Ornamental grasses are a simple method to accentuate, screen, or create a focal point in your landscape, while also adding year-round color and an elegant texture. Withstanding heat and drought well, the majority of them maintain their attractive appearance regardless of the climate. In addition, illnesses and pests don’t usually trouble them, and deer usually leave them alone. Here are some tips for making the most of these hardy, adaptable perennials in your garden.
Increase Privacy
When arranged in a big cluster, tall grasses may be an excellent way to hide a view that you don’t want others to see or to screen off a portion of your yard from view. Select taller species—big bluestem, maiden grass (shown below), and moor grass, which can all grow to a height of around 6 feet when in bloom—for the most impact.
Test Garden Tip: Remember that you will be trimming decorative grasses near to the ground in the early spring, so you won’t have a screen for a month or two while your grasses are growing.
Make Vibrant Containers
Many tiny grasses are ideal for container gardening because of their range of sizes, colors, and forms. Here, for instance, a modest stone wall is adorned with fiber optic grass in straightforward terra-cotta pots. The thick, succulent leaves of gray-blue echeveria create a contrasting texture that enhances the image.
Test Garden Tip: Look for the unexpected when using grasses to get the most dramatic impact. Consider contrasting textures, shapes, and sizes, or colors (like golden grass in a blue container).
Give Beds and Borders Texture
The terrain is given a distinctive texture by ornamental grasses. Plants with stronger textures, such fountaingrass, are balanced by soft, mounding grasses like fountaingrass. Switchgrass and other more upright grasses provide a wonderful textural contrast to more mounded plants.
Test Garden Tip: Plant a variety of grasses in the same area to get the most impact. Here, black-eyed Susan, lavender, and hydrangea are among the plants that accentuate a landscape full with fountaingrass and a few types of maiden grass.
Reduce the Hardscaping
Ornamental grasses help soften the appearance of hardscapes, such as walls, asphalt, and other elements, and prevent them from coming across as chilly and unwelcoming. Here, for instance, a clump of maiden grass softens the pool’s concrete edge.
Test Garden Tip: In some parts of the nation, certain grass species, such as maiden grass, have proliferated and become invasive. Before introducing a plant to your yard, always be sure it’s not an issue in the region. If it is, look for sterile types that don’t spread via seeds.
Enhance Patios and Decks
Use ornamental grasses in your landscape beyond beds and borders. Grow them in pots to give patios and decks a dramatic touch. Here, a rooftop garden is given a sophisticated texture by purple fountaingrass.
Test Garden Tip: Tender or annual grasses (purple fountaingrass, for example) are excellent alternatives for growing in pots since you won’t be able to overwinter them there because you’ll need to replace them in the spring.
Establish a Knot Garden
Most geometric knot gardens are made of herbs and neat evergreens planted as low hedges. However, adding little grasses might make the hedge plants and the grass stand out more. Here, dark green boxwood and golden sedge—which, although not strictly a grass, has a similar appearance—create a striking contrast.
Test Garden Tip: The ideal grass for knot gardens is a tight, mounding kind. Steer clear of too open and loose grasses since they might give the knot garden an untidy appearance.
Incorporate a Garden Accent
For beds and borders, grasses of many sizes and forms make great accent plants. Here, striking black-eyed Susans, canna, coleus, and petunia are discreetly complemented by a cluster of fountaingrass along a deck.
Test Garden Tip: To help unify your garden and create a unified effect for your landscape, use the same grass in many areas of your yard.
Make an edge
Use a nice strip of grass to border your beds and planting areas. For this, little choices work best, like the blue fescue seen above.
Test Garden Tip: Planting grasses a little closer together than usual will ensure that the grasses grow in a single row for optimal edging results.
Boost Interest toward the End of the Season
When most annuals and perennials seem worn out toward the end of the season, that’s when grass really shines. Many grasses have two distinct points of interest: gorgeous autumn color and attractive seed heads. For autumn foliage, large bluestem, tiny bluestem, and switchgrass are some of the greatest grasses.
Test Garden Tip: Select hardy types for your area to guarantee that your grasses will survive the winter.
Light Up the Garden Art
The ideal accompaniment to sculptures and other garden art pieces might be your best beautiful grasses. Here, lamb’s ears and sculptures made of shattered crockery are intriguingly contrasted with feathergrass. The result is a chic style that will look amazing all year round.
Test Garden Tip: Experiment with various plant and artwork pairings and don’t stop trying until you discover that enchanted arrangement that you will always find beautiful.
Draw in Wildlife
Grasses are excellent in drawing in animals, particularly birds. Many species will consume the seeds, and they will utilize the leaf blades to build nests and find cover in bigger grasses.
Test Garden Tip: Choosing natural grasses is the greatest way to attract songbirds to your garden.
Decorative Vegetable Gardening
Ornamental grasses may give your vegetable garden a pop of color in addition to adding beauty to your surroundings. Here, a cluster of eggplants’ deep purple tones blend harmoniously with the buff plumes of feather reedgrass.
Test Garden Tip: The ideal grasses for vegetable gardens are those that create clumps, such feather reedgrass or blue fescue. Steer clear of flowing grasses that spread quickly, like ribbongrass, since they may become weedy.