I agree. Those are the choices that make some sense. All three of those will normally go dormant in the winter if you get a frost. I believe there are a few nights in your area where temps dip into the high 30s which is low enough to trigger dormancy. When that happens the only thing that will awaken them is warmer soil and longer days in the spring.

Of the three, bermuda and UC Verde will be the most foot friendly. I believe the UC Verde is a little more flexible in mowing height. Bermuda becomes the most dense when mowed at 1 inch or lower. That can be a maintenance headache as it grows fast enough in the summer that it needs to be mowed back 2x or 3x per week. I've seen buffalo mowed at 6 inches, and it looked great. Bermuda loves to have continual fertilizer, too. It can be a handful to manage. UC Verde really needs very little care once established. It's a variety of prairie grass, so it's used to neglect. The UC variety grows a little faster and becomes much more dense than the wild stuff we see growing in the highway medians.

I believe the only way to get UC Verde is by ordering online. You might invest in a garden auger attachment for your drill to make planting easier/faster.

Mojave, you're going to be a most valuable resource for a lot of people. Where do you live? How high/low do you mow, and how does the buffalo feel under foot?

I live in las vegas and haven't had a lawn in 25 years but did the patch of buffalo grass as an experiment at our last house. The sprigs filled in fairly quickly but i got rid of the patch after satisfying my curiosity about it. It was a more greyed green than bermuda or fescue but much more drought tolerant, fills in nicely without being an agressive spreader and wouldn't take much mowing. I liked it!

Thank you both! It sounds like the UC Verde would be a good option (and require less maintenance). @mojavemaria In your experiment, did you have it long enough to see how it behaves in the winter when temperatures dip?

I’m glad you’re considering the buffalo grass. It goes dormant in winter just like bermuda, turning tannish in color so it needs even less watering then:) It has so many positives, needs less water, fertilizer, and mowing and fills in damaged areas without being an aggressive spreader the winter dormancy is no big deal.

Whereas bermuda likes fertilizer every month and mowing 3x per week.

That's a lot of maintenance for Bermuda. We're going to try UC Verde and will, for the sake of sharing what we learn, come back here with insight. Thank you both for your feedback.

Yes, bermuda is a lot of effort if you want it to look nice. Glad you got the hint ;-)

Here is the reason for using UC Verde instead of other hybrid buffalo grasses. UC Verde is on the right in this pic.

The Turffalo company is no longer selling consumer turf grasses, but for several years their hybrid version of buffalo was a great option. The problem with buffalo is those danged seed heads. In wild buffalo, the seed stalks grow twice as fast as the grass itself. That makes it look shaggy almost immediately after mowing. Turffalo had the distinguishing characteristic that the seed stalks grew at the same rate as the grass. So the shaggyness didn't really look as irritating as the wild stuff. Still, it did look brown. Here is another picture of an overgrown lawn of Turffalo.

This lawn was 2 weeks overdue for mowing, but it was at a frat house after school let out for summer, so the mowers had gone home. Just to reiterate, this is NOT what UC Verde looks like. I just wanted to make the point that hybrid buffalo can grow into a very dense turf.