You can use either warm or cool season grass, but the warm season grass will have a short green season (probably mid May until early October or so, maybe shorter than that at your elevation).

If you go with warm season grass, you can use either buffalo grass, blue grama or a mixture of the two. Blue grama is more of a bunch grass, although I think it spreads a little at elevation if it's kept mowed. It spreads by seeds if you don't mow. Buffalo grass spreads by way of stolons and some varieties spread by seed, but I would advise against seeded varieties if you can afford the plugs or sod. If I were going to use warm season grass, I'd go with a mixture of buffalo and blue grama.

I think Hachita is probably the variety of blue grama you'd want.

I don't know which variety of buffalo grass would do best for you, but if legacy is only available in plugs, that's probably a better choice. Seeded buffalo grass will produce seeds. That has a few disadvantages. The first is that buffalo grass has male and female plants (the plug only varieties only have female plants). The male plants produce pollen and many people are allergic to it. The second disadvantage is that the seed heads are usually a bit taller than the grass and may require more frequent mowing. Also, the seeds are large (almost the size of peas) and in a sort of a burr coating, which can make the grass less comfortable if you ever go barefoot.

Although you can go with warm season grasses, I like the growing season of cool season grasses better. You'll probably have a green lawn almost all year long.

All of the cool season grasses I'll mention will need similar amounts of water to keep them green during the summer. I'd say about 1/2 inch to an inch twice a month. Over on the Rocky Mountain forum, there are people who have used streambank and/or western wheatgrass and don't water at all or have only watered once a summer, but I'm not counting on that (this is the first summer I'll be able to water as if I have a fully native lawn).

Crested wheatgrass is not a native grass. It was imported from Siberia. It does get by with very little water, but if using a native grass is important, you'll want to avoid it. Most crested wheatgrasses are bunch grasses, but newer varieties such as Roadcrest and Ephraim (there's another, too, but I forget the name) are weakly rhizomatous. They'll spread, but not as fast as KBG. I think Ephraim is the best choice for a lawn.

Crested wheatgrass has much smaller seeds than the native wheatgrasses (so more seeds per pound) and a lb of seeds generally costs less than native grasses. It can probably live with no additional water, but it deals with low water conditions by going dormant quickly and coming our of dormancy quickly. It's somewhat yellow green (very fine blades).

I like western wheatgrass. It's got a nice blue-green color (more blue than green, really). It's a little wider bladed than crested wheatgrass or streambank wheatgrass, but not as wide as something like K31 tall fescue. It's got huge seeds and is kind of difficult to get started. Once it does get started, it spreads quickly. It will stay green longer without water than any of the other cool season grasses. Once it does go dormant, it takes more water to bring it out of dormancy (a light rain won't do it, it has to be a good drenching rain). Once it goes dormant, it's more likely to die than crested or streambank wheatgrass (but we're talking dormancy of a couple of months). The best choices for you are probably Rosana or Rodan (I think; let me double check for Colorado).

You didn't mention streambank wheatgrass, but I will. Streambank wheatgrass is a light green grass, with very fine blades. It will go dormant faster than western wheatgrass, but not as fast as crested. It will live with no additional water, but will likely go dormant in the summer. It's much easier to get established than western wheatgrass. It's not as aggressively rhizomatous as western wheatgrass, but spreads better than any of the crested wheatgrasses. The seeds are almost as big as western wheatgrass seeds. The variety you'll want is Sodar.

You won't find any of these at a big box store. You may find them at a nursery, but your best bet will be online.

I'll have to find my list of suppliers and post later.

It's too early to plant any of the cool season grasses now. It's probably about right to set out plugs or put down seed for the warm season grasses (but I think you'll be better off with one or more of the cool season grasses).

If you do this, do as I say, not as I did. Kill the existing lawn first. I just overseeded repeatedly, thinking I'd water for the natives and they'd take over. But I didn't get good enough native coverage doing that, so I needed to keep the KBG alive. I've got a mixture of western and streambank wheatgrass in my front lawn. My back lawn is more shaded, and I used sheep fescue and creeping red fescue there. The creeping red fescue is a water hog compared to my other choices (it needs 1/2 to 3/4 as much water as KBG instead of 1/4 to 1/2 as much).

