With growing environmental awareness, the demand for sustainable landscaping solutions is at an all-time high.
Amid these demands, bermudagrass emerges as a strong and resilient contender in the realm of drought-tolerant landscapes. This hard-wearing grass doesn’t simply survive in challenging conditions—it thrives. It requires significantly less water than many other traditional lawns and provides many other benefits for homeowners, landscapers, and the environment.
Bermudagrass is a symbol of resilience and sustainability, making it an excellent option for water-conscious landscapes in California.
Addressing Water Shortage in California with New Restrictions
With drought and water shortages becoming increasingly prevalent, stringent water restrictions are being enforced to prevent severe scarcity and ensure fair water distribution. Some districts, recognizing the need for conservation, have even enforced permanent restrictions. These regulations often limit the amount of water that can be used and when and how it can be applied, aiming to curb excessive water usage.
For example, the State Water Resources Control Board has recently approved a statewide policy requiring some municipal water suppliers to cut water provision by nearly 40% over the next 15 years. Meeting these restrictions can avoid fines of up to $10,000 per day for non-compliant districts. These cuts will be enforced gradually, starting with initial reductions by 2025, followed by additional cuts every five years until 2040. Measures to achieve these savings include mandatory restrictions, higher rates for heavy water users, and incentives for adopting low-flow appliances. In 15 years, the regulation is projected to generate a cumulative savings of 500,000-acre-feet of water annually, enough to supply more than one million households.
The Increasing Need for Water-Saving Landscape Solutions
Grass contributes significantly to a healthy environment. It produces oxygen, aids in preventing erosion, and creates a dense, green landscape that supports a diverse ecosystem.
While lawns may require some water, these benefits far outweigh the perceived disasdvantages. In California, traditional lawns account for approximately 40-60% of landscape irrigation, translating to an estimated 3.5-5% of the state’s total water use. Overall, landscape irrigation makes up about 50% of annual residential water consumption statewide.
Incorporating drought-tolerant grass and native plant varieties is an excellent solution to maximize these benefits while being mindful of water use. These plants are well-adapted to local climate conditions and thrive with minimal supplemental water. This approach not only conserves water but also supports the environment, contributing to a more sustainable and resilient landscape.
Bermudagrass has emerged as a groundbreaking solution to the water shortage issues. This grass variety flourishes in arid environments, displaying remarkable drought resistance. Moreover, years of research and development have resulted in hybrid and improved bermudagrass varieties with further enhanced capabilities, such as superior shade tolerance and a heightened ability to maintain a vivid color even during extended dry spells. These advancements position bermudagrass as an excellent option for sustainable, water-efficient landscapes in California.
The Water-Saving Benefits of Bermudagrass
Scientifically known as Cynodon dactylon, bermudagrass is a warm-season grass from Africa. It has earned global recognition for its resilience and adaptability and is celebrated for its exceptional heat and drought tolerance, which allows it to thrive in hot, dry climates.
These sought-after properties are attributed to its deep root system, which allows it to access moisture deeper in the soil. This ability allows bermudagrass to endure extended drought periods, survive water restrictions, and conserve water, translating to lower water bills for homeowners and contributing to sustainable landscaping practices.
Durability and Resilience: Its deep root system also improves bermudagrass’s durability, allowing it to withstand heavy foot traffic. This resilience makes it an obvious choice for high-traffic areas like golf courses, athletic fields, parks, and residential lawns.
Fast Growth and Quick Recovery: Bermudagrass is known for its vigorous growth and can quickly recover from damage. Its spreading growth habit helps cover bare patches and sparse areas, making it ideal for areas where fast coverage or repair is necessary.
Salt Tolerance: Bermudagrass also exhibits salt tolerance, making it appropriate for coastal regions. This adaptability ensures its survival while maintaining an aesthetic appeal in various challenging conditions.
Best Practices for Cultivating Water-Efficient Bermudagrass
While bermudagrass is naturally drought-tolerant, implementing strategies to boost its resilience and train it to use less water can help it withstand the challenges posed by water restrictions.
Water Only As Necessary
Avoid unnecessary watering, especially after heavy rainfall. Instead of following a strict watering schedule, adjust your watering based on weather conditions and moisture levels in your lawn to prevent overwatering and conserve water.
Water Deeply But Less Often
Warm-season grasses generally require 1-1.5 inches of water per week. Aim to distribute this water requirement in 1-2 watering sessions, ensuring the water penetrates 6-8 inches deep into the soil. This practice encourages deep and extensive root growth, allowing grass to access moisture deep within the soil and training it to be more drought-resistant.
Adhere to Water Restrictions
Local water restrictions aim to conserve and ensure the fair use of water resources. These regulations specify watering days, times, and allowable water quantities. Your compliance not only supports conservation efforts but also avoids potential fines.
Water for Survival
During water restrictions, focus on keeping your lawn alive instead of still aiming for a lush, green look. This means providing just enough water to sustain the grass, even if it results in a yellowing lawn during the summer. Dormancy is your lawn’s natural response to conserve water. Avoid trying to revive it prematurely, as this can stress the grass further and prolong recovery. In this case, water just occasionally to keep the roots and crowns from permanently drying.
