If you want your landscaping to be different from everyone on the block try planting different styles of grasses. The landscaping in the front yard can be the type that forms clumps instead of the grass that must be cut, while the back yard and garden landscaping you may want to incorporate some taller versions of decorative grass.
Planting tall ornamental grasses in a group or in a row can create a privacy screen from neighbors, air conditioning units, trash cans or something else you want to hide. Some of the tall grasses include the big blue-stem with beautiful flowers and blue-grey leaves and can range in height from four feet to seven feet tall; pampas grass has tall pink flowers and will range from six to fifteen feet tall and the giant reed grass can range between fourteen and twenty feet tall and has leaves that are three inches across. Ornamental grasses need to be cut back in the spring which means you will lose that privacy screen while it grows back.
These beautiful landscaping plants bring texture to most flower beds. By using two or three varieties of miscanthus or some fountain grass will give this effect to hydrangea and lavender. Mounded grasses will complement the plants that have creative textures and the vertical grasses supplement the plants that are more rounded. A lot of your hardscapes can become inviting and warm when you use ornamental grasses around them. Some decorative grasses do not bloom so they will not attract bees and would be good to plant around a swimming pool.
You can also grow these grasses in decorative containers and place them on patios, balconies, decks, or even on a high-rise rooftop garden. With so many different shapes, sizes and colors of containers you can have an entire container garden of just ornamental and decorative grasses in all different species. You can mix and match the grass colors and sizes to coordinate with the sizes and colors of your containers. Do not limit the ornamental grasses just in your landscaping; you can also highlight a regular landscaping by placing some of these containers filled with these grasses to enhance an existing landscaped area.
If you plant the same decorative grass inter-mingled among some of your flowering plants it can help tie your entire garden together. If your flowers are the tall version you may think about using a blue fescue which is a clump forming grass; a tall feather reed grass works better with the lower blooming flowers and will also look nice in a vegetable garden. You do not want a grass that will run because they spread too much and will eventually look very weedy.
These clumping or low grasses make good borders around flower beds because they are small but you will need to plant close together so it will resemble a border. Ornamental grasses will stand out at the end of the season when most of the perennials and annuals look tired and worn out. Some grasses such as big blue-stem and switch-grass have a fall leaf color that is very beautiful; some grasses will have colorful seed heads.
You can attract the birds to the garden with decorative and ornamental grasses in the landscaping. The birds find shelter in some of the larger grasses, the blades of some the leaves are good for constructing nests, and the seeds that these grasses produce are enjoyable to the birds. Just remember to plant the native grasses for your area. The low growing and clumping or mounded grasses make excellent ground covers; they smother out weeds while creating the textures for the landscape. Try adding some decorative grasses to your flower garden or front lawn as part of your next landscaping project.