Buffalo is far, far more appropriate for (actually, it is perfect for) SLC and its bone-dry summers / intense sunshine. Zoysia is an overrated and inappropriate grass for the Western garden, especially when you can use buffalo. Your Buffalo grass, once established, will need only three or four waterings per year. (No typo. This stuff is tough. Weekly watering will kill it.)

The High Country Gardens website has a great section on Buffalo Grass (www.highcountrygardens.com), complete with a tip sheet.

Buffalo grass is a warm-season grass, which means it won't green up until May. Its tawny color, IMO, is a plus. However, some folks can't seem to tolerate the "dead" look in springtime, when other plants are greening. (BTW, most turf grasses are cool-season grasses, which means they are the first to green up but require 40+ inches of water annually to keep green. In nature, bluegrass and other cool season grasses go dormant, but watering them will keep them green and keep them from going brown.)

To have glorious, incredible blasts of spring color in a Buffalo grass lawn, plant hundreds or thousands of small bulbs in your lawn this autumn. Use species crocus (the small ones, not the gaudy Dutch crocus, which don't multiply readily), species tulips (Tulipa batalinii - comes in red and yellow) and small rock-garden type daffodils. These plants like dry soil in summer, just like your grass. The spring show of a bulb lawn is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

Throwing down bluegrass sod is a cheap cop-out. Who would allow a faucet to run 24/7 in their house? Yet this is exactly what happens when bluegrass or other water-guzzling inappropriate lawns are planted. I salute you for doing the right thing. And when your neighbors are watering and drowning their lawns with chemicals, you can laugh and go on a vacation with the money you saved. Serious. Also, a buffalo grass lawn doesn't need to be mowed. You can mow it to keep a tidy look, but it doesn't get more than 6 inches high. If you do mow, it only needs to be done monthly.

I would rush right out and purchase The Undaunted Garden by Lauren Springer. It's about tough plants for the West's difficult climate and soils. The color photos cause me to drool. For the beginning gardener, the book Passionate Gardening is a must. It, too, is by Springer and a co-conspiritor Rob Proctor. This book is funny, informative and filled with jaw-dropping photos and descriptions of great plants than can hack it in the arid Rocky Mountain West. For plans and other ideas, check out Waterwise Landscaping with Trees, Shrubs, and Vines: A Xeriscape Guide for the Rocky Mountain Region, California, and the Desert Southwest, edited by Jim Knopf. Great plans and ideas for saving water, money and still have a stunning and colorful garden. The High Country Gardens catalog is an invaluable tool for seeing how spectacular waterwise gardening can be.

Good luck in your landscaping!

Animas,
Thank you for all your great information. I will start looking for those books right now. You seem to know your stuff. Do you know if Buffalo grass is good for kids to play on?

It's a great turf grass for playing. Perfect for yards and kids areas. It's soft and fills in quickly for a xeric grass. There are many cultivars of Buffalo grass, and through breeding and selection, there are varieties ('609,' 'Legacy,' etc.) that green up earlier and fill in faster. Growing Buffalo grass from seed is cheaper but takes longer. You need to plant the seeds when it's hot. Plugs will be more expensive but your lawn will fill in quickly, usually by the time fall comes. Getting BG sod is way expensive. With seeds and plugs, you will need to do weeding, but once the lawn fills in, weeding is a moot point.

One other thing I forgot to post... Buffalo grass will need full sun to thrive. The more sun the better. In fact, it likes to bake. It won't grow under trees or in shaded areas. If you have shade, the best xeric grass for a partial shade situation is blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis). If your place is in an established neighborhood with big trees overhead (the east benches, Sugarhouse, the Aves, etc) you might not get enough sun. If your place is in a new development (WVC, Sandy, West Jordan), Buffalo grass will take off like crazy. It also likes the crappy clay soil, which is just about everyone's soil in the valley.

No shade? We plan on incorporating some trees to our landscaping, how will this affect Buffalo grass? How much sun does it really need? Thanks for your help, very informative. How do you know SLC so well?

Buffalo grass is a short grass that grows naturally on the lower Great Plains grasslands (Eastern Colo, Okla, Texas, etc. where there are no trees.) If you plant trees (and you definetly should) there will come a time when the canopy of the tree will shade out some parts of your grass. That's the natural evolution of a new garden. But small trees won't have the shade impact for at least a decade or more (unless you get some fast-growing trees of the willow family or willow hybrids... globe willows, etc... Just remember that fast-growing means weak wood and short lives. When it snows heavily in April, as it does about every five years, your branches will snap and your tree will be toast. Avoid those weedy fast-growers.) I wouldn't worry about shade from newly planted trees. When the time comes that your trees are tall and shady, it will be time to plant a different kind of grass. But that's a long, long time away. Go for Buffalo. Most lawn areas will be in full sun even with a border of trees.

And, BTW, I grew up in SLC (when there was nothing but farms in West Jordan, the Kennecott Mine was still producing copper, the Hotel Utah was a hotel, the Dirks Field baseball team was called the Gulls, there was little traffic on Highland Drive, and Fort Douglas still had military personnel!)

Animas:

Would you happen to know to what extent it is true that Buffalo grass does poorly in sandy soil? I'm located on the benches of Ogden and have a south facing front yard, no shade, that absolutely bakes. I like the sound of the varieties of Buffalo grass that green up a bit earlier in the spring. I don't know when Blue Gramma greens up, but I hear it does better in sandy soil. I don't know what to do!