Alternatives to the Traditional Lawn

With recurring drought in many parts of the country, it may be wise to consider alternatives to resource-hogging manicured turfgrass areas. Unless you need your lawn for tuning up your golf game, replace at least part of it with native plants.

Drought tolerant grasses and wildflowers, once established, will make your life much easier and reduce your landscape maintenance costs greatly. Mowing is reduced to one cutting per year (fall in most regions), and watering can often be eliminated completely.

You can customize the native plantings with a wide variety of grasses and wildflowers to suit your specific region, soil and personal preferences - see the lists below.

There's one misconception regarding these native plantings - it's sometimes assumed that soil preparation can be less thorough. You will not need as much soil amendment, if any, but your grading and seedbed preparation should be as complete as if you're installing a traditional seeded lawn.

In dry, light soils, the addition of two inches of organic matter, tilled into the top four or five inches, will help germination and early establishment. When seeding during warm weather, a seed mulch of straw or other coarse material will be beneficial.

Though regular fertilization should not be necessary, a starter fertilizer certainly will be beneficial - use a good phosphorus source like bone meal or phosphate rock.

Newly seeded areas should be kept evenly moist during and after germination. Pamper your new planting for the first season, and then enjoy many years of beauty with extremely low maintenance.

The following lists specify just a few of the regional alternatives - contact your local county extension agent, nursery or landscape professional for more information.

Northeast/Mid-Atlantic:

• Little Bluestem
• Broomsedge
• Sideoats Grama
• Aster
• Wild Geranium
• Butterfly Weed

Midwest/Prairie:

• Little Bluestem
• Big Bluestem
• Indian Grass
• Purple Coneflower
• Prairie Clover
• Gayfeather

Southwest:

• Blue Grama
• Buffalograss
• Sideoats Grama
• Desert Marigold
• Pastel Poppy
• Showy Primrose

California/Pacific Northwest:

• Purple Needlegrass
• Idaho Fescue
• Meadow Barley
• California Fuchsia
• Tidytips
• Pacific Coast Iris

Southeast:

• Broomsedge
• Silver Bluestem
• Tickle Grass
• Blanket Flower
• Plains Coreopsis
• Southern Ragwort

Florida:

• Wiregrass
• Bottlebrush Three-awn
• Pinewoods Dropseed
• Wild Petunia
• Sunshine Mimosa
• Twinflower