You may want to post this on the Rocky Mountain forum, also, since there are others who have "gone native" (some warm season and some cool season, although I think there are more with cool season lawns). I posted some pictures of my lawn there, and included some KBG sections so you can see the color difference between the natives and KBG.

Here are a few places I've gotten seed:

Round Butte Seed
Mountain Valley Seed used to have good prices on streambank nad western wheatgrass, but I don't see them on the site anymore.
Southwest Seed

I wrote an article on various choices for turf alternatives here.

Go with plugs if you go with buffalo grass.

It is actually easier to plant the plugs if you are planting on an existing patch of turf, as it helps to keep weeds from growing.

Kill the existing turf with glyphospate, wait a week or two after spraying. Then plant the plugs with a drill. You will have to water for a week or two pretty aggressively until the roots start growing, but when they do, they will quickly go deep.

Here is a thread from the Rocky Mountain Gardening forum. Somebody there went with Prestige Buffalo grass (plugs) and is very happy with the results.

Bpgreen, many thanks for the information, apologies for writing a late response (unexpected business trip).

I have done a lot of reading on grasses since my original post and I have decided to go with cool season grasses -- we have about 15-17" percipitation and it appears that quite a few of native cool season varieties should do just fine even without additional irrigation. Obviously I prefer a cool season grass due to the longer "green" season.

Having said that, I still have a lot of questions and I would appreciate your insight on this.

1. I am leaning towards streambank wheatgrass. I like the benefit of easy establishment/greener color/thinner blade compared to western and I like that it does not go too quickly into dormancy compared to crested. Based on your posts you seeded a mix of western/streambank. Why would you seed a mix rather than straight streambank ? Western is slower to go in/come out of dormancy, wouldn't it potentially create patches of green/brown grass since these two grasses go into dormancy at different rate ? Also, the difference in color between western/streambank might create visible spots -- I am sure it is probaly not going to be very noticeable but still a potential con.

2. I am thinking of dormant seeding this winter, I am planning on moving existing lawn very low, dethatching and killing it with Roundup. Would it be enough or would you recommend to rototill as well ? What is the best month to do winter seeding ?

3. I singled out Western/Streambank compared to other native cool grasses because they are rhizomatous. My main goal is to reduce water consumption and maintenance. I am under impression that bunch grasses would require more maintenance since they need to be regularly overseeded (since I will have about 5k sq feet of lawn it might become quite a big job). Am I getting it wrong and disgarding bunch grasses unfairly ? Is it a good idea to seed a mix of rhizomatous and bunch grass ?

4. My biggest concern: quality of the lawn. No matter how hard I search I just don't seem to be able to find many recommendations to use streambank as a lawn -- I did find a lot of your posts on the subject, but majority of the streambank recommendations seem to be referring to airport runways, road dividers, etc. No matter how hard I tried I just can't find where I can look at native grass lawn (and that includes Denver Botanical gardens) or find pictures of Streambank lawn (there are plenty of pictures of other alternative lawns like Buffalograss or Blue Grama). Whould you share you opinion on how good is the quality of the lawn produced by Western/Streambank wheatgrass is (I saw the pictures you posted on this forum but since they are mixed with KBG it is hard to tell). I understand that it is most likely not going to look/feel as good as KBG -- I don't care much about color, but I do care that it forms good looking, thick sod. Most of the areas I am planning to convert are purely decorative so it is important that it will look nice, not just fill bare soil. My plan is to convert these decorative areas first (3 out of 5) and if we like it then finish the rest.

Thanks again for your help !!! Davie.

1. I've got a mixture of the two, but at this point, it's mostly streambank because the western has been so slow to establish. I think that if you want the lawn to be more uniform in color and growth, sticking with one is probably a good option.

