More Homeowners Are Turning To Native Grasses As Their Turf Of Choice

A growing number of homeowners are trying to find low maintenance alternatives to the common American lawn. Many of them are turning to native grasses.

In order to better explain the growing popularity of native grasses, let me first discuss the more commonly used turf grasses. Many of today’s turf grasses were either brought to this country by immigrants or they are relatively new products developed by horticultural research scientists. These recently introduced grasses have not had time to evolve and adapt for survival in the places they are used the way that native grasses have.

Native grasses are those grasses that have existed in their environments for thousands of years. They are well adapted to whatever Mother Nature may throw their way. They tend to survive harsh freezing weather, extreme droughts, severe insect damage, and many different diseases. In addition, they survive quite well given a lot less nutrients than the grasses typically used for homeowner’s lawns.

Some grasses native to the U.S.A. include:

• Bluestem,
• Buffalograss,
• Indiangrass, and
• Switchgrass.

There are also seed mixtures of these and other native grasses available.

Most native grasses are well suited for use in pastures (uncut), but several are being used more and more as lawns on homeowners’ property. If you decide to give native grasses a try, it is important that you select the varieties that are particularly native to the part of the country in which you live.

The bottom line here is that you can minimize or eliminate much of the work, expense, and chemical applications typically associated with the common turf type species of grass. If you are interested in learning more about native grasses, I encourage you to use your favorite search engine directed toward “native grasses”.

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