Why are grasses so hard to get right?

I’m in a quandary. To be honest I think what it really boils down to is whether I want to my garden to be more designed or whether I want to focus on plants?  A year ago I would have said plants, but reading blogs and magazines has caused me to start being more interested in the overall appearance so now I am in a complete dilemma.  I will never be a slave to design but I am thinking more about the overall impact of putting this plant here or there, which is hopefully a good thing.  However, I am struggling with making the plants I like work together.

Take for example grasses.  I love grasses and admire the big swathes of prairie planting that I see in gardening magazines, although so far I haven’t had the chance to see them in real life. However, I am struggling to get them to work well in my garden. I think that successfully using grasses in gardens is a lot more problematic that people realise.  To me they often look as though they have been plonked in the border as a nod to the latest trend.  But conversely there are times when they can look stunning and I want to try and work out what exactly it is about grasses I like and how I should use them for best effect in my own garden.

Interestingly, I have come across a couple of blog posts this last week which have added to my pondering. The first  was a blog post by Mike over at Hazel Trees.  He refers to Alan Titchmarsh’s comment about prairie planting looking like perpetual autumn and questions whether ornamental grasses should be allowed to dominate.  This resonated with me in a way since I have been contemplating planting more grasses en masse in the garden but whenever I look at photos of such planting there seems, to me, to be something missing.  I know that grasses are renowned for the movement they bring to the garden but I find block after block of grasses, albeit of different heights and hues, boring.  I think I need the contrast of texture such as broad leaved perennials and, yes, flowers.  This feeling was confirmed when I recently visited Arley Arboretum which has a fairly new grass garden which really disappointed me.  The area wasn’t that large and the borders were of an organic shape but it was more a collection of different grasses  than a good design with the plants working together and it made me realise that it can be difficult to get grasses to look fantastic.

As Mike says not many of us have large areas that we can give over to prairie planting.  My garden is I suppose on the small to medium size and I could give it over to grasses but then I would have to restrict my plant palette  and that is just a non-starter but more importantly I think prairie planting not only works best on a larger scale than the suburban garden but it also works best in the right context.  So I can see that the prairie planting at Pensthorpe in Norfolk would be excellent given it is surrounded by arable farmland and there are large skies and great light levels.  After all for me grasses come into their own when the light shines through them – so careful siting is also a consideration.

So how can I make grasses shine in my humble  suburban garden? As a start I have planted a row of Calamigrostis  along the top of the slope in front of the path.  The slope causes me real problems as my garden is prone to a wind blowing through it, which is weird given the amount of trees and shrubs growing along the boundaries! My thinking is that as plants on the slope tend to get blown over and because it is difficult to work on the slope the best approach is for me to use plants that can cope with being blown around a bit therefore grasses are near the top of the  list.  As well as the grasses along the top of the slope I  have planted some shorter grasses in swathes along the lower part of the slope. I am in filling with perennials so far mainly asters and other late summer perennials.  I’m not at all convinced this will look good in the overall scheme.  I wonder how it will fit with the rest of the garden, I wonder if I’m not being daring enough, too conservative?

I had been pondering using more grasses along the top of the wall border as again there is a wind problem here (if you know what I mean!) but I think I might be going for what I saw as an easy option.  Whilst I believe planting with grasses is difficult to pull off well I think grasses provide an excellent ‘glue’ to hold a border together.  I have often looked at borders, including my own, and felt that the planting is disjointed.  I try to contrast textures, leaf size, heights etc but I just don’t have enough experience and plant knowledge to pull it off well.  I did wonder if grasses could be my secret weapon in this quest but I am not so confident now. However, I have been encouraged by Christina’s blog ‘Creating my own garden of the Hesperides’.  Like me Christina has a slope to contend with, though on a much bigger scale, and like me she is turning to grasses to help her out.  Her recent post on Stipas was quite inspiring as she posted a number of photos of Stipas, which self seed all over her garden, growing alongside other perennials and some of the combinations surprised me in how well they worked.


I’m was also surprised when looking at Christina’s photos of how I preferred the young spring growth of the Stipa more than the autumnal browny growth and again this makes me wonder if grasses are the way to go for me.  Interestingly, whilst looking for photos for this post I couldn’t find any which showed grasses looking good mixed with perennials so I obviously haven’t seen any in the gardens I have visited.  I wonder if this is because people are slightly intimidated by grasses, as they are bright flowering perennials, so they tend to stick them in a border together or whether they are going for the whole grass-scape approach which some designers have made popular.


