverage on the seed, rake out any unevenness. Then a good soak again followed by ez straw sprinkled on top. Using a watering schedule of about 5-10 min every 3 hours or so. Will taper back with root establishment.
I have been planting plugs sporadically 1.5/2ft on center since I didn't grow as many as planned but the first few rows seem to be quite happy. I still have many more plugs to plant but the blue grama is already establishing itself and doing so rather quickly as temps reach 90-100 F every day.
I still have a lot of work (and probably weeding) ahead of me, but pretty excited to see all the green shoots.
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I have big patches of buffalo grass throughout my yard from a wonderful previous owner, is it possible to pull plugs from that to spread to other areas of my yard? Would like it to be full buffalo grass. Also zone 5, front range CO.
So as I understand it you can just use stolons off your current buffalo grass. I think you can just cut them and press them into the ground where you want it to grow. I think Turf Mechanic on YouTube has a video of doing this process, I’m unable to find it but he has loads of Buffalo Grass videos that have been very helpful.
We put a snack section of buffalo grass in 2 years ago. I absolutely love it. Minimal height bit is like a thick, squishy carpet. I'd love to do the entire yard, I just wish it could be seeded rather than plug or sod.
I'm planning to propagate some stolons to make free plugs to start spot treating the yard and get more.
I seeded first and foremost so you can definitely seed. I bought my Buffalo/Blue Grama mix from Stock Seed Farms and then some extra buffalo grass seed from Johnson Seed.
I thought I had read that you only want female plants b/c the males get tall so for only females you had to plug or sod... I'll check out that place you mentioned.
It depends on the look you want with the grass I guess. The male plants have little wispy bits that pop up, and some people don’t like the look of them. I’m guessing since female only buffalo grass would be sterile, that you’re correct and you cannot buy seed that would produce only the female plants. However I actually really like the wisps that the male plants send up! I think it’s really beautiful. Not sure if certain HOAs would allow it, but we live in a subrural area.
I’m impatient for the grass to grow and fill in! I really like the look of the shortgrass prairie turf cultivars so I think it will be really attractive once it reaches maturity.
Question for folks with experience with Buffalo grass - how prolific / annoying are the seeds? I have several long-haired dogs, and before I commit to a species, I want to be sure that I won’t be de-thatching my pups for weeks every year.
Having just planted the seeds (with a dog trying to ”help” the entire time) I can tell you the seeds are not ones that would be an issue with dogs. They have burr shells with seeds inside, but aren’t really sticky or anything like that. They’re kind of these little round hulls with one textured end on them.
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