Archive: Around Town

Dan SegalMost gardeners peruse some green websites, read some kind of gardening magazines, or scan the home and garden section in newspapers. For the last several years grasses have enjoyed high profile status. Unless you have 'issues' with the grasses, you've probably either considered planting some, or even tried a few. Recently I spoke with two gardeners in the same day, both of whom had horror stories of grasses behaving badly--one running amok, the other going awry... What I gathered was that their bad grass experiences left them fearfully assuming all grasses were destined to spread indefinitely, overtaking every living thing before moving on to devour the inanimate foundations of garage, home and neighborhood.

Before we go any further, let's get to the point: grasses are great in the garden. I would go so far as to say a garden without ornamental grasses is fundamentally incomplete. Some gardens just don't seem to have a grass feel, but even in those you can sneak in a few as specimens (Miscanthus was perhaps the first genus to enjoy the status of 'a given' in gardens; Pennisetum, fountain grass, is another; today it seems that Panicum, switchgrass, is popular enough to be appearing in even the most traditional landscapes).
Grasses are deer proof. Yes, deer don't eat ornamental grasses. As a rule. So by considering them, you are adding a whole new dimension to your garden. How liberating! Now you can plant outside fences, even in Cayuga Heights.

The grasses we are talking about are generally perennial and can be considered bunch grasses because they from clumps (bunches) rather than spreading by wandering runners. Some grasses spread by very short runners, which results in a slowly widening clump (bunch) over time. With these, new shoots emerge from the base of the plant and arise right next to the older shoots. By comparison, some of the common lawn grasses (red fescue, Festuca rubra), spread by fairly aggressive runners that result in a colony of grass. For lawns this is good. In a garden or bed, this can be a problem.

Some of the best native bunchgrasses are Panicum virgatum (switchgrass), Schizachyrium scoparium (little bluestem), Danthonia spicata (poverty oatgrass), Chasmanthium latifolium (northern sea oats), Sorghastrum nutans (Indian grass)--to name a few. There aren't thousands as with perennials, so it's not very daunting to get a decent handle on which grasses you like very quickly. We grow some short ones (to 1 foot), some midsized ones (to 3' or so) and a few large grasses (5' and more).

There are other similar plants, often referred to as "grass-like plants". These are sedges (genus Carex), rushes (genus Juncus), and a few other oddballs like Scirpus, Eleocharis and Eriophorum. Plus, there are other true grasses used in horticulture and ecological restoration that make nice landscape plants. But if you are new to the group, start simple. Don't be afraid to ask someone at a nursery about the grass at hand. If they can't tell you a lot about it, don't buy it there. Would you buy a dinner special at a restaurant without knowing what it was? Probably not.

Of the grass-like plants, we also grow some sedges, species of Carex. Carex flaccosperma (blue wood sedge) is a broad-leaf sedge of woods and drier meadows, hillsides and fields that brings great color and drama to any perennial bed or border. It's a nice break from the typical green leaves you see in most gardens. Carex stricta (tussock sedge) grows in wetlands and forms a shaggy trunk of old leaves and stems, but manages to do it with exquisite beauty and grace of form. This one also does fine in normal garden conditions and doesn't need to be very wet at all, even though in the wild it prefers beaver swamps and saturated meadows--even standing water.

So keep in mind the basics. Grasses as typically used in horticulture are bunchgrasses, or clump-formers, not aggressive spreaders. WIth the exception of a few types, they are perennial and return strongly each year, in part because the deer don't eat them! Grasses and their relatives also lend characteristic grace to any garden because of the unique nature of their leaves--long, thin, graceful. Some grasses are perfectly tolerant of dry, rocky, sterile soil and will thrive where typical broadleaf perennials sufffer. Other grasses thrive in wet or saturated areas and lend the same vertical, graceful movement to those sites.

Whatever your garden dictates, there are grasses that will love to grow there, and reward you with their beauty and ease of culture.

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