2. I wouldn't till. I think your plan is a good one. I did something similar except didn't completely kill the lawn and just let most of it die through neglect.

3. Depending on the type, look, growth rate etc of the bunch grass, it may not look really good if you mix and match. Some might look good together, but I think you'll probably want to stick with just one type of grass for the most well-kept look.
The lawn you'll get will be quite a bit lighter green in color than KBG. The grass blades will also be much finer. It should develop a nice thick sod, as long as you plant enough. Don't go by the numbers that are given for range land planting (which is most of them). If it gives PLS per acre or something like that, you're looking at rangeland rates. I think you'll want to use about 2-4 lbs per 1000 sq ft to get good coverage in the first year.

I used to have a link that showed pictures of a variety of alternate grasses (including streambank, which looked really nice), but I can't find it any more. I think it was from a site in Boulder. If I can find it, I'll post it.

Western wheatgrass is more of a blue and has wider blades, so you might like the looks of streambank wheatgrass better.

Bpgreen,

Once again, many thanks for your help !!!
Looks like streambank is the best choice providing good balance of low maintenance and good turf quality :)

Any tips on dormant seeding ?

1. What is the best month to kill existing lawn with RoundUp ? My understanding is that grass should still be growing for glyphosate to be effective and I obviously don't want to kill it too early to prevent weeds popping up or grass recovering.

2. What is the best month to do seeding, some recommend Nov-Dec, others say Feb-March has the best germination rate.

3. I have one sloped (about 15% grade) non-irrigated wild area that currently very sparsely covered by smooth bromegrass (about 1500 sq feet). I want to convert it to lawn quality streambank. Would I need to kill existing grass first or do you think overseeding it might work fine ? Bromegrass is very sparse so I think there should not be any problems establishing good seed contact with soil. The reason I don't want to kill bromegrass is because it does provide some errosion control for winter, I also think that by leaving bromegrass mowed at medium height might provide some barrier from having the seed washed away.
Should I do any additional effort to try to keep the seed on the slope ? Straw maybe ?

Thanks for your help, Davie.

I didn't kill my lawn first, but would definitely recommend it. When to kill the existing lawn depends on how long you can stand to see it dead. If you want, you can kill it in August and try two seedings, one in late August/early September with watering if needed and one dormant. At least some of the Summer/fall seading will come in and provide some green.

Whatever you do, leave the dead grass there. If you do a "traditional" August/September seeding, core aerate to get some soil exposure. If not, just leave it there and let the freeze/thaw take care of the seed to soil contact.

2. I was going to go for the Feb-Mar approach once and couldn't because we had snow on the lawn through May and by then it was too late. It all depends on your situation. For me, November worked best. If you get lots of warming periods in winter, Feb might be better.

3. I don't know much about brome so I can't really help there.

Bpgreen,

What would you recommend should be the seeding rate for streambank, I've seen numbers 4-6 lbs/1000 sq feet for lawn application. How much did you use in your seeding, did you get a good coverage ?

If anybody is interested in purchasing Streambank seed, avseeds.com seem to have a pretty good price -- $5.65/lb, $7.39/PLS. Add about $.50/lb for shipping.

Thanks, Davie.

I think I got good coverage at around 5 lbs per 1000 sq ft, seeding half as a normal fall seeding and half dormant seeding.

vlad,
I am in the same zone on an acreage north of DIA. Arkansas Valley Seeds is a great source and I have had excellent results with their blends. I used two blends, Blue carpet kbg blend for the areas around the house and the low 2 gro blend for all other areas. The low 2 gro may be similar to your streambank. It is used by the county on roadsides. BP excellent advice as always.
Fan of ephraigm wheat here, this september I am plowing under a 12,000 sq foot fescue mistake and putting in ephraigm.

Peace

Biglumber--I'm curious about the Ephraim wheatgrass. How does it look (color etc)? How often do you need to water it to keep it green?

I planted some crested wheatgrass a few years ago and was a little disappointed, but I wonder if I just didn't give it enough time to establish.

