Best Grasses for Native Lawns

So you looking to put in a native lawn? Or perhaps you googled “best grasses for native lawns”… Either way, we are here to answer you questions.

Native lawns are a bit of an oxymoron. Lawns were invented in Europe as a defense mechanism for castles and rich people’s estates. Having short vegetation around the structures allowed for more visibility. As centuries past, short lawns became synonymous  with wealth. That carried over to some degree to the American colonies (when they weren’t struggling for survival), but as the Midwest was being settled, it was primarily  a defense against raging prairie fires. These fierce fires were no joke. To protect their family, and home, and livestock they would keep the vegetation short around their farmstead.

That brings us to today. If you ask most people why we have lawns, they usually mention how it looks. More realistically we have been trained to think those nicely manicured lawns represent beauty.

The reason native lawns are an oxymoron is most native grasses do not create the sod that most people think of when they think of lawns. To our knowledge, there is only one native sod grass species, Buffalograss. Buffalograss is a GREAT option for a lawn, but it comes with two major drawbacks. It can’t handle any amount of shade, and it is incredibly expensive. An acre of it will run you from $3,000 to $4,000. If neither of these are an issue, then we would strongly recommend Buffalo grass. The pros of this grass are huge. First, it grows slow, so you only have to mow about half as much. Second, it only grows 6” tall, so if you’re yard is huge, you can leave chunks of it un-mowed without your HOA writing you a coveted letter. Lastly, it’s a very soft grass, which is a win for everyone.

If the shade is not an issue but the price is, you can mix the Buffalograss with Blue Grama and Sideoats Grama. These are not technically a sod species, but they have a wide base that can pretend to be sod when mixed with Buffalograss. This can cut the price by over half. The drawback would be its height. These species do not stay 6 inches tall. Blue Grama will get to 12” to 20” tall, and Sideoats Grama will get as tall as 3 feet. But they grow slowly, so the benefit of less mowing will still be relevant.

If you want to use Buffalograss as your native lawn, you’ll want between 100 to 120lbs per acre. If you are leaning towards the Sideoats Grama, Blue Grama, Buffalograss blend, then you’ll want 7lbs of Sideoats Grama, 2lbs of Blue Grama, and 12lbs of Buffalograss per acre.

Looking for some Buffalograss as your native lawn? You can find it here.

Looking for the native grasses mix as your native lawn? You can find it here.

Best of luck, Friend!

-   Nicolas, Business Coordinator of Hoksey Native Seeds and The Prairie Farm