I have a rather small lot on the east side of the Salt Lake Valley (actually near the University). I have re-landscaped most of the lot but still have the majority the small front yard in grass. I do have two very large shade trees, Silver Oak, that provide shade to the lawn. I let the lawn grow fairly long, and with the trees, water much less than any of the neighbors.
I’m planning to redo the front yard taking up some of the space with a new garden of less water consuming perennials, but would like to still keep the parking strip and part of the front yard in “lawn”. (I need something to tell people to stay off of ).
I’ve seen micro-clover yards that are attractive, and spoken with owners who claim major water consumption reductions, but as I read about them, the seed producers only claim about a 25% reduction in water consumption.
My questions:
Anyone have any actual experience with clover or micro clover, and if so, what have been your results?
I recall reading a post on this site sometime in the last year or so by someone in the SL valley who had planted a more water conserving grass. I’ve love to hear about varieties and results.
No experience with clover, but my wife would love a pollinator ground cover and not mow it much. But, last year, I did install Tahoma 31, a hybrid bermudagrass that uses 50% less water or more. It’s cold tolerant. I water it every 5-6 days during watering season (I’m in Denver, so similar climate to SLC).
Did you have dig up the old and resod or were you able to do that via overseeing? My lot’s a half acre, and while we have a lot of hard surfaces on that so it’s not all sucking water, I’d love to have what does suck it suck less. Also at the church I attend we want to reduce water consumption a lot both due to costs and being responsible.
Thanks for the response… did you happen to post about this in the last year or so on this site? Perhaps your post is what I recall and which led to my question to Utefans.
Would you mind commenting on other aspects of your Tahoma 31 please? I’m happy to mow regularly with an alternate plant, but would be interested in your experience with Tahoma 31. And, how would you grade the appearance verses a regular, normally watered Kentucky Blue Grass?
(I could not care less about the feel of the grass to your foot, as it will be in my front yard, near the sidewalk which.., well… get off my lawn! )
The neighbor who has used micro-clover, told me they over seeded, and it took a year plus to establish. She also indicated a 20-25 water reduction, and a reduction in mowing frequency, although she admitted that she preferred it cut weekly (I got the impression that she likes really short lawn and that the clover grows irregularly/clumpy and so does not look uniform and that bothered her more the longer it got.
That really pretty close to why I mow, uneven heights across the lawn. I also measure by my dogs, 2 mini doxies. If the lawn or weeds depending on time of year are taller than the shortest of our 2, it’s time to mow.
In all seriousness, here in Ea NC we’ve had an ongoing drought so I’m following this thread closely. In our backyard I want to keep the pollinators and lightning bugs happy. If the lawn is too short the lightning bugs die off, too tall and the dogs get greenery over their heads. So in all that I hope to find more greenery that is native and easy to maintain.
Yes, I posted about it I believe - was last May. We have about 2,000 sq ft. It cost $10k (stripped off old Kentucky Blue, added topsoil - we have very clay soils, and sodded) but we also got back a $1.50/sf rebate from our water company, so got $3k back.
The appearance is much more like a golf course (this is used on some courses and some sports fields, like USC Coliseum). It can be kept short (<0.75") with a reel mower but with a radial mower, usually I keep it 1-1.5 inches. I used to keep my KB closer to 3". It is a little more blue-green and at night with dew takes on a little grayish as well. Right now, it’s dry/dormant and closer to yellow. The KB around me stayed a little greener in the winter (but this year, same as SLC, little water, warmer temps all winter). I’ve received a lot of complements and people like it, but it is different and stands out some from everyone else with KB. But then I see them watering it every other day to keep it green, esp. in July/Aug and I’m watering it every 5-6 days (I have a Rachio system so it takes into account recent precip and temperatures and soil/slope, etc.).
I had my patterns for fertilizer and such that I have now had to start relearning. It is very efficient at Nitrogen use, so only 0.5#/1000 sf once a month AFTER it starts greening up (late Apr to May? It’s my first year after install). Supposedly it needs more K (potassium), but that’s later in the season. I’ll check for grubs and other stuff and for now it’s clean enough that I just hand pull most of the weeds. Trying to figure out if I should do a different pre-emergent that is not a weed and feed.
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