The good news is that a low-maintenance lawn is possible. Meet the species commonly known as buffalograss (Buchloe dactyloides). What makes this species so special? It is the only lawn species that is native to North America. This characteristic has some impressive advantages over other grass species. First, it needs very little supplemental watering. It can tolerate and survive severe droughts, while other grass species, such as the overly thirsty Kentucky bluegrass, cannot. It also has very low fertilizer requirements. At the most, it needs 1 to 2 lbs. of pure nitrogen per 1,000 sq. ft. of lawn, per year. Some grass species need 2 to 3 times that much! It also grows fairly slowly, so you don’t have to mow it as frequently. Not fond of mowing at all? You could even leave your buffalo grass lawn unmowed if you don’t mind a more natural look.

Buffalograss is the perfect lawn for lawn owners who don’t want to spend their weekends completing a checklist of tasks in their yard. But having such a low-maintenance lawn does come with a few drawbacks that are important to be aware of.

First of all, buffalograss doesn’t require much energy to grow in terms of water or fertilizer, but it does require full sunlight. Any shade, even partial shade, will kill it. If you’re set upon having this type of lawn, you will have to remove any trees or shrubs that shade the yard. Otherwise, you will have to plant a blend of grass seed that includes more shade-tolerant species.

Also, the lawn is best left alone – period. It doesn’t respond well to intense maintenance, but it also doesn’t respond well to routine foot traffic. If you have kids or pets that need a yard to run around and play in, then this species is not the lawn for you. Bottom line, it is better for visual rather than recreational enjoyment.

As a warm-season grass, it thrives in warmer temperatures, and will grow most actively during the heat of summer, a direct contrast to cool-season lawns like Kentucky bluegrass and perennial ryegrass, which are struggling to remain green during that season. However, it has very little tolerance for cool temperatures. It tends to go dormant by turning brown whenever temperatures drop below 55ºF. The further south you live, the less important this is. But if you live in the transitional zone, you may have a brown lawn for six months out of the year. Some lawn owners compensate for this problem by overseeding their lawns in the fall with perennial ryegrass seed, which keeps the lawn green until the spring.

Buffalograss is certainly not the right lawn choice for everyone. But if you are interested in native plants, want a no-fuss lawn, and prefer your lawn’s aesthetic over its recreational potential, then you should take a look at the buffalo grass seed products available.

An important step before planting your Buffalo grass seed is to prepare and grade the soil. No soil is perfect, especially the poor-draining, low quality sub-soils usually exposed by new construction. Taking the extra time and effort to improve your soil before seeding your Buffalograss seed lawn will reduce your water usage and save you money for years to come.

Not only will a poor soil cost you extra money keeping your lawn watered, but it also makes for a poor looking lawn. As a rule: healthy grass lawns grow in healthy soil. Many people dump loads of fertilizer onto their lawn (another extra cost) to make it as green as possible and mask their soil’s shortcomings. But this is a short-term, habit-forming fix. A well-prepared soil, combined with the best Buffalo grass seed varieties available, will save you time and money and give you the best chance at a picture-perfect lawn.

A good soil is well-structured. The better the structure the easier it is for water to absorb and percolate deep into the soil profile. Clay soils are dense and compact easily, making them slow to absorb water and nutrients. This makes them prone to losing water to runoff and evaporation before much of it gets down to the roots. Sandy soils allow water to move through the soil too quickly and evaporate from the soil too easily. In a well-structured soil, water is held deeper in the soil and is protected from summer evaporation. This encourages your Buffalo grass lawn’s roots to grow down deeper than they would in a poor soil, giving them access to additional water and nutrients which are out of reach of shallower rooted plants.

Healthy soils need various components such as organic matter, diverse particle sizes and enough pore space to hold oxygen and water. Poor soils suffer from a shortage of most or all of these components, but organic matter is the solution to every one of them. Decomposing organic matter provides nutrients for your grass seed and also increases the diversity of soil particles (instead of the evenness of a pure-sand or pure-clay soil). The various particles from the added organic matter create a matrix of space between the soil particles that allow water and oxygen in and give roots room to grow. Taking extra steps before you plant your Buffalograss seeds will produce a healthy soil, giving you a thick, lush lawn needing less water and fertilizer.

