What to plant yard in?

[Catscratch]

Kind of an odd question, but you guys just might have the answer. My wife and I are in the midst of building our house in the country. Once all the construction is done this fall we will need to plant the yard to something. I figure it would be nice to plant something the deer would like. It will have to be durable and able to handle a couple months of dry and hot weather. We have plenty of brome around and it seems to do well but I don't think deer like it much. Fescue doesn't seem to do well here. I've thought of clover but I'm not sure how it would look for a yard.

Any suggestions?

 

[willy]

white clover of some sort. Dutch has worked well for us and the deer come within 5 yards of the house to eat. They bed at night in our lawn(does and fawns) and turkeys chase bugs in it as well as eat the leaves.

I overseed every other winter and use clearcast keep it pretty clean of weeds. It gets mowed 2, max three times a year. Besides white dutch I have mixed in ladino, durana, arrowleaf, and chicory. Its been going 7 years now and I need to fertilize it this spring.

 

[Jim Timber]

I second the clover. Critters will keep it trimmed and it still looks nice and handles traffic well.

 

[TMIL]

I've never planted anything in my yard, I just mow what grows there. Some of the nicest-looking areas are where the natural white clover grows.

 

[dipper]

Deer in yard=no shrubs, flowers, garden, and a lot of fence. The yard isn't a place I'd b attracting deer to, but I like landscaping.

 

[Catscratch]

Deer in yard=no shrubs, flowers, garden, and a lot of fence. The yard isn't a place I'd b attracting deer to, but I like landscaping.

I love landscaping also (did it for a job through college). Here is a pic of our current yard in town:

But our new location will be next to impossible to keep deer out, so why not have them be the "new landscaping":

 

[wiscwhip]

I would say the Dutch white is a good choice as well, but keep in mind, if you have a really dry spell during the summer, it will go dormant and dry up to some extent before it comes back with late summer/early fall rains, so you may want to try a mixture of white clovers to help alleviate it all going dormant and looking like crap at once. A mixture should give you a better chance at not having it look like a crispy sand pit in July and August. I also wouldn't ever mow it shorter than about 4 inches.

 

[Terrific_tom]

Alsike clover would be a good choice also.

 

[dipper]

U won't have to worry about attracting them. If u have deer and edible food they will find it. Haha

 

[Rally1148]

Have you ever thought about a short grass prairie mix? Get it established, and you might not need much maintenance at all! If you want a lawn type look, check into prairie moon nursery. If I recall correctly, they had some native grass that is used as as sod type thing (Buffalograss?).

 

[SD51555]

Less lawn, more dogwood, apple, native perennial flowers. I have a bias against spending time mowing though.

 

[Rally1148]

Less lawn, more dogwood, apple, native perennial flowers. I have a bias against spending time mowing though.

I'll second that. Find some natives that will won't take any maintenance after 2-3 years of establishment. Make a few field stone edged borders around them and you'll have only half of that area to plant.

 

[Catscratch]

I had thought of natives, but not shortgrass natives. I had ruled out the taller natives that came to mind as the house needs a fire break around it and I wanted something short to discourage little critters from hanging around too close. I do like the idea of short natives. I'll give them a look...

 

[Rally1148]

http://www.american-lawns.com/grasses/buffalo.html

^ Yeah! That's the stuff!

 

[Turkey Creek]

I would think that you could plant a mix of buffalo grass and clovers or or other legumes. Buffalo can handle heat and lack of water once established. I have buffalo grass in parts of my yard. Stock Seed Farms is one place that can provide buffalo grass seed and other natives. They in conjunction with some universities are releasing a new variety of buffalo grass this year I believe it is called "Trailblazer".

 

[Catscratch]

I'll look into all of these things. I like the idea of clovers and natives, but to honest with you guys I've never seen a patch of buffalo grass that I liked. I'll research the different varieties and see if any of it is different than what we have locally, but for some reason it just doesn't float my boat.

Ideally I would plant native flowers/forbs and a tall grass prairie mix right up to the house, but we have too many fires locally to risk not having a firebreak.

 

[Rally1148]

http://www.prairiemoon.com/tool-shed/lawn-alternatives-eco-grass.html

Check out this stuff!