Drought-resistant herbal groundcovers · Front Range, Colorado Drought-resistant herbal groundcovers · Front Range
A green lawn that doesn't wait for the sprinkler.
Xerba Lawn is a seed mix of fine fescues with microclover, yarrow and self-heal grown through them, built for Colorado on a fraction of the water a bluegrass lawn drinks. Soft to walk on. Little to mow. Roots that go looking for water instead of asking you for it.
A seed mix of fine fescues with microclover, yarrow and self-heal grown through them, built for Colorado on a fraction of the water bluegrass drinks. Soft to walk on. Little to mow.
How it works
Water it like a new lawn for a month. Then mostly stop.
1. Sow onto bare or thinned soil
Rake, scatter at the rate on the bag, rake again lightly. Works as a fresh lawn or overseeded into a tired one. On the Front Range, sow from late August into September, or in spring once the ground has thawed.
2. Keep it damp for four weeks
Germination needs moisture, same as any seed. A light watering morning and evening until the ground is covered. This is the only thirsty month it will ever have.
3. Let the roots do the work
Once established, the mix gets by on rain plus an occasional deep soak. It flowers, feeds bees, and stays low enough that mowing is a choice, not a chore.
Why it works
Five things this mix does that a bluegrass lawn can't.
Feeds itself
Microclover is a legume. It pulls nitrogen out of the air and puts it in the soil, where the fescues use it. Skip the fertilizer.
Gets by on far less water
Fine fescues need little once their roots are down, and yarrow stays green on almost none. How long the whole lawn holds its colour with no water at all is what the trial below is measuring.
Mow every few weeks, or not at all
Fine fescues grow slowly and lay over instead of reaching up. Mow every three or four weeks for a tidy lawn, or leave it and let the yarrow and self-heal flower.
Flowers for the bees
Self-heal blooms purple, yarrow white. Both feed native bees and butterflies through the summer.
Takes the shade
Fine fescues are the most shade-tolerant lawn grasses there are. The mix fills in under trees where bluegrass thins out and gives up.
What's in the bag
Fine fescues do the grass work. Clover, yarrow and self-heal do the rest.
Bluegrass is a cool, wet-climate plant asked to live on the high plains. Xerba Lawn is built on fine fescues instead: thin-bladed, slow-growing grasses that root deep and ask little of the hose. Grown through them are three low herbs that stay green when the grass slows down, feed the soil, and flower for the bees. Still a lawn. Still walkable. Just one that doesn't need the hose.
The trial · in progress
We're growing it next to Scotts, on camera, and cutting the water.
Six identical cells, three of each seed, a camera overhead every ten minutes, and a scale under every cell so nobody has to take our word for the water numbers. Four phases: establish, one-third water, no water, then rain. The timelapse and the charts go here when it is done. The list hears first.
The 90 second cut goes here. Green-cover and water-use charts follow when the trial ends.
Questions
The ones we get at the fence.
Can kids and dogs run on it?
Yes. It is a lawn. Fine fescues take ordinary backyard traffic and the clover fills in where a path wears thin. A dog's daily lap will show, the way it does on any lawn.
Do I have to mow?
No. Left alone it settles at ankle height and lays over rather than standing up. Mow it if you want a tighter look; leave it if you want the flowers.
Will it survive a Front Range winter?
Yes. Fine fescues, clover, yarrow and self-heal are all hardy well past what Denver throws at them. It goes tan under snow like any lawn and greens up early in spring.
How much do I need?
Coverage per bag goes up with the shop, along with bag sizes and prices. Overseeding a thin lawn takes about half the rate of a new one.