If you love your bluegrass lawn, you might feel a bit pressured these days.

Water shortages are leading many to replace turf with less thirsty options. It might be helpful to rethink why and how we use turf to maximize the benefit provided by lawns, and not use grass where it isn’t a good choice.

Look at your landscape: Are there parts where the turf is challenging to maintain, such as steep slopes? Is there an area where the only time you walk on it is when you mow? Maybe there is a better choice for these areas.

Bluegrass, and other cool-season grasses, have some attributes that make them useful as part of a garden. They are green from March until November and tolerate traffic well.

However, cool-season grasses require a lot of water, fertilizer and labor to maintain. It is a costly and labor-intensive ground cover. Mowing weekly is a lot of work!

If you are planning a new landscape, don’t make turf your default choice! If you want to include some lawn, plant it where you will enjoy the benefit of this particular ground cover choice, perhaps for a play area for small children, or as a splash of green as an adjunct to other plantings (think accent rug, not carpeting).

Some really good alternatives to turf can be perennial plantings and trees and shrubs.

Converting existing turf into native or perennial flower beds is a worthy and rewarding goal, but it can be a daunting and costly project. Just killing and removing existing turf can be a difficult task. One option is to convert turf to a shrub planting. This approach will require five steps:

1. Cut the grass as short as possible.

2. Stop watering the turf and convert sprinkler zones to drip irrigation.

3. Dig out turf only where you want to plant.

4. Plant the shrubs, irrigated with the drip irrigation.

5. Heavily mulch with a wood-based mulch.

With 8 to 12 inches of mulch on top of the turf and no irrigation, the grass will die within a season. Because water and light are limited, weeds should be minimal to nonexistent.

Shrubs provide many benefits to your garden. Evergreen species such as junipers, Mugo pine and small spruce trees provide year-round color and texture. Deciduous shrubs and small trees can provide summer blooms and berries. Maintenance is minimal; perhaps annual pruning, a single dose of slow-release fertilizer and much lower watering needs make woody plants easy-peasy. Your landscape will be more interesting, especially during the winter months.

For more information, check out:

CSU Plant Talk: Selecting Shrubs

CSU Plant Talk: How to Remove All or Part of Your Lawn

CSU Plant Talk: Native Plant List

Email gardening questions to the remote help desk at csumg2@elpasoco.com. The in-person help desk will reopen this spring. Find us on Facebook at Colorado Master Gardeners — El Paso County.