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California Gardening

Native Grass Lawn?

8 years ago

My husband and I have about a third of an acre of land in Orange County, and it's dead. We are very inexperienced when it comes to gardening, but would like to have a native type of lawn that doesn't require much water but is still lawn like. Our local nurseries have not been able to help, and seem to know little about California native grass, they actually have discouraged us from trying and encourage a traditional lawn, which is not what we want. Does anyone have experience with this in a residential setting? Is it possible to do something native and still have it be lawn like and friendly for children and pets? Any resources would be so helpful.

Featured Answer

lgteacher

8 years ago

If you are in OC, come to the UCCE Urban Landscape and Garden Expo on Sept. 26th at South Coast Research and Extension Center. It's free and you can see UC Verde Buffalograss, Seashore Paspallum and a variety of irrigation methods. There are demo gardens with drought tolerant plants and docents to answer your questions. We are trying out a new form of irrigation for turf and also should have a new variety of seashore paspallum seeded by then.

Garden Education Expo

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Comments (6)

akarinz
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
UC Verde Buffalo grass. I planted mine in the middle of May this year. Here is what it looks like today. It is still filling in. You don't have to mow it if you don't want to. I choose to. Once established, requires 12 inches of water a year. If you have any questions, let me know.
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Prunin Arboriculture & Landscape
8 years ago
Cause we're in severe condition of water shortage.

Turfgrass is best in this kind of warm-season, which need 20% less water than cool-season grasses,
are the best bet for California's drought conditions.
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Eveything I have read about Bermuda Grass says it spreads by stolens, rhizomes, and seeds. As long as the grass clippings from your Bermuda Grass does not contain any seeds, stolens, or rhizomes they should be a good material to use for mulch or composting. I would doubt that Bermuda Grass clippings would germinate anymore then would Kentucky Blue Grass clippings.
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I mow it mostly to get rid of the flowers - my pooch is happy he's finally got a nice cool place to nap in the sun, so getting stung by a bee wouldn't be good. I love the way it spreads, also. Runners above ground, and they do eventually root (similar to how strawberry plants do I think) - but should be easy to contain just by cutting off those runners. Once those runners root, and if they have a chance to establish for long, they'd probably then be hard to get out. But easy to keep it from getting to that point. The runners below haven't started putting roots in the ground yet, but some other shorter ones have - so maybe they only root if the water is good there. I planted about 16" apart. If doing again, I probably would have got another tray and done 12" apart so they fill in quicker. Some weeds/spurge grew in between them that I'm having to slowly pull out. Now that it's filled in pretty well, I think new weeds will have a hard time getting in there. It grows pretty dense, and I would guess will get even denser over time. So it does seem like it'll be a good deterrent to future weeds in the are. Seems like I read somewhere that mowing helps it create more branches. So that could be a reason possibly to mow it early, even if not mowing for the long term. Might help it get more dense from the start to help keep the weeds away better in the long term if it gets established in a more dense way(?).
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Don't know where you are getting your info but I do not know of any California native grass species that grows THREE INCHES OR LESS TALL! At least any that I have seen commercially available. Most California grasses are bunch grasses and these are the species that occur in meadows in the state. The meadows are an assortment of mixed annuals, biennials, and perennials with varying degrees of preponderance of two to three bunch grass species thrown into the view. Carex pansa-California Meadow Sedge Click here to read short info bit This sedge species according to Munz, A California Flora, can grow from 6 inches to 12 inches tall. It is found naturally along the coast in what Munz describes as Coastal Strand communities. What this means is that the species is found in areas that are cool and subject to coastal fog year round and may never experience any freezing weather though may reach the upper 30sF. This plant IS NOT A MEADOW PLANT. California meadows are summer dryland plants and can be exposed to broad ranges in temps each day from lows in the 50sF during summer with highs commonly in the 80sF to 90sF. Sedges are not really lawn type plants as they tend to spread rather than form a tight bedding of stems, though they can be forced to mat out by restricting the area in which they can spread. My personal experience with Carex species is that they spread out and in so doing the older stems die out as the rhizomes spread out. This link California grasslands passed off as meadows by the CNPS has an image of the Carex species and recommendations on planting etc. This site defines meadows that I define are grasslands, more akin to prairies,and not meadows which is a more open stand of plants with a preponderance of grass species. But that is just my bent on the definition. Here is a link that might be useful: Larner Seeds
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For low-cut, formal lawns I don't think there are a whole lot of native grass choices. Buffalo grass is the only one I am aware of, and I am not sure just how easy it is to grow or how it looks - I have never grown Buffalo Grass. A different idea might be to have some of the high traffic areas of the lawn planted in a typical lawn grass, then use native grasses in other areas and cut them a little higher and less often. Lots of grasses such as Little Bluestem and Sideoats Grama will do fine if mown at maybe four to 6 inches height. They would look pretty normal - something like the rough on a golf course. The whole thing could look very manicured if you keep the edges groomed.
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emmarene9
8 years ago
Jestak, we are all looking for a lawn plant to replace out grass. The grasses said to be drought tolerant are also said to be difficult to grow from seed, which is not that easy to find. Instead people start out with plugs. I have no idea of where to get plugs in my area but I also doubt I could afford the price of an entire lawn. I am considering planting white clover. At least I can find the seeds. I watered my lawn once in June and once in July. Hard to believe but the part in dappled shade is still green. The rest is brown.

