Indigenous Lawn Alternative – Microlaena stipoides
Weeping Grass lawn. Microlaena stipoides.
We have a lawn area on our bush block that is using an indigenous grass called Weeping Grass – Microlaena stipoides. It is an extremely beautiful and soft grass that is lovely to sit on. We don’t mow it, but I have seen some neighbours who do and it can make quite a nice clipped lawn. We prefer to leave it long and let it be eaten down by the local wildlife like the Black Wallabies and Common Wombats.
All you have to do to get a thick ground covering of Weeping Grass – Microlaena stipoides is to either spread some local seed or if you already have some of this grass species then weed out any weedy competitors and it will thicken up naturally as it seeds prolifically. If you want to mow it just ensure that some of the seed matures (browns and starts falling off) before mowing to ensure that it reproduces. People often mow and cut all the unripened seed which is not sustainable for the species and will allow weeds to get back in. It also works well (and improves biodiversity) mixed in with other indigenous grasses particularly the wallaby grass species.
Microlaena stipoides - Weeping Grass seed heads with beautiful weeping appearance.
Probably not best for really high traffic lawn areas, but Weeping Grass – Microlaena stipoides is pretty tough and a much more sustainable lawn alternative. If used in it’s natural environment it won’t leave you with any of the weedy grass issues. Issues including completely taking over every bit of your garden! Non-native grasses that are commonly used for lawns such as Kikuyu are dreadful to remove if you change your mind (and you will likely change your mind), as the underground runners are almost impossible to eradicate.
We also had weedy grass problems with Quaking Grass – Briza maxima, Panic Veldgrass – Erharta erecta, Winter Grass – Poa annua and Sweet Vernal Grass – Anthoxanthum odoratum. But have almost eradicated these now through hand weeding and covering (suppression) and just enjoy our local indigenous and very beautiful grasses which have all returned in abundance since the bushfire.
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You’re going to think this is stupid, but reading about providing forage for wombats makes my silly little American heart happy.