Calendar · Dallas TX · Phoenix AZ

Buffalo Grass care calendar for zone 8

Warm winter with rare freezes, long hot summer. Warm-season grasses (bermuda, zoysia, centipede, bahia, St. Augustine) dominate; tall fescue persists in shade with irrigation. Lawns go dormant November–March and green up by April. Pre-emergent crabgrass control is the spring priority.

Buffalo grass is the native short-grass-prairie species: the only warm-season grass that survives zone 4 winters, and the only low-input lawn grass adapted to the Great Plains. It's drought-tolerant, low-fertility, and naturally short (6–8 inches unmowed), but it doesn't take traffic well and goes dormant fast in cool weather.