Buffalo grass continues to be one of Australia’s most preferred grass types for use as a home lawn. With its very broad leaf, and thick above ground runners, called stolons, Buffalo grass is indeed a very unique and instantly recognisable lawn variety, known by everyone at first sight.
History Of The Old Buffalo Grass Lawns
Those of us past the mid life point will have awful childhood memories of the Buffalo lawns of years past, known as being highly irritating to children’s skin, and scratchy, I personally remember the years of youth when we had to visit friends with a Buffalo lawn, for in days past the children would all be sent out to play under sprinklers on hot days, and if we were visiting friends with a Buffalo lawn, that would mean the inevitable skin irritation.
Even many of us who are before the mid life point in their time may also have childhood memories of the old style Buffalo lawns, as even today the old Buffalo lawns still continue on at many older established homes.
Also just as infamous in the old Buffalo lawns was the thatch, whereby many of the older Buffalo lawns still growing today, which may have been first planted perhaps sixty years ago can be seen with up to a foot thick of thatch.
Over time, these problems with Buffalo lawns would most likely have led to the eventual demise of Buffalo lawns in Australia if it weren’t for some major breeding improvements in recent decades, and of course some highly aggressive marketing and advertising to help bring this trust old grass into a new era.
Soft Leaf Buffalo Lawns
Turf breeders around the world sought to remove the worst trait of Buffalo grass, which was its scratchiness and the skin irritation it caused. This breeding also led to far better varieties of Buffalo grass which were a marked improvement over what was on offer in times past.
Various licensing arrangements were made for these new turf varieties around the world, such as Plant Breeders Rights and Trademarks, which then allowed the licensee to garner a profit from whatever was sold of that turf to the public, and this is where we get all the different turf brands today.
So why bother trying to improve Buffalo Grass for lawns at all? Were there not other types of grasses for home lawns which could have filled in the gap and which were naturally soft, such as Couch, Kikuyu and Zoysia grasses?
Well, yes. But Buffalo grass has one enormous strength which these other grass types don’t have, and that’s shade tolerance. While there are cool season grasses which are highly shade tolerant also, that doesn’t mean much for those of us who live in warmer climates and who need a shade tolerant grass, and Buffalo grass fits that bill perfectly, being a naturally shade tolerant lawn variety, and which actually prefers and will flourish more when there is some shade around, as compared to being grown in full sun.
Which is of course a win-win for the turf breeder who can now sell a much improved lawn variety which fits a specific need that is missed by other lawn types, specifically shade tolerance far exceeding all other warm season lawn types.
But besides this one factor alone, we also live in what is termed a free market economy. So like everything else for sale, there will always be more and more and more and more brands of whatever any particular product may be, in this case Buffalo grass. Whereby more and more and more people want to make a dollar by breeding, licensing and then selling a new brand of something, again in this case Buffalo grass. That’s why we have so many different types of turf to choose from, which while they do have minor difference between them all, in the end it’s all just plain old Buffalo grass, improved to be soft leafed.
Buffalo Grass And Weed Sprays
All Buffalo lawn owners should be aware of and be very careful whenever treating their lawns for weeds with popular weed sprays.
Buffalo lawns are not tolerant to some of the more popular or common weed sprays, some of which can kill or severely damage a Buffalo lawn if applied.
A specific Buffalo grass weed killer must be purchased for use on Buffalo lawns. There are no exceptions to this rule. The packaging of the weed killer must state clearly that it is safe for Buffalo grass application.
As a further note, this is not at all similar to any occurrence of Buffalo specific fertilisers. It really doesn’t matter one iota which lawn fertiliser we use on Buffalo grass, no fertiliser harm the turf if applied correctly, whereas a weed spray which is not specifically designed for use on Buffalo lawns will most definitely harm or even kill the lawn.
Buffalo Grass Advertising
An article about Buffalo grass lawns would not be complete without mention of all the advertising around this grass in past years, and the effect this has had on peoples preferences for Buffalo grass, rightly or wrongly.
