PolyCulture Lawn in a bag?

I stumbled upon this story a couple weeks back, the seed mix is available from the Home Depot website. It is made up of 7 different grass types, sounds like they are deeper rooted and so are more drought tolerant. He claims very little mowing only once every 4-6 weeks and little water. Sounds like a possible alternative to a lot of lawns, at least for those of use who keep a lawn for practical purposes. I think if I were to plant this I would probably add a couple of things more, like some clovers and dandelions.

What are your thoughts, anyone see this or are using something different?

That sounded great, so I did a little searching for reviews of the product. It seems like it can work well when applied to bare soil, but multiple people have had issues with trying to overseed using this mix. I would guess that given these are slow growing fescues, they can't outcompete more typical lawn grasses or most weeds. It is also very expensive, but I suppose that is to be expected.

I will share one thing I've learned about turf in drought: although fescues are drought resistant in that they will stay green longer than bluegrass when there is no rain, if they DO go brown there's a good chance they won't come back. Bluegrass needs more water to stay looking green, but it can stay in the dormant state for up to 60 days and still come back as soon as it rains. We had a serious drought this summer (we are still behind, actually) in Wisconsin and many lawns suffered drought damage.

Hmm it seems like a good idea, but from what I gather on the website, the mix consists of a bunch of different varieties of grass. I think this would still be considered a monoculture despite the differences in variety. All that grass will still be giving off nothing but grassy goodness.

I think to truly make it a poly culture you would have to add a few completely different species of plants. You could take that grass seed and add some different types of yarrows, and clovers, and strawberries, and thymes and plantains and dandelions and so on. Depending on your climate and conditions you could tailor each mix to preform according to how you use your lawn. If you prefer not to mow and wanted something to just sit there and look nice you could plant a bunch of wildflowers or mullein or burdock or st johns wort into the mix. If you wanted something that would get a lot of foot traffic you could maybe use thinner stemmed plants that are more bare foot friendly and will also tolerate mowing.

I'm just speculating here because I have not actually planted a lawn like this but from what I've observed, there are lots of plants that will invade and coexist with grass in a lawn and will also tolerate mowing.

Is there an equivalent forum for establishing/renovating sheep pasture here?
My sheep sure could use something better!

I would suggest posting a question at permies >> forums >> critters >> goats, sheep and llamas

Thanks for the suggestion Julia, it's done

We got No Mow Grass and though we mowed it the first year twice, after the second year, we don't usually mow it more than once.

They said that it should not be mowed ever during the summer or it also needs watering, which makes sense as grasses slow down in the heat, and the grass blades shade the soil to help hold in moisture.

We love this stuff and it only grows 3-5" high....so not much reason to mow it. So, if you have to have lawn grasses, then why use anything else?