AZKat, you should, with luck, get a response from BPGreen who can fill you in on his experiments there in his Utah yard with Streambank Wheatgrass. Otherwise, do a GW search with those terms and that name.

We also have some eastern Colorado gardeners with a good deal of experience dealing with very dry conditions - probably not a great deal different from those you have to contend with.

We have had knowledgeable gardeners suggest both Woolly thyme "Thymus pseudolanuginosus> and Creeping thyme (Thymus serpyllum) as alternatives to lawngrass. There is a link below - High Country Gardens has seed for both.

My yard gets just under 20" of precipitation each year (mostly as snow) and we have abundant water in the aquifer so, I'm not the best person for advice. However, I can attest to Achillea millefolium as an attractive and comfortable alternative lawn. San Marcos Growers has some information on their yarrow lawn.

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: High Country Gardens

Hi Steve-
Yes I think it was BPGreen and the poster from Colo that had the discussion here on the forum that drew my attention to the Streambank Wheatgrass.
I used to live in Peyton, Colo (east of Colo Spgs) and it is similar to this area here in AZ, though we have more juniper and pinon trees.
In the past we had tried Blue Gramma (i think it was) it did fine for that season but didn't come back the following year for some reason. I had mentioned that we have alkali soil here, the PH is around 7.
Thanks for the links; i'm familiar with High Country Gardens and i'll check out San Marcos Growers.
Thanks for the response!

What kind of soil do you have? Some of the choices do better in clay and others do better in sand.

You could go with a warm season lawn (blue grama and/or buffalo grass), but those do better in hotter climates and would be green for a short time at your elevation. They probably use the least amount of water, but you'd have a short green season and you could lose some to winter kill (might be what happened to your blue grama).

Many of the natives are slow to establish, but maybe you could get faster establishment if you seeded more heavily. You'd want to be careful not to seed too heavily or you might cause problems by overcrowding.

Do you get winter snow? I've had the best luck at getting seeds to germinate by seeding just before the first good snow. The seeds then germinated when the soil warmed up in the spring, using the melted snow and any rains for moisture.

Of the low-moisture grasses I've used, the two that germinate the fastest are crested wheatgrass and sheep fescue. Most crested wheatgrass varieties are bunch grasses, but some newer versions will spread via rhizomes. I think Ephraim and Roadcrest are varieties that spread (although they spread much more slowly than something like KBG). Sheep fescue is a bunch grass, but if you mow it periodically, it will spread a little bit via tillering (sending up new shoots next to the existing shoots). It has very fine blades and can be anywhere from blue to dark green (Covar is the variety I've planted and it's green and probably the best choice for a lawn). One caveat about sheep fescue is that although it requires very little water (less than 10 inches a year) it doesn't tolerate heat well. It won't die, but it will go dormant in the hottest part of the summer (maybe not at your elevation).

Streambank and western wheatgrass are the other grasses in my lawn. Western wheatgrass is more of a blue and streambank wheatgrass is a light green. Streambank wheatgrass establishes much more easily than western wheatgrass (although not as readily as crested wheatgrass and sheep fescue). Western wheatgrass will stay green longer without water, but streambank wheatgrass can deal with prolonged dormancy better.

If you've got sandy soil, thickspike wheatgrass would be a better choice for you than streambank wheatgrass.

Thickspike, streambank and western wheatgrass are all shizomatous spreading grasses.

None of these should be fertilized with very much nitrogen fertilizer. I haven't fertilized in 2 or 3 years now. If you do fertilize, don't use more than about 1/2 to 1 lb of actual N per 1000 sq ft per year (and if you use 1 lb, split it into multiple applications). If you're used to KBG, you may think I'm kidding, since it takes about 3-4 lbs of N per year to be happy. But too much N will cause these grasses to suffer and maybe even die.

Maybe a mixture of grasses would do well--some crested wheatgrass and/or sheep fescue for quick establishment and some streambank/thickspike and/or western wheatgrass for better fill-in. That more or less describes my lawn. I've also added some Palestine strawberry clover (part of why I never fertilize, since it adds some N). Dutch White Clover is more drought tolerant than Strawberry clover, but it prefers acidic conditions (definitely not what I have) so I got the most drought tolerant of the Strawberry clovers.

Let me know if you want some contact information for suppliers of these seeds and I'll dig up some links.

Buffalo grass is said to not grow over about 7000'.
My neighbor has a nice stand of Blue Gramma that they very rarely water here in Falcon (at 7000').

Would your well produce enough water to establish part of the yard at a time? Maybe do the areas closest to the house first and maybe next year do the next section out?

Here is a link that might be useful: Tales of a Transplanted Gardener

Thanks all for your responses!
GB the soil here is clay-ey though the yard area has had manure tilled into it several different times, it's not real heavy.
It does get hot here, especially just before the rains start (right now it's 98 degrees out...eeewww) though i guess compared to Phoenix the idea of hot can be pretty subjective. the hottest is usually 100-ish degrees.
Yes, we do get a decent amount of snow, the idea of trying to germinate from the snow-melt hadn't occurred to me. And Greenbean your idea of establishing a section at a time was kind of another "Duh" moment for me. Yeah, we could do that - thank you!
I really like the idea of a mixture of grasses plus the Strawberry Clover.
So, this may be the ticket: Use a mixture of the Crested, Streambank & Western Wheatgrasses, with some Sheep Fescue and Strawberry Clover thrown in. Start with the area close in to the house so it can be watered to keep it going through Fall. Then seed the outer area before the snow flies hoping for snow-melt germination.
Ha! it gets me: i have clumps of alfalfa volunteer growing out alongside the driveway, why can IT grow all by itself with no watering but the grasses we try to plant don't! Maybe i should put alfalfa down in the yard!
But back to the yard - yes, BP if you have links for a good seed source handy that would be great.
Thanks for the great ideas!

Since it's already 98, I think I'd wait until fall or early winter and just put up with the dust for another season. you'll have better results that way.

I think I'd aim for a total seed weight of 5 lbs per 1000 sq ft (so if you use equal amounts, that would be about 1 lb of each type of seed per 1000 sq ft).

If you have a choice for varieties: For crested wheatgrass, I'd go with either Roadcrest or Ephraim. I used Rosana western wheatgrass, but I can't find the map I had that showed where different varieties did best. I think Rosana or Arriba would work for you. Sodar Streambank wheatgrass is probably the best choice. Covar sheep fescue seems to be the only one that gets used in lawns. Palestine strawberry clover is probably the best strawberry clover variety for our purpose. But I don't think it makes a huge difference which varieties to get (except for the crested wheatgrass--you need to stick to the kinds that spread and are appropriate for a lawn).

Here are some of the places I know of.

I bought from Utah Seed last year. They had pretty good prices and I avoided shipping by driving up to their warehouse. They have a pre-mixed "cabin mix" that's intended for very low maintenance (maybe not even mowing). My preference is to buy the individual seeds and spread them separately. I figure that if I mix them first, the small seeds will drop to the bottom faster, so I'll get uneven coverage. I also think it's a bit heavy on the sheep fescue and light on the streambank wheatgrass. If you want a pre-mixed low-maint lawn mix, I think it's pretty decent. But they also sell the individual seeds.

Southwest Seed is another good place. You can't order online from them, but they're VERY helpful and will give individual attention.

Biograss Sod Farms sells sod and seed. They have prepared mixes, but I think they'll also do custom blends. And they'll give a lot of help.

Granite Seed is another source. I can't find prices and have never bought from them, but I've heard good things about them.

I've bought from Round Butte Seed in the past, but not recently. I never talked to them on the phone, and only ordered online.