Well, it's about to be 3rd summer for my front yard and the 4th for my backyard plot. I'll try to sum up my experience so far. First though, I'll say I should probably report back in June to give a full opinion. We've had a lot of rain so far and I've got tons of winter grass and other early weeds in the yard right now and the turf is still dormant. So at the moment, I'm not too happy with my choice, but as I recall from last year, once the grass gets going and everything dries out, it gets better. Weeds are really my only complaint with my experience. I don't know if it would be any different with any other grass type, but it's been a constant fight. If I was starting again, I would wait much later to seed, and spend April watering and glyphosating the weeds multiple times. All that said, I was really happy with how it thickened up and blocked the weeds last summer as compared to the previous year and I hope that trend will continue this year. I'll just keep looking at those pictures I posted last year to keep my spirits up during the dormant spring phase.

Sounds like you think the experiment failed. Did you plant a seeded variety of buffalo or sod? I don't think that was thatch. I think that was buffalo grass plants. Thatch is a dense mat of plant material just above the soil. It ranges from roots to stolons to grass plants. Yours didn't look like a dense mat of anything. It looked like grass in a dormant stage. In the wild, buffalo grass would NOT be closely grazed by bison or cows. If it was grazed at all it would be grazed once in the spring and the bison would move on looking for tender new grass. They would have kept on moving until they reached central Canada and then they would have returned feeding on other grasses. By the time they returned to your buffalo grass patch, it would be 18 inches tall. The only time forage is closely grazed over long periods is after fences are installed to keep the livestock from leaving to look for fresh forage. Fencing animals in is not natural or "in the wild." What is your watering schedule? How long and how often? Is the blue grama an experiment or do you have reason to believe it is the solution to a problem?

The most frequent watering occurred during June, about once a week, whenever the grass looked stressed. I always water until I can easily insert a screwdriver into the ground 7-8 inches. During July and August, I hardly watered at all due to the rain and humidity. Right now I'm back to watering about every 10 days, but again I make each watering session count. I'm hoping this will 'train' the grass so it requires even less water next summer.

Why not get rid of the soap-drenched lawn, Sir Walter and his buffalo? You could put in a nice garden with shrubs, trees and winding paths. The garden might then look interesting and inviting and at the same time provide a haven for native birds.