Buffalograss
Buffalograsses are native to the Plains states and do well in dry climates in full sun. The UC Verde variety was developed specifically for California and does very well there. Buffalograss's main advanctage is its excellent drought tolerance. A drawback for some? It's straw-colored for the colder half of the year, where there's winter. In California, it's semi-dormant (green/tan) for 6 to 9 weeks . Photo right - unmowed UC Verde. The Grass Roots Program offers practical information about the best-rated, sustainable turf and lawn watering systems for the West (especially Buffalograss). To make these choices most affordable, it provide incentives and identifies other available rebates to streamline the savings process. UC Verde Buffalograss has its own website. From the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Planting and Maintaining a Buffalograss Lawn. Bob Shearman and his team at the U. of Nebraska [pdf] are experts in Buffalograss. Southern Californian Shirley Bovshow has been testing UC Verde and reporting the results on her blog, and so has Northern Californian Susan Morrison in her blog posts. The Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin weighs in on Buffalograss. So does the Texas Cooperative Extension. Missouri Extension also has info about buffalograss. An Arizona family's 3-month experiment in replacing their Bermudagrass with Buffalograss is chronicled here. Tom Watkins challenges California's Cash for Grass program, contrasting it with switching to UC Verde Buffalograss.
Mixes of fine fescue species, mostly native to N. America, are suited to the Northeast and Upper Midwest. Some sources recommend them for the Mid-Atlantic or even the Deep South (at higher altitudes) but more will be revealed on that claim (though we hope it's true). Unmowed, the 8-12" stems bend over to make a carpet 5-6" high. From the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Low and Slow Fescues. Colorado State on fine fescue mixes.[pdf] Sources:
Adding clover to lawns used to be standard practice, until the advent of 2,4-D weedkiller, which turned out to kill clover, too. The manufacturer simply rebranded clover as a weed - and the public bought it! Clover may be making a comeback now but Extension Service and other academic websites still mention clover either as a cover crop in agriculture or as a weed in the lawn, so these links aren't from academic sources. "6 Pieces of Evidence that Clover is not a Weed" by Paul Tukey in The Daily Green. Susan Harris's article "On the virtues of clover" on Organic Gardener.com. "Try a clover lawn" in Baltimore Examiner. Paul James on "Beneficial Clover in the Lawn" A Canadian website declares clover to be "trendy". Hope so! Here's the Wiki page about white clover. And here's more about white clover, specifically as lawn replacement. Native Grasses (by Region) as Lawn Alternative from Organic Gardening Magazine. Encyclopedia of Grasses for Livable Landscapes by Rick Darke is ONLINE! Planting Tips for Native Grasses from Native American Seeds. Easy Lawns: Low-Maintenance Native Grasses for Gardeners Everywhere by Stevie Daniels, with contributions by native-plant experts, environmental scientists, and landscape architects. Includes instructions on preparing a site, planting, and maintaining a native grass area, whether as cropped turf, as a wilder-looking grassy area, or as a meadow with interplanted flowering forbs. Special chapters address regional plants for Florida, California, Colorado, and more. At the back are lists of individual grasses and nursery sources. By John Greenlee for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Sedge Lawns for Every Landscape. From the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Little Bluestem Blends for the East. Kansas State on Establishing Native Grasse and Native Grass Options from the Missouri Department of Conservation - both for the Plains states. Buffalograss photo by Tom Engelman. "No-Mow" photo by Bill Sloey. Clover photo by Tarop. Bottom, Carex pansa photo by Owen Dell.
Fine Fescues
is sold by Prairie Nursery in Wisconsin. (Photo above.) Tom Christopher has an article about "No Mow" on Huffington Post. And there's a review of "No Mow" on Wild Ones.org.
White Clover
Native (mostly) Ornamental Grasses