So my conclusion? I have no conclusion!! I think I will continue to look and see how others use grasses and think long and hard about what I like and don’t in planting style and also wait to see if the slope works – so procrastination is the way forward for now!

Creating along with the Grasses

I've been progressively thinking about utilizing grasses within the backyard however happen to be somewhat anxious because they tend to be a good unfamiliar moderate personally as well as I've observed numerous terribly grown lawn borders/gardens then when Creating along with Grasses through Neil Lucas plopped with the letterbox We had been happy.

Neil has Knoll Landscapes baby's room within Dorset and it is the well-respected decorative lawn professional also it exhibits through their guide. It's used me personally a long time to see this particular guide since it isn’t 1 a person may wish to gloss over provided the quantity of info it has. There's barely the squandered phrase. I've needed to go within phases when i required time for you to absorb all of the brand new info as well as suggestions I've received.

The actual guide starts along with Lucas explaining exactly how he or she found the entire idea of developing the best grow within the correct location getting didn't maintain rhododendrons developing about the exotic dirt from their Dorset baby's room! He's certainly already been upon a significant trip and today thinks seriously that we now have much more environment as well as environmentally friendly methods to backyard especially by using exactly what he or she phone calls ‘functional horticulture’: rainfall landscapes, roofing landscapes, indigenous vegetation and so on. Particularly the repeating phone in order to hands with the guide is actually have to evaluation the utilization of trimmed as well as manicured grass that are source rigorous as well as within Lucas’s look at the “green desert”. He or she states which “many poor grass most likely remain these days due to the fact their own proprietors are not aware the choice options. ” The actual guide grows on this particular idea requesting visitors to think about decreasing otherwise getting rid of their own grass towards some thing much more fascinating, much more eco-friendly as well as follow the actual grassland theory exactly where grasses consist of 20-80% associated with vegetation inside a personal backyard. I've been totally fascinated through this particular concept as well as maintain taking a look at my personal exhausted weedy mossy reason of the yard as well as asking yourself exactly what the actual backyard will be such as basically simply dug this upward. I've the sloping backyard therefore mowing and trimming it's effort an additional cause to express ‘Bye l8rs lawn’.

However the guide doesn’t simply concentrate on changing the actual yard along with grasses this discusses a number of various routines as well as talks about exactly what grasses, or even their own close to family members works. We had been very happy to observe dried out tone as well as boggy floor protected (in addition to drought circumstances as well as container developing) when i have a problem with each during my backyard as well as indeed you will find grasses that could get the job done and much more significantly grasses which i such as the appear associated with and may observe employed in individuals hard areas.

The actual guide is actually filled with pictures in order to demonstrate the actual factors Lucas can make. I believe they're mainly through areas in america however the reason being they've the actual prairies as well as make use of grasses on the large-scale within city and county growing a lot more than all of us perform right here in the united kingdom. You will find UNITED KINGDOM good examples as well as Lucas’s personal backyard from Knoll, in addition to Beth Chatto’s backyard have a great deal. He's additionally excellent from detailing which although the grow might prosper inside a moist atmosphere within Ca state, exactly the same grow wouldn't achieve this nicely inside a moist atmosphere in the united kingdom.

Getting already been totally influenced to create much more grasses in to my personal backyard with plenty of suggestions associated with exactly how to get this done We had been very happy to visit a area close to the back again upon sustaining the actual vegetation. I've currently learned which Stipas don't like to become raised to become split as well as you need to noticed away a little within situ – with no this isn’t that simple I will guarantee a person. There's a listing associated with grasses that is intriguing since the prosperity associated with vegetation obtainable is actually mind-blowing.

Lucas’s viewpoint accords perfectly having a way of thinking I've been gradually building. I've stated prior to We don’t such as the custom associated with trimmed hedges as well as parterres as well as choose winter season curiosity through start barking as well as grasses. Because Lucas states “the lithe, bending nearly constant movement as well as rustling sounds…. is really a perfect feature from the lawn loved ones. ” Provide me personally which any kind of day time within the stiffness as well as solemnity associated with trimmed container as well as yew.

I possibly could continue permanently along with every thing I've discovered out of this guide and also the suggestions it's motivated but rather I'd desire a person if you're just partially thinking about utilizing grasses inside your backyard to possess a study associated with Lucas’s guide – We don’t believe you'll be let down.