Rewilding My Lot

Thunder Turf is a mix of three native grasses (Buffalograss, Blue Grama Curly Mesquite) that each grow only a few inches tall. They are all very drought-tolerant and need minimal care. The first thing I did when I arrived here in February 2023 was embark on the laborious process of removing all the Bermudagrass sod from the back garden. That took months!

Then I sowed a 6-foot strip of Thunder Turf around the outside edge of the garden. The deep roots of the native grasses should help with water retention on the lot, and placing the grass on the outside of the garden provides access around the edge for gardener and/or viewer, and whenever work needs to be done on the fence.

The recommended mowing schedule for Thunder Turf is twice a year! I mowed in mid-September 2024 to release mature seed heads to the ground and to prepare for when I’ll be reseeding any remaining bare spots in a few weeks. The previous time I mowed was May 2024.

The first photo in this post and the next one below are “before” shots.

In the next photo below (taken after mowing), you can see a transition between Bermudagrass in front of the gate (plus some Frogfruit that is creeping round the corner) and Thunder Turf beyond the gate. Neither of them gets any supplemental water.

And here’s another strip of Thunder Turf at the back of the garden after mowing.

This fall I will do one more round of reseeding to address bare patches, but I don’t plan to do any more seeding after that. I think the Thunder Turf will have established enough to take care of itself at that point. I will, however, need to monitor for Bermudagrass that creeps in under the fence from neighbors. In a battle between the two, I don’t know which one will win.