Tips For Choosing Prairie Grasses For Your Midwestern Landscape
If you close your eyes and envision the American prairie, you most likely see a picture of a vast, flat expanse filled with grass blades waving in the breeze. The wind blows these seas of billowing grasses casing off seeds. Ornamental grasses are ideal in naturalized meadow plantings. You can create neatly-mowed pathways of lawn grasses in between beds of low-maintenance grasses to create as sense of order and control when you incorporate them into your landscape design. If this is the type of garden you'd like, and you live in the Midwest, there is a vast variety of grasses from which you can choose.
Big And Little Bluestem
Big bluestem and little bluestem are both perennial grasses ideal for prairie gardens. Big bluestem grows up to 12 feet tall, does well in a range or soils, and survives hot temperatures. In late summer, these grasses turn a lovely reddish-copper color that gleams in the sunset. Little bluestem doesn't grow as tall, but still offers a glistening reddish-brown autumn color. The grass produces small heads atop the stems that look similar to a little whisk broom.
Canada Wild Rye
Canada wild rye is a perennial grass. It bears bristly seed heads up to 9 inches long that bend under their own weight. The grass' blue-green leaves look nice in a garden border, but the plants look best when grown in large numbers or masses. Canadian wild grows 2- to 4-feet tall and requires very little maintenance.
Switchgrass
Switchgrass has open panicles that look stunning when planted against a dark background. This grass variety grows up to 10 feet tall, so you can use switchgrass plants to make screens that block out unwanted views. It also makes a good ground cover or meadow grass.
Switchgrass also offers good landscape color with its blue-green foliage and its deep red to purplish flower heads.
Indian Grass
Indian grass grows well in almost any soil condition. At maturity, plants bear flowers and seeds in late spring. The grass forms spikelets on 3- to 5-foot tall stems, bearing bright yellow anthers that turn golden brown after the first frost in fall. The foliage also offers autumn color, turning a bright orange as falls settles in.
Indian grass makes good borders and an effective plant for erosion control on slopes in the landscape.
If you want to incorporate some ornamental grasses into your landscape design, and you're not sure where to start, contact a local landscaper, such as Big Country Lawn & Landscape. He or she can help you choose the best grass to create the look you want and that grows well in your area.
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