Knowing how to get rid of buffalo grass is one thing, but actually doing it without ruining your entire landscaping is another challenge entirely. If you've ever looked at your garden beds and seen those thick, wiry green runners snaking their way through your prized roses, you know exactly how frustrating this stuff can be. It's hardy, it's persistent, and frankly, it acts like it owns the place.
While buffalo grass makes for a pretty decent, drought-tolerant lawn in some parts of the world, it's a total nightmare when it decides to invade areas where it's not wanted. Because it spreads via stolons—those horizontal stems that creep along the surface—it can cover a lot of ground fast. If you're tired of fighting a losing battle against these stubborn invaders, it's time to get a bit more strategic.
Why Buffalo Grass Is Such a Pain to Remove
The reason most people struggle with this grass is its sheer resilience. It isn't like a common weed that you can just yank out and forget about. Buffalo grass is a "clonally spreading" plant. This means every little piece of the runner or root left in the soil has the potential to sprout a brand-new plant.
If you just pull at the top, you're usually just snapping off the leaves while leaving the "engine" of the plant—the runners—perfectly intact underground. It's like trying to stop a leak by just wiping up the water on the floor without turning off the tap. To really win, you have to be thorough, and you have to be persistent.
The Manual Approach: Digging It Out
If you've only got a small patch or you're working in a delicate garden bed where you don't want to use chemicals, digging is your best bet. But don't just grab a trowel and start hacking away. There's a bit of a technique to it if you want to avoid seeing it pop back up in two weeks.
Get the Right Tools
You'll want a garden fork rather than a shovel. Shovels tend to slice through the runners, which actually helps the grass propagate. A fork allows you to loosen the soil around the roots so you can lift the entire network out in one piece.
Follow the Runners
When you find a tuft of buffalo grass, don't just pull. Gently loosen the soil and follow the runner (the "vine" part) back to its source. Often, you'll find that one single plant is connected to a dozen others by a long, umbilical-like stem. Your goal is to get the whole "string" out without breaking it.
Sift the Soil
Once you think you've got it all, run your fingers through the top few inches of soil. If you feel anything firm or woody, it's likely a piece of a runner you missed. Even a two-inch segment can restart the whole invasion, so it pays to be a bit obsessive here.
Using Smothering Techniques
If the area you're trying to clear is relatively flat and you aren't in a massive rush to plant something new, smothering is a fantastic, low-effort way to handle the problem. This is basically "starving" the grass of sunlight until it simply gives up.
One of the most effective methods is sheet mulching. You start by mowing the buffalo grass as short as your mower will go. Then, cover the entire area with thick layers of cardboard or several layers of newspaper. Make sure there are no gaps; overlap the edges by at least six inches.
Once the cardboard is down, soak it with water and pile about 3 or 4 inches of organic mulch (like wood chips or bark) on top. This does two things: it looks much better than bare cardboard, and it weighed everything down. Over the course of a few months, the grass underneath will die off, and the cardboard will eventually break down into the soil. It's a win-win, though it does require some patience.
Chemical Controls: What Actually Works
Sometimes, the manual labor is just too much, or the grass has spread over such a large area that digging isn't feasible. In these cases, you might look toward herbicides. However, you need to be careful about what you choose, as not all killers are created equal.
Non-Selective Herbicides
Products containing glyphosate are the most common choice. These are "non-selective," meaning they will kill pretty much anything green they touch. If you're trying to clear a whole patch of ground to start over, this is effective. The trick is to apply it when the buffalo grass is actively growing. If the grass is dormant or stressed from drought, it won't absorb the chemical as well, and you'll just be wasting your time.
Selective Grass Killers
If the buffalo grass is growing inside a garden bed full of broadleaf plants (like shrubs or flowers), you can use a "grass-selective" herbicide. These products target the physiology of grasses specifically and generally leave your non-grass plants alone. Always read the label twice, though, because you don't want to accidentally take out your favorite perennials along with the grass.
Solarization for Hot Climates
If you live somewhere with blistering summers, you can use the sun to do the dirty work for you. This is called solarization. You essentially "cook" the grass and its root system under a sheet of clear plastic.
To do this, you'll need to clear the area of any tall debris, soak the ground thoroughly (wet soil conducts heat better), and then lay a clear plastic tarp over the area. Weigh down the edges with rocks or bricks to trap the heat. Over the course of 4 to 6 weeks in the heat of summer, the temperature under that plastic will get high enough to kill the grass and even many of the weed seeds in the top layer of soil.
The downside? It's ugly to look at for a month or two, and it kills the "good" microbes in the soil along with the bad stuff. You'll need to amend the soil with some fresh compost once you're done to bring it back to life.
Preventing the Return of Buffalo Grass
Once you've done the hard work, the last thing you want is for the grass to creep back in from your neighbor's yard or from a nearby patch of lawn. Prevention is much easier than cure.
Install physical borders. A shallow plastic edging isn't going to cut it with buffalo grass. You need something that goes at least 6 to 8 inches into the ground. Steel or heavy-duty plastic edging creates a subterranean wall that the runners can't easily get under.
Maintain a "no-man's land." If you have a lawn on one side and a garden on the other, keep a small strip of bare soil or mulch between them. This makes it much easier to spot a runner trying to make a break for it. If you see a green stem reaching across that gap, you can just snip it off before it takes root.
Consistency Is the Secret Sauce
If there's one thing you should take away from this, it's that getting rid of buffalo grass is rarely a "one and done" job. Even the most thorough digging or the strongest spray might miss a tiny fragment of a root.
Check back on the area every two weeks. If you see a tiny green blade poking up, pull it immediately. If you stay on top of it, the plant will eventually run out of stored energy and stop coming back. It's a game of endurance, but if you're persistent, you'll definitely come out on top. Don't let the grass win—just keep at it, and soon your garden will be exactly how you want it.