Consider Dog Tuff™ Turf

Looking for an easy care turf grass that requires minimal water, mowing, and fertilizing? This new selection could be something to consider if you’re shopping for a new lawn this season.

Here are some of the benefits of the new Dog Tuff grass variety introduced this year by Plant Select® and now available in Colorado:
– It needs no additional water beyond natural precipitation once established.
– It can be left un-mowed as it only grows to about 4″ tall.
– It holds up well to dog urine and moderate traffic. Yet it still maintains a bright green appearance.
Dog Tuff is a sterile selection of a spreading turf grass that’s been trialed and tested in the Colorado Front Range and beyond for more than 10 years. As noted, it offers certain benefits and user-friendly, low-water qualities that set it apart from familiar lawn options.

Watering is required during the first season, and into the second season for fastest cover, but after that you can shut off the sprinklers – or water minimally. It can be mowed periodically for a neat, trim appearance, but if left un-mowed entirely, it will form an undulating, somewhat mounding and ground-covering turf.

What you need to know
If you need a new lush lawn by the 4th of July, Dog Tuff won’t happen that fast this growing season. The benefits and the payoffs take some patience to nurture, so be aware there is start-up time. Planted as small plants (plugs) in early summer, a light but full cover lawn can be obtained the first growing season.

By the second season, areas planted with Dog Tuff will be full and dense. Preventing and eliminating weeds the first summer is necessary, but once full cover is achieved, Dog Tuff has been proven to suppress many of the toughest weeds without spray treatments and weed-control products.

The other important thing to know is that this is a warm season grass, meaning that it goes dormant (read: brown) after the first frost in the fall and doesn’t green up again until late May or so. This is what our native buffalo grasses and blue grama grasses do as well.

In contrast to these grasses, Dog Tuff is denser, holds up better to wear during the dormant season and is a much brighter color, nearly emerald green, in summer.

Kelly Grummons, a well- known Denver-area horticulturist specializing in xeric plants, has done extensive research on establishing and caring for Dog Tuff. For more information, watch the video above where he talks about this new variety.