1. Before planting your Buffalo grass seed, rototill the top six inches of your existing soil. This adds oxygen and breakups any compacted areas that restrict water absorption and root growth.
2. Till in organic matter such as black topsoil, compost, shredded yard waste (leaves, grass clippings, etc.) or an organic matter-based, slow-release fertilizer.
3. Add any additional soil amendments as suggested by your local county extension agent. (Your local agent may recommend you get your soil analyzed first. Follow their instructions on where and how to have your soil tested.)

Once you have improved the organic matter content of your soil, it is time to install your sprinkler system. After installation, fill in the trenches housing the sprinkler pipe and use a rake to level the entire area, removing large rocks and other debris. Finally, use a lawn roller filled with water to firm the soil. The roller needs to be filled at least halfway with water to provide the correct weight. Be careful not to add too much water to the roller or roll any area too many times, as this will compact the soil and prevent proper water infiltration and drainage.

After your lawn has established itself, it is important to maintain the healthy, organic-rich soil you have created. Remembering that organic matter and soil structure are two of the main keys to a healthy soil, every year take some additional steps to maintain your soil’s health:

• When mowing your lawn, don’t bag the clippings. Instead, set your lawnmower to its ‘mulch’ setting. Lawn clippings provide your Buffalograss with a steady input of organic matter throughout the growing season that will slowly decompose on the soil surface.
• Have your lawn aerated at least once a year (twice—fall and spring—if you have high-clay soils). Aeration breaks-up compacted soils, opens up space for new growth, creates a pathway for oxygen to enter the soil, helps thatch and clippings to decompose and allows water to infiltrate into the soil easier.
• Top-dress your lawn with black topsoil, compost or any other fine-particle organic matter that can be easily worked down to the crown of the grass. Even sand—either alone or blended with topsoil or compost—can be a helpful top-dressing to improve soil structure (especially in high-clay soils). Top-dressing your lawn shortly after aerating, before the holes have had time to close back up, can be particularly beneficial. (Note: It is important never to top-dress a light sandy soil with a heavier top-dressing. This will cause soil interfacing and restrict root depths.)

Taking these extra steps create to produce and maintain a healthy soil will turn your Buffalo grass seeds into a thick, lushBuffalo grass lawn, needing less fertilizer and water for the life of your lawn.

A Buffalo grass seed lawn doesn’t have a lot of needs compared to some of the other grass seed varieties: it requires less water, fertilizer, and overall maintenance. But one thing this species requires in order to thrive is sunlight.

Constant direct sunlight is, of course, ideal. But a Buffalo grass lawn that has direct sunlight anywhere from 6 to 8 hours a day can maintain its green and healthy look. Problems start to arise when there are constantly shady areas in the lawn. The lawn located under the shade will begin to go dormant or die, and as a result those areas will look thin and patchy.

If the number of shady areas is minimal, and you are willing to give a little more care to those areas through reseeding, you can maintain the desired consistent appearance for your Buffalograss seed lawn. You could also consider removing the shrubbery or trees that are creating larger shady spots, if necessary. However, if the majority of your lawn does not receive direct sunlight, then Buffalo grass seed would not be a good choice for your needs. For an overview on how to choose the right type of grass seed for your particular lawn environment, we have several helpful guides to choose from. You can find these grass seed guides here (link to main guides page), or simply use the tabs on top of this page for navigation.

One of the best things about having a Buffalo grass seed lawn is that it is extremely low-maintenance. It requires less water, mowing, and fertilizer than other grass varieties, and therefore requires less time: great news for someone with little free time to spare! Yet one trade-off to this hands-off approach is that Buffalo grass is much less traffic tolerant than other varieties. It is more likely to become damaged from someone walking or playing on it, and it is also less likely to repair itself once it is damaged. We would not recommend planting a lawn with Buffalo grass seeds if your dream is to use your lawn for recreation with your kids or pet. If that is your objective, please take a look at our other grass seed types to find a species better suited to your needs.