Establishing and Maintaining Bermudagrass
Bermudagrass establishes most successfully when planted as sod. While it is drought-tolerant, it still requires watering during the initial stages. But, once established, it should thrive with infrequent but deep watering, which will encourage strong root development and overall health.
This grass type is a sustainable and practical lawn option, providing numerous benefits from water efficiency, wear tolerance, and rapid recovery. Understanding its characteristics and employing the best practices in cultivation and maintenance should equip you to create a resilient and attractive lawn even in challenging environments.
Introducing bermudagrass to your lawn not only contributes to its aesthetic appeal but also to the collective effort toward water conservation and sustainable landscaping.Visit The Real California Lawn today for more tips on cultivating a resilient landscape with bermudagrass.
Bermudagrass wasn’t always the number one choice in California as its dormancy in winter turned landscapes brown. However, with the stricter water restrictions in place, interest is shifting towards using this warm-season variety.
The introduction of improved and hybrid varieties that address its traditional limitations has sparked renewed interest due to their drought and heat tolerance and exceptional resistance to wear and tear, prompting people to rethink their landscaping decisions.
Bermudagrass is an excellent solution because of its superior drought tolerance and low water use. Increasing water costs, along with water restrictions, are driving interest in converting lawns to bermudagrass to save water and maximize the benefits of having natural grass without sacrificing appearance. But there’s more to bermudagrass than its water-saving benefits—it’s incredibly durable and can handle heavy foot traffic better than many other grass varieties.
The Evolution of Bermudagrass to Meet Modern Landscaping Needs
For several years, the poor shade and cold tolerance of bermudagrass have limited its use and made it less ideal for certain climates. Originating from South Africa, bermudagrass thrives in warm environments and requires full sun to reach its full potential. It is mostly found in USDA hardiness zones 7 to 10. Contrarily, it struggles in cooler climates and shaded areas, where it can thin out and lose vigor.
These limitations meant that bermudagrass wasn’t the first choice for many homeowners and landscapers, particularly in regions with cold winters. However, the increasing demand for drought-tolerant grasses has led growers and researchers to develop improved and hybrid varieties better adapted to a broader range of conditions.
Today, more improved varieties are available to address previous shortcomings and meet the rising need for resilient and durable turf cover. Improved bermudagrass varieties offer better color retention, extending their usability and improving playability on golf courses and sports fields. For example, varieties like TifTuf have been bred for superior drought tolerance and better performance in cooler temperatures. Overall, these efforts push innovation in grass cultivation, expanding the traditional use areas of bermudagrass and providing more hardy options for California landscapes.
Wear and Tear Tolerance of Bermudagrass
A durable grass variety, the exceptional wear and tear tolerance of bermudagrass is largely attributed to its dense, spreading growth habit. This grass vigorously spreads through stolons (above-ground runners) and rhizomes (below-ground runners), creating a dense, interconnected network of grass blades and roots. This growth habit provides several key benefits:
1. Better Traffic Tolerance
Its density allows it to withstand heavy foot traffic without significant damage. Whether its kids and pets playing on the lawn, athletes on a sports field, or golfers on a course, this grass maintains its structure and appearance even under constant use.
2. Rapid Wear Recovery
Its vigorous growth habit also allows it to recover fast from wear and tear. The dense network of stems can easily fill in bare or damaged areas, ensuring that any spot affected by heavy use can recover within a shorter period. This rapid recovery means less downtime and more playtime, keeping the grass looking its best with minimal maintenance.
3. Weed Suppression
Consequently, the thick, dense growth of bermudagrass serves as a natural barrier against weeds. By outcompeting weeds for sunlight, water, and nutrients, it reduces the need for intervention, saving money and effort. This weed suppression ability not only keeps the lawn looking pristine but also supports a healthier, more sustainable landscape.
Bermudagrass—The Preferred Grass Type for Active Landscapes
Overall, these qualities make bermudagrass a preferred option for high-traffic areas. It is extensively used in golf courses, where the grass endures constant foot traffic, rough treatment, and low mowing heights. Athletic fields, which demand a resilient surface for sports and other activities, also rely on bermudagrass as much as high-end lawns that benefit from its aesthetic appeal and durability. This grass variety is a top choice for premium residential and commercial landscapes.
The dense, spreading growth habit of bermudagrass provides unmatched wear tolerance, rapid recovery, and effective weed suppression. These characteristics make it ideal for golf courses, athletic fields, and high-end lawns, offering resilience and low maintenance.Did you find this article helpful? Contact us at The Real California Lawn today for more lawn care tips.
Imagine a lawn that cuts down on your water bills and saves you from costly repairs by standing up well to heat and drought damage. Bermudagrass, a warm-season grass, is known for its superior drought tolerance. It maintains turf quality under drought stress by entering dormancy instead of completely succumbing to damage, ready to revive when conditions improve. Improved bermudagrass varieties even display better tolerance, holding an acceptable green color in conditions that would wither other grasses.
Key Takeaways
Stricter water restrictions pose a significant challenge for maintaining lush lawns. Adapting by using drought-tolerant grass varieties and efficient watering techniques can help create sustainable, resilient landscapes that thrive even under limited irrigation.