Not only has the advertising surround Buffalo grass lawns been immense with an aim to influence people to buy one brand of Buffalo grass over another, but this same advertising has also led many people to choose a Buffalo grass lawn for their home which in so many cases is an entirely unsuitable lawn choice, and having seen the end results of poor lawn choices based on advertising influence, it’s been one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen so many people go through, and fight to solve lawn problems because they chose the wrong lawn for the wrong environment.
Buffalo grass is a lawn type best suited to partial shade conditions, there are other better suited soft lawn types for growing in full sun, such as Couch, Zoysia and Kikuyu.
Saint Augustine Grass - What Is It?
Many years ago I was shocked to find a turf sales website which had a graph on one of their pages, in that graph they were comparing their buffalo grass brand to other buffalo grass brands, just the usual marketing schtick, nothing odd at all for any brand of anything to compare their product to their competitors.
That was until I saw something in that graph which was truly surprising.
The graph was all about Buffalo grass brands, yet there was a column in that graph which was headed “Lawn Variety”, how odd. The website had listed all other Buffalo grass brands as “Buffalo Grass”, yet they listed their own Buffalo grass brand as “Saint Augustine Grass”.
So what exactly is Saint Augustine Grass?
Saint Augustine Grass is the American name for Buffalo Grass. It is indeed exactly the same grass type. So while there wasn’t anything untruthful published on that website, for those without the knowledge that these two differently named lawn varieties are one and the same grass type, people researching a new lawn type could have easily made an entirely wrong assumption, and even a wrong purchase choice for a new lawn in perhaps thinking they were looking at different lawn varieties when doing their comparisons.
So for anyone researching new Buffalo lawns, and if they ever come across any information or website which discusses Saint Augustine Grass, it’s just Buffalo Grass, exactly the same as any other Buffalo Grass.
Buffalo Grass Recommendation
The new soft leaf Buffalo lawn varieties most definitely have a place at Australian homes, These new types usually have much longer leaf growth and fewer stolons, and are incredibly improved over what was on offer in years long past.
Soft leaf Buffalo grass lawns are best suited to partial shade conditions where they will thrive if looked after properly, with proper fertilisation, and management of diseases, weeds and pests.
Personally I would never put a modern soft Buffalo lawn in full sun, though many people still do. Such conditions do seem to promote very heavy thatching in Buffalo lawns, while there can be almost no thatch at all in a modern Buffalo lawn when grown in partial shade, which is its preferred growing position.
Yes, soft leaf Buffalo grass lawns are highly recommended when chosen properly for any given growing environment, but they are not suitable for everywhere, performance can be greatly improved for any lawn when the right lawn variety is selected which matches the position where it will be grown as a lawn.
Sir Walter Buffalo Grass Lawn Disease
The Sir Walter strain of Buffalo grass needs to be singled out for special mention. I have written an entire article covering this topic on this website, so I will only give brief attention here.
Sir Walter Buffalo grass has an extreme proclivity towards developing lawn disease, in fact it has an almost but not quite 100% chance of developing disease when it is grown as a home lawn. The results of this lawn disease always varies from lawn to lawn, from making the lawn mildly unattractive in appearance to total and complete destruction of the entire lawn.
I have been witnessing this phenomenon across my lawn mowing round for 15 years, I see it every day, I deal with it every day, my entire lawn mowing business had to be reorganised from the ground up and my work days revolve around cleanliness of mowing equipment in order to carefully manage this disease amongst the lawns in my round.
I would urge anyone considering a new soft leaf Buffalo lawn to choose any other type other than Sir Walter, which I personally consider the worst grass in Australia due to its profound proclivity towards developing lawn disease in almost 100% of use cases.
ignorant hardware store staff advise people like this all over Australia to put useless black dirt on the lawn
they should instead be selling the customer fungicides by the barrel
or better yet... advising the customer to remove the Sir Walter lawn
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