My wife and I recently spent a Sunday afternoon driving up to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve northwest of Tulsa. The Nature Conservancy purchased 29,000 acres of prairie land several years ago with the goal of recreating a functioning tallgrass prairie ecosystem, preserving the native biodiversity of the prairie. If you’ve never taken the short drive up through Skiatook and on to Pawhuska, it’s worth the trip.

Buffalo, along with fire, are nature's way of "mowing the grass" on the native prairie.

The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is what this part of Oklahoma, and on up through the great plains, looked like before the area was settled. This is how God created this area—with vast expanses of tall grass, wildflowers, birds, and herds of buffalo. At this time of year, the prairie is a sea of brown, dormant grasses, along with a splattering of buffalo herds roaming the area. And there are no weeds, as urban home lawns that are not treated are showing right now. A weed is a plant growing out of place. In the native prairie, the ”weeds” we are going after in the home lawn, are welcome somewhat, as they do have their place in the native prairie for a time.

This is how your lawn would look if left to itself, after about 200 years of ecological succession.

I’m an ecologist at heart, and by trade. My degree is in Biology, and remember learning about the native prairie, and things such as ecological succession. Many folks think that Bermudagrass is native to Oklahoma, but that’s not true. It was imported from Africa years ago, and has adapted quite well. Zoysiagrass came from China (as a lot of other stuff did also). There are in fact only four true native grasses that grew in eastern Oklahoma for thousands of years, before the Sooners came, and the growth of cities, agriculture, and the urban environment of today.

I love the prairie, and the changes it gives us during the seasons. I love the mountains also, which is obvious, as I’m hiking through the Appalachians from May through September.  The tallgrass prairie is a unique ecosystem, which takes hundreds of years to fully develop, yet can be destroyed in a short period of time. Things we think of as destructive, such as fire, actually bring life to the prairie, through generation of regrowth of green vegetation.

While this isn't the prairie, it works for me.

Face it though–we mainly live in cities. The environment of cities, with turf and landscaping is totally different, which is fine. While I love the tallgrass prairie, I don’t think our neighbors would like buffalo grazing on our lawn. The city I’m sure would not like it if we did a controlled burn on our dormant turf! And yes—I’ve seen some homeowners try that. One actually burned part of his home also. I love green, lush turf in lawns along with healthy trees and shrubs. That’s what works in the urban environment, but it’s not natural! Left to itself, your lawn and landscape would change through the natural process of succession, and eventually end up as a tallgrass prairie, or possibly an upland forrest.

That’s what makes our job as turfgrass managers in fact so challenging. In reality—we’re fighting against mother nature, to produce the ultimate lawn and landscape! Left alone, your lawn wants to have weeds, which is the first stage of succession. And we’re trying to stop that, and produce an environment with just one species—bermudagrass, or zoysiagrass, or fescue.

Now that’s OK. I’m not down on turf—believe me. It’s what works best in the city. It’s my job to produce that nice, thick, green turf. And, there are tremendous environmental benefits in the urban environment to the turf we are growing, even though it’s not native grass to this area. We cannot grow native grasses like Big Bluestem, Little Bluestem, Indiangrass, and Swithgrass in your urban neighborhood. It’s not gonna work. There is a place for them, and it’s on the native prairie. I’m all for that–believe me!

Here's to the "not-truly native" American lawn!

So here’s to the guys like us at LawnAmerica, who are trying their very best to produce great-looking and healthy lawns in Tulsa, Owasso, Jenks, Broken Arrow, Bartlesville, Sapulpa, Sand Srpings, Bixby, and many other communities in Northeast Oklahoma. It’s tough trying to fight the powers of mother nature, trying to produce a tallgrass prairie in your front lawn with the constant introduction of weed species. They are not weeds to mother nature—they’re plants. If our weed-control products don’t get them all, give us a break. We’re trying, but we don’t want to overdo it at the same time.

We’re also proud of our product—healthy, green lawns which add value to your property and benefits to the urban environment. And personally, I always will have a nice lawn to enjoy around my home to play on, walk on, and enjoy. But someday, I also hope to have a tallgrass prairie or an upland forest at the edge of my lawn to walk into and enjoy. As the song goes—give me a home where the buffalo roam.