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Now we're going to be talking about something very exciting in the world of
turf here in Central Texas and probably throughout the state.
-It's called Habiturf it's a product developed by the Lady Bird Johnson
Wildflower Center and I'm joined by one of the individuals responsible for that,
Mark Simmons
who's director for research and consulting at the Wildflower Center.
Great to have you with us, -Good to be here. -Now we're going to be talking about Habiturf
which is
become the branding for this beautiful blend of
native grasses but I want to start by talking about your
interest in grasses and turf.
You're obviously from Britain which is a lush and green place is set to the root
of all this?
It has a lot to do with it, yes. I was you know we had a lawn at home which
I had to mow
on a regular basis so I fell in love with that lawn
because I have to love it but also I was I was driven round by my parents to all
the country estates and so lawns such a
you know in the central part about countryside there as it is here
so when I came here
you know around 2000 you know I saw there was this this this problem with lawn
because of the water issue.
So that gave me thinking well how can we fix that can we get a local
solution
to this problem, -Right, okay and you've come up with
a great solution by all accounts and it's called,
as I indicated, Habiturf and it's a blend
of three different native grasses correct, -Yes, sometimes four we're actually keeping it
quite loose right now because the research is ongoing but certainly
there's three main ones be we've been adding some others as well.
Okay well tell us what they are, -Right well the main
ingredient if you will is the buffalo grass the second one is blue grama.
Now these are all native to Texas
and the third one is one called Curly Mesquite not to be mistaken with the tree
this is a
small grass looks very similar to Buffalo grass and then the other ones will be looking at
is one I call Texas Grama
and there's a couple others as well which blend in very well.
And there's something powerful about the blend
because people been trying, for example, to use buffalo grass
by itself for a long time as a turf
but have been disappointed with the results why is it different with a blend?
Yes that's a good point and that's what I found when I got here that people saying Buffalo grass
why isn't it working, it's getting weedy
and what we found was it's really applying ecology 101
to the turf you know. If you think about a natural grasslands and I've worked
in several grasslands around the world, when you look at them they made up of you know
dozens if not hundreds of species.
So when you trying to create a lawn made of one species you got a very
unstable ecologically situation you don't see that in nature. So
it makes very prone to weeds in particularly so by filling in with
other species which look identical
it still looks like a lawn but you're taking up that ecological space
the weeds would take up so it really isn't a complicated
concept it just really hasn't been applied to the lawn before.
Okay and it is now commercially available, correct?
Is going to be available in turf, I'm real curious about that, -Right yes and it's just
they put the as a grower in San Antonio who's now putting it down to
sod and that will be available this coming spring
2014. -So available commercially at the Wildflower Center
is one location but also online I guess.
You can buy it online yes from DKC it's in San Antonio
Okay great so this is a real alternative
for us now and when I talk with people in the past about
establishing Buffalo. I knew it was really important to start well
and and and and I think that still essential really with habiturf
everybody starts turf what regardless what these I think should pay
attention
to prepping the site but what's essential with the Habiturf?
You are absolutely right I mean this is true for all plants as you know
and particularly true for lawns if you want something to be drought hardy, you want to get those roots
down.
So that soil preparation is critical and what we say is
really trying to loosen up that top six inches of soil,
it certainly adds to organic matter, a good quality compost. We've actually done a
video on the soil prep for Habiturf which is on YouTube, if you just type in
Habiturf on YouTube you can see a short video, -Very cool. -on the preperation
you're absolutely right because too often
people are putting in seed on compacted soil
and you know you can put seed on that and it's not going to do it well so it is essential.
You can't really underestimate that and people want to do the right thing
they want water conserving plants. They understand the the challenge that our
region faces regarding water
but they are also looking for a silver bullets and magic
you know and the and I think it's really important to underscore the point
that if you start well if you make that investment and do the labor up front of
preparing the site
then maybe you do get the magic. -I think you're right
that attitude, I think our attitude toward
landscapes generally has got to change
I mean it's not just about lawns you know when you see you drive around
Austin
in summer and you'll see contractors out there mowing and mowing mowing even when the
the grass is brown and clearly doesn't need mowing
we sort of our relationship with turf has become dysfunctional, a codependent
it's become a mess.
