Best Drought Tolerant Lawn Types

What Is A Drought Tolerant Lawn

The drought tolerance of lawns refers to a lawn types ability to stay alive and remain green for the longest period of time while under heavy water restrictions, or when receiving no water at all during the Summer.

Equally as important when considering the drought tolerance of a lawn variety is the ability of a lawn to recover itself once it has finally browned off. Meaning that once the lawn looks like it has died off from lack of water, will the lawn recover and become green again once the turf begins receiving water again.

For simplicity, we'll look at the 3 best grass types for drought tolerance and recovery.

Drought Tolerance of Couch Lawns

Couch lawn is one of the better grass types when it comes to the grass remaining green for a longer period of time while under water restrictions.

Once the lawn has finally died off from heat and lack of water, Couch will also recover the easiest of all the lawn types.

These abilities are due to the aggressive nature of Couch, that the lawn will have massive amounts of underground runners which will help support the lawn for longer under drought conditions, and will help re-grow the lawn once water becomes abundant again.

The downside of these strengths is the fact that Couch is the most invasive of all the lawn types. So while it may be a good lawn to own in times of low water availability, we can pay the price in other ways when it comes to higher maintenance costs for lawn mowing and vertimowing, and the nuisance factor of constantly having to remove grass from garden beds.

Drought Tolerance of Zoysia Grass

Next in line for excellent drought tolerance is one of my own favourite grass types. Zoysia is very similar to Couch when it comes to having a very high ability to remain green and stay alive for longer under water restrictions and Summer heat.

Zoysia also has very good ability to recover after drought conditions have ended. This is also heavily due to the fact that Zoysia has underground runners to support the lawn, just like Couch has.

In these respects, Zoysia grass types such as Compadre, Empire, Empress and Nara are an excellent choice for homes which face heavy water restrictions combined with Summer heat. And unlike Couch, Zoysia is far less aggressive and requires far less maintenance than Couch.

Drought Tolerance of Buffalo Grass

In a general sense, Buffalo grass comes in third place for drought tolerance. But with so many strains of Buffalo grass available for sale these days, it can be very easy to be confused as to the strengths and weaknesses between the different grass types.

The same is equally true when it comes to the drought tolerance of Buffalo lawns, each Buffalo type is different to the others when it comes to factors such as the depth of the root system, and ability to remain green for the longest period of time, and recover after browning off has occurred.

To keep things as simple as possible, we'll list the best Buffalo grasses for overall drought tolerance, remaining green, and overall recovery.

Firstly, there is very little noticeable difference between all the Buffaloes when it comes to browning off, except to say that Palmetto, ST-91 and Velvet brown off the fastest.

However, when it comes to recovery after drought, and determining whether a Buffalo lawn will live or die, the differences are immense.

The biggest winner by a massive margin when it comes to the speediest recovery after drought is Palmetto. This is followed by Matilda, Jabiru and ST-26 with average results. And the worst Buffalo to recover after severe drought is Sir Walter. In fact, the margin of difference between the biggest winner and the biggest loser is very large, with Palmetto claiming a faster recovery rate of 350% over Sir Walter.