Although this grass species is less able to resist and repair traffic damage, there are several preventative measures you can take to strengthen your lawn against this inevitable stress.

• Be particularly careful of traffic during the winter, when the grass is dormant and more susceptible to injury.
• Avoid repeating paths of traffic on the lawn, so as to give the area time to repair and to “spread” damage evenly across the lawn. If the path is unavoidable (such as to a garden or bench), consider putting in runners or stepping stones, which will be more atheistically pleasing than thinning grass.
• Cut the lawn as long as possible. This will provide more visible plant growth to absorb the damage as well as produce deeper, stronger roots.
• Watering deeply and infrequently will also produce the deeper roots needed for the Buffalo grass to repair faster.
• Fertilize your lawn correctly. Too little, and the grass will not have the nutrients to rebuild itself. Too much, and the grass will grow quickly with shallow roots and little resistance. (Potassium in particular will help encourage this lawn to re-grow and repair.)
• One of the biggest damages from traffic is soil compaction, which makes it difficult for roots to grow. Aerate your soil often to prevent this problem.

Being aware of the possible problems and working to prevent them from even happening will go a long way in keeping your Buffalo grass seed lawn healthy and injury-free.

Buffalo Grass is a great warm-season option for your lawn. It is the only commonly used grass seed type native to North America—and as any gardener would tell you, native plants are easier to take care of than are nonnative plants. Buffalograss is very drought tolerant. It doesn’t need much fertilizer, irrigation, or even mowing. It can even be left uncut for a meadow look. If all of these characteristics have convinced you to plant this species for your lawn, there are some things you’ll need to know about planting it.

First, pick the right buffalo grass seed product for your lawn. There is a multitude of seed brands out there, all costing a different amount. Before you go grabbing the cheapest bag, however, do yourself a favor and look at the pure live seed percentage. This percentage shows how much of the seed bag contains buffalo grass seed (the purity percentage), and how much of that is actually expected to germinate (the germination percentage). When it comes to the quality of your lawn, it really is better to buy a more expensive seed product that has a higher pure live seed percentage. The result will be a denser, thicker, and higher quality lawn.

To prepare the soil, remove any old plant material or weeds—you don’t want to be dealing with those in a newly established lawn! Till the soil several inches deep to help loosen it, and take this opportunity to add organic material to the soil. Add a pre-plant fertilizer as well, one that is high in phosphorus, a week or two before you plant.

You should wait until soil temperatures are 60 to 70ºF and air temperatures are 70 to 90ºF before you plant this species. When this occurs during the spring season will depend on your region, so buy a special soil thermometer to get exact measurements.

Usually you will only have to seed buffalograss at a rate of 1 ½ to 2 lbs. per 1,000 sq. ft, but check the seeding rate recommendations to make sure. Measure your lawn to know the total amount you should have. A drop spreader will improve evenness, but you can also seed by hand or with a shoulder spreader. Take half of the total seed amount and spread it back and forth across the lawn in a horizontal direction. Then take the other half spread it in a vertical direction. Use a lawn roller to gently firm up the soil and ensure good soil contact, keeping in mind that the seeds should be no deeper than ¼” in the soil.

At this point you will need to be patient. This species can take as many as 14 to 30 days to germinate. Until that happens, you will need to keep the soil lightly moist, watering briefly and often, as many as five times a day. Once you start seeing small green shoots, continue watering this way for another two weeks. After that, you can begin watering deeply and infrequently to help the root system grow.

Let your new buffalo grass lawn grow for another four to eight weeks before you do a fertilizer application (about ¼ to ½ lb. nitrogen per 1,000 sq. ft.). Apply again every six to eight weeks during the growing season, or when the lawn is looking yellow. Remember that this native grass will not need much fertilizer, so don’t overdo it. Soon you will be able to enjoy a fully established buffalograss lawn.