By Julia Weatherby, Sandra Ries, Margo Thoreson
Many of us have homes or neighborhoods with lawns made up of thirsty St. Augustine grass or aggressive Bermuda grass. Both of these options are detrimental to Central Texas ecosystems in terms of water requirements, fertilizer and pesticide use, and not being useful to control erosion/flash flooding or to support the butterflies and birds that we’d love to see more of.
After recent rains, Austin moved to Conservation Stage Drought Water Use Restrictions with an eye to conserving water against future droughts. If you are an Austin Water customer, you can find your watering day and times here.
Central Texas is a drought prone area and September is a great time to replace full sun non-native lawns with native turf grass. If September is too soon, you can prepare now for an April planting.
After years of research, the Ladybird Wildflower Center created a blend of seeds called Habiturf composed of of Bouteloua dactyloides (buffalograss), Bouteloua gracilis (blue grama) and Hilaria belangeri curly mesquite). According to their website, it’s a “dense and attractive native turf, Habiturf is soft to the touch and comfy on bare feet. And it compares favorably to non-native turfgrass species in its ability to thrive with minimal watering and mowing.”
Habiturf® can be purchased from Douglass King Seeds where a portion of all Habiturf sales will be donated to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Native American Seed Company offers a mix of the same blend of seeds called Thunder Turf which can be purchased online or from their physical location in New Braunfels.
According to the Douglass King Seeds website, Habiturf simulates shortgrass prairies. It “provides all the visual beauty of a uniform lawn with the drought-tolerance and low maintenance of native Texas grasses. Habiturf has been observed to outperform Bermudagrass in terms of establishment rates, turf thickness, mowing rates, and weed resistance. We recommend not mowing at all, but if you want to mow it should be mowed every 3 to 5 weeks (when growing) at a height of 4 inches. This mix requires less water than traditional lawn grasses, reasonable resistance to foot traffic, and little to no herbicide application or fertilization. Habiturf can be planted two times of the year. In the spring, after the last frost; and in the fall, two months before the first frost.”
These native turf grasses love Texas sun, requiring a minimum of six hours of full sun during the growing season. If you don’t have enough sun for a turf lawn, there are many native groundcovers that could do well in your area – check them out in the Native Plant Society of Texas database.
Learn more about how to establish a native turf grass lawn from the following Wildflower Center resources: How to Install Habiturf, Download a Habiturf Brochure.
Long time NPSOT member, Jackie O’Keefe, planted a buffalo grass lawn years ago and offered her insights. Jackie’s soil was packed down clay soil full of dead St. Augustine grass. After raking away the dead grass and pulling weeds, Jackie roughed up the soil and raked it smooth. She notes that if you have Bermuda grass, it’s imperative to get rid of it before sowing the native turf grass. Jackie was lucky to have a rainy spring that year and watered as needed through the first summer. Now that it’s established, it’s very hardy. It sparks to life and grows quickly in March and April. Even in its first year, her buffalo grass spread beyond her initial 12-15’ diameter patch. Her advice for folks who plan to start a new lawn is to be reasonable: start a smaller patch and make a commitment to pulling out the weeds until the turf grass fills in. As the starter patch grows and fills in, it will spread to new sunny areas that will become the new maintenance area. Also, with seasonal rains being unreliable, be prepared to water. While it is drought resistant once established, her lawn still requires some attention: Jackie has to pull hackberry trees from her lawn every year. But she hasn’t mowed her lawn in 15 years, so she considers it a worthwhile trade off.
A recent thread on the NPSOT Austin Facebook Group of those with native plant experience offered a consensus that tilling was unnecessary before sowing native turf grass seeds. Instead, seed to soil contact was paramount and can be improved by removing excess vegetation, disturbing/raking the soil, and mixing the seed with granite sand as it’s spread.
As with establishing any new planting, it’s not a one and done situation. Consistent care and maintenance until the turf grass is established will bring you big rewards. Be aware:
- If you do not prepare the soil adequately, your lawn will suffer and you will get weeds.
- If you mow too often and too short, you will get weeds.
- If you over water, you will get weeds.
- If you over fertilize, you will get big weeds.
If a native turf grass lawn isn’t in your immediate future, another way to incorporate native grasses (not turf grasses) into your landscape is as accent plants in a flower bed. Many native grasses are bunching grasses and could make a showy addition.
As a consumer, your voice has power. Ask for these turf grass blends at your local nursery. If they don’t carry them, request them.
As a neighbor, your voice also carries weight. If someone comments on your lawn being a bit longer than theirs, educate them on the value of native plants, share this article, or invite them to a NPSOT meeting.
