Growing the Turffalo: Year Two

Well the Turffalo buffalo grass seemed to survive the winter. The coldest nights were down in the single digits. I stopped watering the grass after the first freeze in October. After disconnecting the valve box the only water the grass received was precipitation from snow and rain during the winter.

Taken April 12th

Taken April 12th

Like I did last year I applied fertilizer at the equinox. I used the Hi Yield fertilizer I mentioned last post. This seemed to help the existing fescue/bluegrass more than the buffalo grass. I'm guessing because it really hadn't come out of dormancy yet.

Next year I'll apply the fertilizer in late April to help the buffalo grass.

Taken April 26th

Taken April 26th. More green starting to pop up

Taken April 26th

Taken April 26th. 

By April 12th the buffalo grass was beginning to emerge from hibernation. This kind of perplexed me at first, because wild buffalo grass growing next to my office was already sending up pollen heads, and multiple stolon shoots.

I'm guessing my grass is taking longer to wake up, because the house would cast shade midday on the lawn during winter, and therefore, the ground was colder. The grass at work is in the sun all day long.


When I took the next photos in late April, the grass was beginning to green up significantly more. You can tell in the photos how the further north in the yard, the more awake it is.

At this point I have the sprinklers come on for 20 minutes, once every two weeks. The bluegrass/fescue isn't quite a fan, but it hasn't turned brown on me either. Guess their roots are really deep. A couple of rain storms haven't hurt it either haha.






































Now that the buffalo grass is starting to throw out stolons again, I'm beginning to rip out the fescue to allow the buffalo to move in. You can see the before, and after, in these two photos.

Since I'm watering my containers on the patio daily anyway, what I'm going to do is keep watering the soil around the buffalo grass by hand until it fills in the old fescue spots. My goal is to have half the yard replaced by the end of the season.

Ripped up existing fescue to allow buffalo to take over.
Desert Globemallow in the background.  Taken May 2nd. 

A local garden nursery down the road is selling Bowie buffalo seed. I may be tempted to buy some of that seed, and sprinkle it into the the old fescue spots to help speed up the fill in process.

I'll keep you up to date as the season progresses. Thank you for reading.

Taken May 2nd. Really beginning to green up

Throwing out new stolons for the year