I thought it had a somewhat yellow color to it, but I recently found some grass that I think may be a remnant of the crested wheatgrass I planted before and it was a nice green color.

Here is the tip on it. With the rain we have had, it is growing well. In the past I have watered once every two weeks if no rain. Green? If you give it some nitrogen it does well in color.

Here is a link that might be useful: gov specs on ephraim wheatgrass

After seeing that picture, I know for sure that I have some crested wheatgrass in my lawn and it has a nice color to it. I planted Roadcrest (another rhizomatous variety).

I'm going to have to change my thinking on crested wheatgrass. I think I just didn't give it enough time to establish and get a nice color.

I am planning on moving existing lawn very low, dethatching and killing it with Roundup

Wrong sequence for a good kill ... water the grass well, get it growing nicely, apply glyphosate ... them mow very low, let any survivors re-grow and repeat.

Then dethatch, seed and the rest.

Lazygardens:
Thanks for information, this is the sequence of what I am going to do -- when I wrote on the way I am going to kill my existing lawn I did not mean the steps in sequence, just overall steps :)

Also, I am planning to cover the seed with about 1/8" of the top soil to get a better soil contact and protect it from birds. Am I making a mistake here ? Is there any DIY method to compact this top thin layer. I am doing a trial seeding of only about 400 sq feet and don't want to rent a roller just for that.

Biglumber:
I am actually torn between Ephraim and Sodar (streambank) for the new lawn -- Ephraim gets a lot of praise in 'Xeriscape Colorado' book (chapter 5, grass):

http://books.google.com/books?id=m0QyikM-wAwC&pg=PP1&dq=xeriscape+colorado#v=onepage&q=&f=false

I am leaning towards Streambank for following reasons:

1. Streambank is a native grass, Ephraim is introduced.
2. Streambank is strongly rhizomatous, Ephraim is weakly rhizomatous and only with sufficient water.
3. Based on what I've read Streambank seems to be more drought telorant, Ephraim needs more water but probably not by much.
4. Ephraim goes dormant much faster during hot dry spells.

Ephraim pros:
1. Cheaper seeds (half the price of Streambank).
2. Easier to establish.
3. Lawn seems to be of better quality, AVSeeds recommended Ephraim over Streambank for lawn, but I am not sure about the qualifications of the person I spoke with.

Can you post a picture of your Ephraim lawn, I (and I am sure many others) would love to see it :)

Bpgreen:
In one of your post I've read that you got a better results when seeding Streambank that you put in the freezer before planting, this is also backed up by some USDA document I came across when researching.
I am assuming you were referring to fall seeding rather than dormant seeding, is this correct ?

Thanks everybody for your help ! Davie.

From what I'm seeing this summer, I'm not so sure streambank wheatgrass will stay green with no water better than crested wheatgrass will. I've got areas that are semi-dormant and some spots that are a mixture of dormant or semi-dormant streambank wheatgrass with some green western wheatgrass mixed in.

But Streambank is definitely native and more strongly rhizomatous than Ephraim crested wheatgrass.

One thing to note on price is that in addition to costing less per lb, there are far more seeds per lb.

The freezing before seeding trick is for a fall seeding. I had even better results when I soaked the seeds for a day before spreading them. The problem with that is that I couldn't spread them in a spreader and had to fling them around by hand. I think I soaked them for 24 hours (may have been 48). If you do this, I think you're supposed to partially drain the water and replace it twice a day and once you get the seed down, you have to make sure you keep it moist because you're partially pre-germinating the seed. It's also used for fall seeding.

Vladn2000,
Thanks for the tip on that book. They give credit to ephraim and what it can do.
I have another post in this forum some time back explaining what I did with ephraim at my mother in law's home. Should have followed my own advice here. After reading your link I'm thinking about getting the tractor out and drill slit and overseed with ephraim.

I have an area(8500 sq feet) that is planted with hard, red, chewings, sheep and a couple other fescues. It can be irrigated but it is not used as lawn so I believe this will be a good test of ephraim's turf ability.

Peace