Bermudagrass excels in drought tolerance. It enters dormancy during dry spells, maintaining turf quality and reviving when conditions improve, making it ideal for areas with water scarcity.
Lawn care practices such as minimal mowing, higher mowing heights, mulching, avoiding foot traffic, weed control, and deep, infrequent watering improve your lawn’s resistance to drought and maintain its health and appearance.
Navigating Water Restrictions: Keeping Your Lawn Green Amid Drought
Stricter water restrictions are being enforced to conserve precious water resources, posing a significant challenge for homeowners who strive to maintain lush, green lawns. The limited watering schedules also pose a threat to natural grass, which is vital for its many environmental benefits—erosion and flooding control, absorbing carbon dioxide, producing oxygen, cooling the environment, and supporting biodiversity.
The lawns that thrived under regular irrigation now face stress and decline under limited watering schedules. Homeowners must adapt to these new conditions by seeking drought-tolerant grass varieties and implementing efficient watering techniques. These strategies not only help comply with water restrictions but also contribute to creating sustainable and resilient landscapes that can withstand prolonged periods of drought.
So, how can you still enjoy a dense, green landscape amid these challenges? The secret lies in the type of grass you grow. Years of research and cultivation have yielded improved and hybrid bermudagrass varieties better adapted to extreme weather. These grasses are made to be more drought-tolerant, surviving and even retaining their lush, green look during dry spells. This is due to their characteristics: low water requirements, deep root systems, vigorous growing stems, and the ability to go dormant and revive when water is restored.
Beyond Drought Tolerance: The Benefits of Bermudagrass
Bermudagrass stands out among other grass varieties for several reasons. Its ability to go dormant during drought allows it to conserve water and energy. Instead of dying off, it pauses its growth until conditions improve. Once adequate water is available, it should spring back to life, restoring its lush, green look.
Most of the benefits of bermudagrass are attributed to its deep and dense root system, which allows it to access water from deep within the soil, giving it an edge during extended dry spells. Additionally, its strong network of stolons and rhizomes helps it spread and recover from damage, filling bare spots and maintaining a uniform, green lawn.
Water-Efficient: Bermudagrass requires about 20% less water than cool-season grasses, making it ideal for areas with water restrictions.
Heat and Drought-Tolerant: It thrives in arid environments, displaying resilience during extreme temperatures.
Low-Maintenance: Its vigorous growth allows it to recover faster from damage, minimizing the need for patching and thus saving time and money on maintenance.
Durability: Bermudagrass can handle heavy foot traffic, which explains why it is widely used in high-traffic lawns, golf courses, sports fields, and recreational areas.
How to Maintain a Drought-Resistant Lawn
In addition to relying on drought-tolerant grass like Bermudagrass, you can take several measures to improve your lawn’s drought resistance. One effective method is adding organic matter, which increases moisture retention in the soil. You can ensure your lawn stays healthy and green even during dry spells by employing the following practices.
Mow Minimally
Bermudagrass is a finely textured grass that grows best when maintained at 1-2 inches in length. But you can mow less often during a drought to avoid additional stress on an already drought-stressed lawn, cutting no more than one-third of the grass each time.
Mow Grass Higher
During drought conditions, consider mowing your grass to a height of 3-4 inches. This additional height helps shade the soil, reducing water evaporation. Always mow when the soil is dry to prevent soil compaction, which can reduce water uptake. Ensure your mower blades are sharp, as dull blades can create jagged cuts that dry out easily.
Mulch Grass Clippings
Mulching grass clippings can particularly benefit a drought-resistant lawn. After mowing, leave about 0.5 inches thick of clippings on the lawn to help conserve moisture and provide essential nutrients as they decompose, contributing to healthier grass growth.
Avoid Traffic
Limit traffic on a drought-stressed lawn, as traffic from pets, kids, and equipment can compact the soil, reducing your lawn’s ability to absorb water. Consider designating pathways to minimize or isolate damage to the lawn.
Remove Weeds
Weed control is always important, but it becomes more crucial during a drought. Weeds compete with grass for water and nutrients, weakening your lawn. Regularly remove weeds to ensure your grass gets the resources it needs to stay healthy without competition.
Focus on Deep and Infrequent Watering
Continue your regular watering schedule by providing 1-1.5 inches of water per week, delivered in one or two sessions. Water deeply to ensure the top six to eight inches of soil is moist, encouraging deeper root growth. Water your lawn early in the morning to minimize evaporation and maximize water absorption.
How to Water During Water Restrictions
If you’re under strict watering restrictions, following the rules to conserve water and avoid fines is essential. With proper preparations, you can let your grass go dormant without worrying about long-term damage.
Final Thoughts
Establishing and maintaining a drought-resistant lawn involves choosing the right grass and implementing smart lawn care practices. By mowing minimally, keeping your grass higher, mulching clippings, avoiding traffic, removing weeds, and focusing on deep watering, you can help your lawn thrive even during drought conditions.
For more bermudagrass lawn care tips and news, visit The Real California Lawn website.
