Ornamental Grasses for a Small Garden Space
Santa Fe garden designer Donna Bone recommended these five ornamental grasses as excellent options for creating soft texture and movement in the summer and autumn garden.
Ornamental grasses are excellent at creating soft texture and movement in the summer and autumn garden. A drawback can be their size. However there are compact options that suit smaller garden spaces. Here are a few standouts:
Feather reed grass (Calamagrostis xacutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’): 3 to 5 feet tall, half as wide. Medium to wet soil, full sun. Warm season. USDA Zones 5–9.
“It greens early in the season, develops seed heads early and stays very upright in winter,” says Santa Fe garden designer Donna Bone.
Blue oat grass (Helictotrichon sempervirens): 2 to 3 feet tall and wide. Dry to medium soil, full sun. Cool season. Zones 4–9.
Along with its small stature, blue oat grass has a flowing quality that makes it a great accent plant.
'Cheyenne Sky' switch grass (Panicum virgatum 'Cheyenne Sky’): 3 feet tall, half as wide. Medium to wet soil, full sun to part shade. Warm season. Zones 5–9. Read more about growing this grass.
There are many cultivars of the US-native switch grass, but some can grow quite tall. 'Cheyenne Sky' presents a smaller option with beautiful color as it takes on shades of red and purple in late summer and fall.
Blue Heaven little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium Blue Heaven, or 'MinnBlue'): 4 feet tall, 2 feet wide. Dry to medium soil, full sun. Warm season. Zones 3–9.
Like the abovementioned feather reed grass, this can be a tall grass, but its narrow, upright habit suits it to tight spaces.
Blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis): 1 to 2 feet tall and wide. Dry to medium soil, full sun. Warm season. Zones 3–9.
Thanks to its low growth and decorative flaglike inflorescences, blue grama works especially well as the basis of a small meadowesque planting.
Image credits: All images courtesy of Walters Gardens, except blue grama grass by I, KENPEI, CC BY-SA 3.0
