Landscaping Twists

Your landscaping can be one of the most unusual and original if you try using ornamental grasses. Front yard landscaping along with your back yard and garden landscaping can be accomplished in many different ways. All of the areas can be created by incorporating different styles of grasses.

Using ornamental grasses as part of your landscape design can do a number of things for your yard. By planting some of the tall varieties in a large group can give you privacy from neighbors or it will create a screen from an unpleasant view. A few of the tall species include big bluestem with its blue-grey leaves and beautiful flowers will range between 4 - 7 feet tall; pampas grass with tall pink flowers can range from 6 - 15 feet and the giant reed grass with leaves 3" across can grow from 14 - 20 feet tall. Just remember you need to cut back ornamental grasses in the spring and you will lose your screen during the growth period.

These landscaping plants will add some texture to flower beds. Grasses such as fountain grass and a couple of different varieties of miscanthus will add that texture when planted with lavender, some black-eyed Susans and even hydrangea. The mounding grasses will look good with plants having a bold texture while the up-right grasses complement your more rounded plants. Ornamental grasses have a way of softening the look of paving, walls, and any other type of hardscape by making them warm and inviting. Some of these grasses are perfect for planting around the edges of swimming pools since they will not bloom and attract bees.   

You really do not want to limit the uses of these decorative grasses just to your garden landscaping. You can grow them in decorative containers to bring a little excitement to your deck, patio, balcony, or a rooftop garden. Containers have such a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes that these grasses will make a great container garden that can be moved around. Try planting fiber optic grass in a few tall, simple containers and see how they will decorate a stone bench. You can even use contrasting colors such as a blue grass in a silver container; mix and match your colors and styles to create something very unique.

Landscaping grass plants placed among some of your flowering or non-flowering plants will create an accent in your garden. If you tuck in the same grass in a number of different areas of the garden it can help tie a garden together. You may even want to consider using some of the clump forming grasses such as blue fescue or the taller feather reed grass nestled in with some of your vegetable plants. The best type of grasses for this would be ones that form clumps not the running grass type. The running grass will spread too much and start looking very weedy.

You can also use landscaping grasses as a border or to create edging around your flower beds. Blue fescue is probably one of the best because it is small and you want to plant them closer together than normal so it will look like a border. Ornamental grasses stand out even more during the end of the season when the majority of perennials and annuals have begun to look tired. They have wonderful fall color and some gorgeous seed heads. Big bluestem, little bluestem and switchgrass are some of the grasses with beautiful fall leaf color.

You can also attract wildlife such as the birds to your garden with decorative grasses in your landscaping. The birds seem to find shelter in the larger grasses, they find leaf blades are good for making nests, and many species of birds enjoy eating the seeds the grasses produce. In order to attract birds plant the grasses that are native to your area. The low growing or medium size grasses are perfect for ground covers. They are able to smother out the weeds while they create an unusual texture to the landscape. The mounding type grasses are best to use because they are very dense. For a change of pace to your vegetable gardens, flower gardens and open areas try using some of the varieties of ornamental grasses for part of the landscaping.