So the preparation is just one part of, I think changing the
relationship
and also on the other hand what to expect from the lawn. I mean from our landscapes,
we can expect them to use less water. This is one of the reasons we developed this
this lawn this also is habitat I mean it's not just a lawn
that we can enjoy but it's habitat is host plant for butterflies.
So I think that the richness of nature
is often ignored and I think lawns in particular ,the industrial lawn,
has kind of drifted away from that. -I like that phrase industrial lawn,
often that is the look too, it's regimented,
clipped and I think one of beautiful things about the native
grasses
that you can leave them unmowed if you prefer, you know, and
I actually think they're extremely beautiful that way. -We were quite surprised when we
first were gutting it out into market because I, you know being British, I like
the low regimented clean lines lawn, I like my lawn like that but equally I like prairie
but we found a lot of people felt they wanted exactly that.
They actually didn't want to mow it and you can mow this as
few as three, four times a year they want it grow a bit longer and fall over in a sort of
shagpile carpet look. So that has been very popular surprise to see.
Well big questions about
Habiturf would be a how does it stand up to family life, you know
pets, kids playing in the yard? -Well I've got it at my place and I've got two
little boys and 12 and eight years old and its fine everywhere except
where
you know the first base is.
Where that place is it does get a bit worn and we actually did some compaction trials at
The Wildflower Center
and we found out, we drove over like 10 times a week with a little
golf cart
to simulate foot traffic and we thought it stood up very well
to that kind of a mound but for a soccer field probably not but for a stand of
back lawn, perfectly all right.
Now a lot of people when they think of the native turf to think
I have a shady lawn this won't work for me now whats
what's the reality of that situation? -With this, this is
it does like full sun, it actually does better with the little bit of shade.
When I say a little bit I mean it doesn't get you know ten hours of
Texas sun during the summer.
We found if it's got at least four to five hours of direct sun,
that maybe could be three in the morning three in afternoon, then
it's fine if you want to go beyond that
and certainly under a thick pecan tree or live oak tree, it's not going to do well
So this is really a sun definitely a full sun species.
But on the edge of shade plants
it will work? -Yes, I mean I've seen it I've got it under Spanish I've got
I've got Spanish Oak in the middle of my lawn for instance
and its fine up to there but the Spanish Oak is limbed up so where the sun can get
in the morning, evening it can cope with it.
Okay very good and what about the maintenance
after establishing in terms of fertilizing, watering routine etc.?
Watering we've got down, it could probably do less. But we've got it down to watering
the equivalent of about half an inch every
every two weeks, -Wow, -But we think we can go lower that's as low as we went this last year.
But it stayed green. Now remember these species they'll grow drought dormant if you
don't water them they'll go brown. They're not dead they'll just go to sleep.
-Right, -So if we do get a situation where we have to pull the water off which
you know it going is to happen again.
You're not going to lose your lawn. And if you can give it, if you're going below
two months with no rain
it will be good to give it something, a bit of hand watering, just because though it's Brown it's still alive.
So the watering is you know we can go down probably to
once every two weeks once every three weeks so we'll be
pushing that limit this year. In terms of fertilizer
once it's established it really doesn't need much work it really doesn't
need much in the way
of a fertilizer. I think you've got a fairly heavy use
and you like to mow it a lot, like I do mine you may want to put in
a four or a spring dressing of an organic fertilizer, but do use an organic one
because these species do rely on micro rising salt to
to forage for phosphorous and nitrogen so you don''t want to mess with that.
-good, -As far as pesticides are concerned one of the things we did test was weeds
we sewed in dandelions. Dandelion seeds which I harvested from my own garden
I have plenty of those, threw those in and we found that it stands up to weeds much better than say
common Bermuda grass.
-excellent, -Not saying no weeds but you'll certainly get fewer.
Okay well again we've been talking about a very exciting new product for Central Texans and for
Texas and people throughout the Southwest really
this would be applicable. It's called Habiturf developed by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
Available here at the Wildflower Center and also online.
So Mark, thank you so much for being our guest today
real pleasure having you here and we wish you every success,
continued success with Habiturf at the Wildflower Center, -Thank you Tom.
All right, coming up next is our friend Daphne.