Close your eyes and picture the perfect lawn: green, thick and uniform. Maybe it has perfect stripes from a recent mowing. Maybe kids are throwing a baseball and a grill is smoking in the corner.
I’ll bet there’s also a sprinkler. There could be an entire irrigation system raining down lovely arcs of water in the sunshine.
But what if you want that lovely lawn where water is scarce? Say, in a desert?
“You can have a lawn wherever you want,” says Jackson Powers, a science student in the master’s program at New Mexico State University (NMSU), who concentrates his studies on water conservation and turfgrass systems. With proper lawn care techniques, he says, you can have a lawn in the desert using minimal water and resources.
Even in an extremely dry climate, the dream of that perfect lawn isn’t out of reach. And you can do it without using the gross domestic water product of a small country.
Start Off With the Right Grass Seed
In any climate, from the low desert of Palm Springs, Calif., to the high desert areas of Arizona and New Mexico, a successful lawn starts with choosing the right type of grass. That’s especially true for a desert climate.
When water is rare, it may even seem that growing a lawn full of turfgrass at all isn’t such a good idea.
But that’s not the case. In fact, the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension says, the question isn’t whether turfgrass should be used in desert communities, but how.
Turfgrasses play an important role in desert landscapes. They reduce water runoff and carbon dioxide emissions and mitigate the heat.
When it comes to deciding which type, though, two factors dictate the best species to use: water use and intended purpose.
Cool-Season Vs. Warm Season Grasses
Turfgrass comes in two types, based on when they grow best. If your goal is water conservation, warm-season turfgrasses are likely the better choice.
Cool-season grasses use as much as 20% more water throughout the summer than do warm-season grasses, NMSU says.
Just which grass works best for you depends on where you are, though.
Cool-season grasses prevail in higher-elevation Northern New Mexico, for example.
Bonnie Hopkins, an agricultural agent with the New Mexico Extension in San Juan County, says she recommends a blend of tall fescue and Kentucky bluegrass for her area. Whichever variety is better suited for the lawn will emerge and take over.
Warm-season grasses, though, are more drought-tolerant and use water more efficiently. Varieties such as Bermuda, buffalograss and blue grama top the list.
Hopkins says in the southern part of the state, and places like Phoenix and the rest of the hot Sonoran Desert, warm-season grasses are the top choice.
Powers, based in the southern New Mexico city of Las Cruces, says Bermudagrass is the choice there. Its resiliency and good performance with low inputs lands it in the top spot for home lawns, playing fields and golf courses.