Some kind person once linked a website here that would show native plants by county. I promptly went there and found that creeping red fescue was my local grass. When I went to look for seed (online) I learned that the fescue is not good in heat. It goes dormant until cool temperatures return. The struggle continues....
zagyzebra
8 years ago
I don't have experience with this yet, but I'll let you know what the owner of the nursery I use recommended: Zoysia. He also recommended running a Tekline instead of sprinkling systems. I've spoken with my gardener about this, and he's already installed grass with underground irrigation lines every 12".

The best source of information for true native grasses is the Theodore Payne Foundation.

Myself, I've got a lot of native California, Texas and Australian plants around my yard, but am going for a downsized lawn with a type of grass that requires less water than most, and am going to the expense of underground irrigation. I've already ripped out tons of lawn and spent a fortune on boulders, flagstone, and pebbles to fill out the previous lawn space. Plus, the cost of installation of drip irrigation, et al, has been very high.

No wonder people are so reluctant to rip out their lawns. The alternative is extremely expensive.
hoovb zone 9 sunset 23
8 years ago
Understand a bit about grass will help. There are two general types: the kind that grow in warm weather, like Bermuda and St. Augustine ("warm season"), and the kind that grow in cool weather, like Fescue ("cool season").

Water needs aside, Bermuda looks worst in the winter, because it's close to dormant in the winter. Fescue looks worst in the summer, because it's close to dormant in the summer.

Some grasses grow in clumps that either don't spread at all, or spread a little. These are better behaved, but they don't repair themselves quickly when damaged by, for example, dog urine. Burns spots stay burnt for a long time. Fescue (for example) is more of a clumper.

Spreading grasses, like St. Augustine, will rapidly repair dog urine burn spots because they spread, or "run", rooting and forming new plants as they grow. They are not as well behaved, because they can spread into plant beds. So it's a trade-off between control-ability and repair-ability.

If you have small kids, nothing will replace a turf grass lawn. Nothing. It's the play surface of choice. Pets don't really care what they play on. My dog's play surface of choice is mud, of which there is none on our property.

Some less thirsty choices are the UC Verde grass, or a hybrid, sterile (non-reseeding) Bermuda. Zoysia is also sometimes recommended, but it can spread and be invasive, so that is something to consider. It also turns brown without sufficient water. Hybrid Fescues are soft and a beautiful green, but they need more water.

disadvantages of Zoysia, Zoysia vs. Bermuda, etc.

Read and investigate and learn a little, it will help you with your choice.

Hybrid grasses tend to be better performers, but more expensive, and may only be available to purchase as sod, which is more expensive than seed. The expense may be well worth the higher price, because in the long run, maintenance and watering of a lawn costs far more than the original purchase price.

Look around and make sure whatever you choose is a good choice for your particular local area. California is a big state and what works in Claremont won't have the same performance in Santa Cruz or Napa.

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