I stumbled upon the blog of Carla Wingett of Flora & Fauna Garden Design in San Luis Obispo, California and her recent installation of California Buffalograss for a client!

Carla decided to go with a very natural meadow look, here’s how she describes it:

“This lawn is planted with California Buffalograss grass plugs and crocus bulbs. When it grows in it will require 1/4 of the water, will look beautiful grown out or mowed, and each spring it will be covered in tiny white flowers which will come and go with no maintenance at all. There are lots of varieties of grasses and bulbs which will work depending on your climate, but this combination will thrive in the hot and dry summers of Paso Robles, California.”

Doesn’t that sound so nice!?…Your very own little meadow in your front yard! And I love that retaining wall!

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For really, really large jobs – like this park project in Los Angeles, we send out (imagine UFC announcer Bruce Buffer’s voice here)…thhhhhhhhhaaa TRANSPLANTER!!!

It’s not perfect, but it will save some poor fellows’ back from installing 280 trays of California Buffalograss. That’s 35,840 plugs which would otherwise be installed one by one by one by one by one…until the end of time!

California Buffalograss trays waiting for their chance in the sunlight:

The transplanter reduces it down to a two man job…one to pull the transplanter along and one to do the planting:

Thanks to our Socal rep Tom Hawkins at Florasource for the pics!

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Contest-Winner-Corey has been keeping us thoroughly updated on the progress of his lawn! Read on below if you’re interested in seeing his detailed account – you might be able to apply some of it to your California Buffalograss lawn…or if you’d rather just look at his pretty progress pictures you can view it all on this little nifty web page he’s set up!

“Today marks 12 weeks in and the second mow…Not a lot different between 8 weeks and 12 weeks.  The biggest difference would be the bare spots where I spread steer manure or potting soil have either filled in nicely, or seem to be well on the way.  Of the two, I would say the steer manure worked better than the potting soil, probably because it had a finer texture (easier for runners to grab ahold of?) and maybe it held moisture better and probably also richer growing environment.  One of those regions I focused on in the “Other” picture column for week 8 and 12.

Regarding the coloration and growth pattern question I had last time at 8 weeks, I have not had a chance to test how evenly the sprinklers distribute water yet.  But, I bet that is more likely the case than soil quality.  I only have 2 inch pop-up sprinklers, and with the daily watering, the grass was growing quite well that I suspect it started to block the water spray near the sprinklers so more water would fall closer to the sprinklers, and the situation would only magnify as the grass got ever more taller.  Mowing probably helped a lot initially.  Now to toy with cutting back on watering frequency to try to slow down the growth a bit, and encourage deeper root system.  I had been watering daily at 5 minutes a shot, but now to try every 4 days at 10 minutes a shot.

I figured out the other weed that I was asking about in week 4 is probably some kind of spurge (the other you identified as purslane).  Now with the established grass, purslane is pretty much choked out (and the stragglers that do pop up are easy to pull out).  But, I can pretty much tell that spurge is probably going to be a forever battle.  It is definitely the most abundant weed in the grass, and the only one so far that easily co-habitates with the grass.  There is a picture in the 12 week pre-mow “Other” section.  The way it spreads out from the center, and the denseness of the grass, make it basically impossible to work down to the base to pull out at the root.  More often than not, I just end up breaking off stems.  Where before I was reluctant to use chemical means to control the weeds during establishment of the plugs (went with hand weeding only), now I think I may consider it.  Either just spray down the entire lawn with the Ortho Weed B Gone product that you recommended before, or maybe try spot treatment with the ready mix product first.  From what I read about spurge on the ol’ internet, it is a tough weed to knock out.  As Chris Berman would say on ESPN, there is no way to stop it, you can only hope to contain it.

Another interesting thing I have noticed is that there have been small “eruptions” of my old grass (some dwarf fescue) poking out here and there.  I thought it was pretty much all dead and wiped out from the 2+ years of neglect, and mostly pulled out before I planted the plugs, but some hardy survivors have been making appearances.  Very obvious to tell from the thicker blades.  Just been trying to pull them out.

Well, that is more than enough.  Thanks for your continued support on this project!”

– And thanks for keeping us all in the loop Corey! 🙂

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Remember my parents’ neighbors whose newly installed California Buffalograss lawn I snapped pics of a few months ago?… Well, here’s how their grass is looking now!

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Y’all remember our contest winner Corey?! Well, he’s hit the 8 week mark and sent us a recent update of his California Buffalograss lawn!

His 8 week pre-mow status:

And post mow:

Wanna see more pics? Check out his website to see his lawn’s complete progress!

Here’s what Corey had to say:

“Eight weeks in and I have to say “Wow!”  Finally hit a consistent spell of hot sunny weather at the beginning of July and the grass really took off.  We went out of town for a week at the beginning of July and came back to find massive spreading of the grass throughout.  I was able to setup a better sprinkler timer before we left so was able to water 3 times a day, which probably also helped a lot (I reduced to twice a day a week or so ago because I think I was over watering a bit.  Will adjust depending on hotness of the weather…).  There were some spots that were not filling in as quickly/nicely so I spread some old steer manure or potting soil that I had onto those areas.  Maybe I can trick the grass to root into the manure/potting soil to fill in those spots.

At the 4 week mark, I was commenting to you about the weeding task, and looking for an easy way out via a spray.  I am glad I held off on trying any chemical methods.  Seeing how this grass explodes, one can really, really see how it can choke the weeds out.  Impressive.  Still need to get in there and do weeding, but it is much reduced now.  It is actually a little tougher to get to the base of weeds now to do a good job of pulling out roots because the grass fills in so densely.  So be it!  The mowing should help so will see.

Now another question if I may…  If you please look at the “8 Wks pre-mow Front” picture, perhaps you can make out that there are lusher, greener portions to the lawn, and yellower portions to the grass.  This is more obvious towards the rear half of the lawn where there is a yellowish central area while the perimeters are really lush and green.  The grass must be telling me something, but what?  Too much water?  Not enough?  Need more/less fertilizer?  Something else?  I am not too worried because the grass seems to be growing nicely, and I will probably be taking a wait and see approach (especially after this first mow), but still curious what might be going on.”

And you’re probably curious as to our response: “Looking at the premow looks like it might be your irrigation pattern since it’s so symetrical. Can you see how much moisture the center area has compared to the outer circle? If they’re same then probably a fertilizer feed in the center areas. Those are the only two things I can think of that is causing the coloration difference.”

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Check out these pics Gary shot of an established California Buffalograss lawn in SoCal! Whether manicured or natural, California Buffalograss works with all garden styles! And may I say – I do like the drought tolerant landscaping in the background!

Gary wrote, “This is a picture of a mature California Buffalograss installation at a house about 10 miles from me that I took in mid-May. Seeing it convinced me to do my California Buffalograss project…I was very impressed by the fine grass blades.

Here’s a pic of a demonstration flat in our greenhouse. California Buffalograss does have thinner blades, offering a softer feel and a more natural native grass look when left unmowed.

Thanks for the pics Gary!

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Another happy camper! California Buffalograss lawn lover Georia told us, “After years of  dealing with weeds and disease, I love this lawn!…and I’m glad to share my satisfaction with others!”

Beginning of April, installation:

End of May, just mowed:

Beginning of July!

Thanks for sharing Georgia!

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