Well, spring is supposed to be here, but it sure doesn’t feel like it yet! Warm weather come our way!
Gwen out at Daddy’s nursery!
The Visalia Times-Delta recently reported on low water landscape alternatives to replace lawns!
“It’s a nice bright green, a very fine texture, it’s self-mending,” said Daniel Veyna, a landscape architect with Sierra Designs, Inc.
“It requires much less water than other varieties and if the homeowner is fine with a meadow look, it’s terminal height is about 6 inches and therefore will only need mowing about twice a year.”
Click the image below to read the full article!
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So what do you do when your California Buffalograss lawn goes dormant in the winter? Pretty much nothing! You can stop your watering, stop mowing it…just sit back and relax until spring! Unless you’d prefer to use a colorant on your dormant lawn, then a one time application of Green Lawnger should do the trick until the sunny warm weather returns!
Here’s our little patch of California Buffalograss in front of our office in Fresno, CA – still barely holding onto it’s green color:
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What does sustainable landscaping mean?
“An attractive environment that is in balance with the local climate and requires minimal resource inputs, such as fertilizer, pesticides and water” – is how Coloroado State Univ puts it – and I think puts it well!
Arcadia Studio Landscape Architecture in Santa Barbara, just blogged about how UC Verde can help you save substantial money on your irrigation costs and be a sustainable landscaping option!
“For example, a 1/3 acre yard in Santa Barbara County typically spends between $800 and $1500 per year for irrigation, potentially more in places where water is particularly expensive, like Solvang and Montecito. A LEAF landscape design can help you save 50% to 75%. on your water bill, and cut maintenance requirements in half.” – Arcadia Studio
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We’ve yet to hear a complaint about dog pee on California Buffalograss. My brother has a small patch of California Buffalograss in his back yard that doesn’t seem to get affected, but i think since it’s such a small patch, it only gets peed on about once a day or so. So I’m not sure how accurate of a representation of dog urine on California Buffalograss, it would be.
Not too long ago, someone called wondering specifically how female dog urine affected the grass – I guess girl’s have stronger pee???
Do any of you out there have first-hand experience on how dog urine has affected or not affected your California Buffalograss lawn?
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We recently got an email from a California Buffalograss-er regarding what to do with weeds in your California Buffalograss lawn:
…I planted buffalo plugs in the spring ’10. I’ve had some setbacks with weeds. I’ve mowed but have read that mowing should stop before the onset of winter. I’ve been planning to use roundup in winter during dormancy. I live in the Central Valley and wonder if I can be assured that the grass would go dormant enough to apply the roundup. Also, can pre-emergent herbicides also be applied at other times?
Thank you, Eric
Here is what we suggested: Depending on the weed types most should go dormant during the winter months and those that don’t can be spot sprayed with Roundup, though you might do that now as Roundup is not as effective when the temps get colder. When the temps get colder you can use a contact weed killer. Prior to spring put down your pre-emergent to prevent as much weed seeds from germinating and continue to spot treat. Fertilize the grass and monitor the weeds as best you can. Once the California Buffalograss can get established you can hold back the water and this should discourage any more weed seeds from germinating in your lawn.
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Woohooo! California Buffalograss was mentioned on an episode of HGTV’s The Outdoor Room with Jamie Durie! And if you haven’t seen The Outdoor Room, well then you’re missing out!
“With a client roster that includes A-list celebrities and five-star hotels, Jamie Durie is one of the most well-renowned and sought-after landscape artists in the world.” -HGTV
Durie creates stylish landscapes for everyday people – totally transforming their fugly and often unused (due to the before mentioned fact) yards into waaay cool and completely usuable ‘outdoor rooms’! Not to mention that he’s easy on the eyes as well. How do I sign up for a yard makeover on this show?!!
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The sun’s going away 😦 I hate when I wake up in the morning and it’s dark out – it makes it that much harder to roll out of bed in the morning, doesn’t it? It looks like I’m not the only one feeling the lull of winter coming – this California Buffalograss lawn is beginning to lose it’s color and go into dormancy with the shorter amounts of daylight here in Fresno.
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Sooo I made a California Buffalograss Faceboo Fan Page!!! Woohoo! Still figuring out all the plugins and this and that you can do though. I know how to navigate my personal page just fine, but this fan page thing is all new to me.
So far there’s me, my husband, my dad, my father-in-law, and Lori who works for my father-in-law who are fans haha. Click on my facebook badge on the right column of this blog to go and check it out! – and then don’t forget to add me so I can say that there are fans other than people that are related to me or who work for someone related 😉
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Last week the weather was in the 90’s and this week it’s in the low 70’s – go figure – that’s Fresno for ya! At least I got to wear my new – lower cost Costco version of Ugg boots!
With the cooler weather rolling in, it reminds me that it’s about that time of the year again for California Buffalograss to go dormant. In a few weeks most lawns will begin to lose their coloring with the decrease in daylight. Some of you lucky people in Socal who don’t experience much of a winter may not lose your green coloring or only see a slight yellowing of your California Buffalograss lawn. But alas for most of us we have to go through the cold gloominess of winter.
While California Buffalograss is in its dormancy period (for most of us that is from November to February/March) you do not have to water or mow it. It will just sit there frozen in time, waiting for the sun to come out again before it starts growing.
If you’re not a fan of having a yellow lawn, you can easily apply a grass colorant to “fake the green” until spring. We recommend Green Lawnger from Gemplers.com. It’s super easy to do, inexpensive and for us it lasted all winter until the green came back into the grass! You’ll probably want to play around with the ratios in an inconspicuous area until you can get your mix just right. Check out the user reviews for some tips. One user adds yellow food coloring to lime up the coloring a bit!
We played around with the ratio of Green Lawnger to water, to find a blend we were happy with! The last test square is fully concentrated undiluted Green Lawnger – just to see what it did…needless to say, it’s not the most natural look!
When have you noticed that your California Buffalograss lawn began to lose it’s color and how have you handled it?
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