Last Updated on February 16, 2025 by Brian Beck
The following letter was in response to a customer that sought out my advice on transitioning a Bluegrass lawn to a Buffalo Grass lawn for the sake of saving water. I decided to share it here as a blog. This was my response:
The first and foremost thing that should be understood and acted upon is that a dysfunctional soil will waste a lot of water. While bluegrass will use more water than Buffalo grass, it isn’t using all of the water that you are giving it. It is in essence a victim at the scene of a crime.
Let me define what qualifies as a healthy soil in regard to water.
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It should be able to infiltrate several inches per hour with little or no runoff or pooling
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It should be able to hold and store and hold this water with minimal loss from evaporation and precipitation, allowing it to be used for plant use trough transpiration.
Our soils here violate this in every way and the plants in it are being blamed for the loss of water when in reality it is the soil’s inability to get water in and hold it. Our soils have pre-development flaws that are inherent with the soils in our area because both geological and climate reasons. The soils here are inorganic (low in carbon) and have a high pH which will affect all plants that grow in it. This condition is aggravated by the use of synthetic products. The combination of these two problems are almost completely disregarded as part of the problem which creates a lot of secondary problems. This combined with authority figures, or those who have engaged in this system without questioning it creates a lot of confusion and frustration. This ignorance and arrogance, combined with the cost of water and Colorado’s dysfunctional water laws and the economy has everyone begging for alternatives.
Due to what we are doing to our soils with conventional wisdom we have created soils that are thick with thatch, compacted, low in organic matter and alkaline, all of which are hostile to water penetration and water carrying capacity (WCC) in the soil. Because people typically water in a shallow manner due to the soils inability to infiltrate water, reluctance due to cost and practice due to poor education, they are creating a highly dysfunctional environment that wastes more water than it uses in plant function giving the illusion that their lawn is consuming more resources than is acceptable and contempt for the plant. The average lawn that uses synthetic fertilizers from my experience is losing 50% or more of its water, largely to evaporation which is from water that never gets into the soil or from water that is lost once it gets into the soil from an inorganic soil that is incapable of holding water. There is a relationship between carbon and water carrying capacity. Soils that are below 3% organic matter struggle to hold water and actually lose carbon which is burned (oxidized) off from synthetic fertilizer use. To go one step further, Humus, the most element in the carbon umbrella which is the direct component that facilitates WCC and serves as an energy source for the biology that we are killing off with modern synthetic chemicals. It only takes 30-40 lbs per acre of humus to achieve a healthy soil that embraces the biological method
Now, about Buffalo grass. It is a warm season grass that is heat tolerant and is very drought tolerant. It grows for about four months out of the year when it is warm enough to do so. I do believe that we should keep and maintain green spaces and avoid alternatives like rock that contribute to urban heating and diminish the water cycle by the heat that they reflect back into the atmosphere, preventing the formation of rain clouds and the completion of the water cycle. My contention with Buffalo grass has very little to do with the plant itself but with the lack of information surrounding it and the insinuation that by changing plants all of the problems will disappear. A lateral movement from one plant to another without addressing soil dysfunction will give us a dopamine hit but will just produce a plant that uses less water in a soil that is just as dysfunctional. This would be like putting cheaper gas in a car that you have never tuned up believing that the gas will solve the problem of inefficiency all while blaming the car manufacturer for how the car is functioning and its lack of performance. It would be best to discover and correct the dysfunction in the car before switching to a smaller car to save gas.
Here is my experience with Buffalo Grass. We planted our first Buffalo lawn last year. We researched it very well and the customer spoke to several people, including two sod farms, both who have abandoned or never engaged in growing it due to difficulty growing it in our climate. As I mentioned previously it only grows about four months out of the year as it is a warm season lawn. Because you cannot get sprigs affordably due to transportation costs and no one sells it in sod form because it is a warm season turf (it has stolons rather than rhizomes that grow on the surface rather than below the soil making cutting sod difficult if not impossible) leaves you with the option to propagate from seed. Just because it will germinate does not promise a lawn in 4 months. Realistically, it will take two to three seasons before the perfect specimen typically shown in propaganda videos from the water authorities will be reality. They like to leave that little factoid out.
I reviewed the video that you sent me. I have a history with the woman that produced it that I will touch on later but let me say this. The method of removal and propagation that they proposed is very costly, inefficient, largely unnecessary and even if you chose the method that we used last year that eliminates the cutting of sod and amendments, you still have to labor the time that it takes to get it established.
I spoke to this person two years ago. I need to stress that she works for the government that has an agenda. I called because the city was being flippant about their policies surrounding lawn repair in 2023 and were changing them frequently in a very hostile and biased manner to meet their agenda. Their agenda is total elimination of Bluegrass which if you understand the water cycle and urban heating is a very short-sighted goal as it promotes a lack of rain and a warmer air temperature. This may be intentional to achieve their dogmatic world view, or it may just be ignorance and incompetence, either of which is at odds with reality and nature. Plants cool the air and promote the formation of rain clouds, just like the ones that we got 4 years ago before the city grew. Getting back to my story, I called to offer my insights into the study of organic soils and how the discontinuation of using synthetic fertilizers, adopting a biological system and encouraging the public to be focused on improving soil organic matter and thus decreasing the use of water by creating an efficient system and overcoming soil dysfunction that is driving waste. Her response, while shocking was predictable as she represents the bureaucratic mind that is typical in a government entity. She said, “That is great that you have found a solution, we are going to stick to our model.” When I pressed a little and insisted that improving the soil with organic matter was the practical solution and she had no logical or scientific ground to stand on she blurted out the declaration, “ Well, you know, I do have a Master’s degree in Agronomy!” Well, that was the end of the conversation as I realized I was speaking to an educated white wall of dogma with no critical thinking present. Apparently, having a degree has been solving all our problems all along and I have just been ignorant of the massive fountainhead of wisdom and intelligence that flows from it. My disdain and contempt aside this reluctance to learn about a functional system that is not only practical but efficient and solves the problems that we are facing has it roots in the fact that the agronomy schools in this country are largely bought and paid for by the Petro-ag companies that promote the use of their products. The chemistry side of the equation is well understood but the biological side which cannot be patented is not and subsequently you have well-intentioned students who graduate and exist in a paradigm that is half true that drives the ignorance I reference earlier.
Last year was a very pivotal point for us. The biological system that I developed last year as an ongoing learning experience achieved something that I was hoping for several years ago, the realization of two, what I call “Holy Grails”, those being massive water carrying capacity and nitrogen fixation. I was able to achieve a lawn that did not require any nutrient inputs while being able to consistently water once every ten days all while in 90 ° heat, creating a highly efficient soil that not just uses resources wisely but provides a healthy lawn that looks just as good if not superior to a synthetic lawn.
I guess in summation to distill this I would say that if one would correct the dysfunction that exists in the soil by using a biological system that would eliminate waste this would displace the cost that is being hoped for by embarking in a completely new construction project that would bring its own challenges and struggles. The cost differential that would be incurred would take several years to realize and for a fraction of the cost one could jumpstart a biological program and use that energy and cost savings to correct the dysfunction and be sustainable into the future and be years ahead of the alternative program.
I would keep the Bluegrass and fix the issues in the soil…
