The use of herbaceous plants in landscaping when landscaping a garden is as popular as the use of flowering crops. A variety of shapes and colors, the grace of foliage and inflorescences, as well as the growth characteristics of representatives of this group, allow you to find herbs to embody any ideas, including stylish imitations of natural communities. However, before growing ornamental grasses, it is necessary to familiarize yourself with the peculiarities of care for the cultivation of perennial and annual crops.
In flower beds
Herbs are no worse than other plants in a flower garden, and their placement in it also depends solely on their personal qualities (well, on the taste of the gardener, of course). Of course, dense sod and non-aggressive species are preferred in the flower garden. Creepers are planted only with a limiter so that after a few years you do not have to redo all the work. In addition to the biological needs of the plants themselves, their color and shape are taken into account.
The fact that the grass is green has firmly entered the consciousness of each of us from early childhood. The variety of green shades opens up to the artist and to those who are fond of gardening. Differences in color of plants become especially noticeable in a flower garden, when they are close, which allows you to create interesting monochrome compositions. But herbs are not limited to green.
Blue:
This group is adjoined by striped grasses with wide bright yellow stripes, which at a distance are perceived as simply yellow:
In addition, grasses often have an autumn color change. Golden, yellow, brownish are the traditional colors of autumn dress. There are varieties that have been specially selected for this feature, for example, from miscanthus (“Adagio”, “Kleine Fontane”, etc.), rod-shaped millet. Excellent autumn color in miscanthus sucrose, many varieties of cane moth, wheatgrass virginiana, tsitsania broadleaf, sulfur beard, sporoboles, sorgastrum, cereals.
Red:
Striped: striped varieties are numerous among all groups of herbs. The width and density of these stripes varies, the color of which usually ranges from white to yellow.
It makes no sense to name them all, only the most unique cases can be mentioned. Some miscanth varieties (Gold Bar, Strictus, Zebrinus, Punktchen, Little Zebra, Little Nickey) have unusual transverse stripes.
When choosing ornamental grasses, the designer pays special attention to the overall shape of the plant. There are herbs directed upwards, bringing vertical lines to flower beds.
There are compact grasses with a mass of basal leaves and spreading long stems that make them look like fountains (dense sod sedges, some varieties of lightning, turf pike, chiy, pinnacle, cortaderia, broadleaf tricia, etc.). An interesting effect is provided by the planting of a large cereal of this type in the foreground: the outstretched stems separate the flower garden from the viewer like a veil.
Herbs with leafy stems form solid masses that can serve as a screen from the wind or a background for bright flower beds (miscanthus, reed, arundo, rump, ryegrass, etc.). The grasses that form rugs are very useful for covering bare ground under large plants (lyriopa, ofiopogon, hakonechloa, soft bukharnik, plantain sedge and rust-spotted sedge). They can be used for the same purpose in large containers or among walkway tiles. There are just original forms that are interesting to look at, like the spiral varieties of the spreading rump.
In shady gardens
Plants from the families of grasses, sedges, and rump by nature are inhabitants of open spaces, where their discreet, fragranceless flowers are pollinated only by a free wind. The number of species that have adapted to life in the shade of trees is relatively small. Still, there are some wonderful plants for shade among them.
Recommended shade ornamental grasses:
A number of other species, for example, reed grass, bamboos, will grow well in partial shade, and in the south of Russia, shade is also suitable for bamboos. In general, as we move into hotter and drier areas, many grasses tolerate more shading than in the middle lane.
In dry streams
Small, compact grasses and sedges can be kept in dry streams. Plants should be sufficiently drought tolerant, love sun and good drainage. The last condition is especially important for successful wintering of feather grass and fescue.
Ornamental grasses recommended for dry rocky slides:
On the alpine slides
In general, the same slides, but with regular watering, can become a home for plants that are more difficult to cultivate. Perhaps, for New Zealand sedges, on the one hand, which need constant moisture, and on the other hand, they cannot tolerate stagnant water, especially in winter, the conditions of such a rock garden will seem the most optimal.
Ornamental grasses recommended for alpine slides:
In containers
Keeping ornamental grasses in containers is convenient for caring for non-resistant plants. But this technique can be used in other cases as well. When, for example, you need to create mobile groups of plants in the garden or decorate stairs, verandas, balconies, patios in the absence of open land for planting there. Many herbs look good in containers on their own or with colorful companions. The size of the plants may vary depending on the container capacity and design intent. For example, even such huge grains as Pampas grass are planted in containers. The only requirement for the range for above-ground containers is that the plants must be sufficiently drought-resistant to withstand the periodic drying of the soil in the container without losing decorativeness. After all, it is not always possible to keep track of them.
For aquatic life, especially in a small tidy pond, a container is often necessary. It is not always possible to fill the bottom with soil, and the riot of aquatic plants is incomparable with the activity of terrestrial plants – they always need a “straitjacket”.
By the ponds
When designing a reservoir, it is almost impossible to do without herbs. When choosing an assortment, one should proceed from the size of the reservoir and its purpose. Large ones, sinking deeper and deeper, create a smooth transition zone from the coast to the water, especially with a gradual decrease in the size of plants.
Such plants include:
At the edge of the water, moisture-loving sedges look spectacular, forming large mounds – sedges are high, turfy, paniculate. Planting in containers makes long-rhizome and other grasses more manageable.
In this case, the following are suitable:
Almost all coastal grasses can be used to create swamp gardens, but usually less tall and aggressive species are chosen for these purposes, since the areas for bog compositions are usually small.
In the heather gardens and backstage
In heather gardens, compact, non-sprawling grasses that love acidic, moderately moist soils are used.
For this, such herbaceous plants as white-grass, reed reed grass, small varieties of blue lightning and turf pike, cottongrass vaginalis, rump grass, Bergren’s sedge, pale, finger-like, ashy, spiny, prickly, blackish are perfect.
Tall plants with dense foliage are suitable for creating wings and background plantings – beardlings, reed grass, corn, sorghum, millet, miscanthus, spartina, sorghum-strum.
In tapeworms and borders
In addition to clumps of long-rhizome grasses against the background of a lawn or in a miniature flower garden near the porch in a solitary planting, dense turf grasses with a clear appearance also look spectacular.
It can be a monumental cortaderia, which is brilliant or miscanth, reed moth or less powerful reed reed grass, sod pike, evergreen oat, sesleria, blue molinia.
Tussock sedges are also effective in this capacity, provided that they are sufficiently drought-resistant, for example, sod sedge, neighboring or parva. Smooth, multi-leaved, dense sod and short grasses can be used for curbs. In particular, the following are suitable for these purposes:
Blue fescue and similar species are traditional border plants in regular flower beds. New Zealand sedges are also convenient in this role, which in this case are cultivated as annuals.
Aromatic Herb Garden
Some of the listed plants will complement the herbal garden’s assortment. The rhizomes and leaves of calamus have a pleasant smell. It is a recognized medicinal plant. The preparations, which include calamus, improve appetite and digestion, treat stomach ulcers. Calamus is also widely used in folk medicine in different countries. It is also added to food and aromatic baths are made with it. The leaves and inflorescences of the fragrant spikelet and bison have a specific spicy smell due to the coumarin content. Zubrovka is a part of the formulation of tinctures, herbal balsams, as a spice is used in fish dishes, in confectionery. Due to the ability of coumarin to reduce blood clotting, it is used in medicine to treat thrombosis. But this same property makes coumarin a poison when consumed in excessive quantities. With equal success, calamus and bison with a spikelet can decorate a decorative vegetable garden or another themed garden: a garden of medicinal plants. Parvian sedge also belongs to medicinal plants.
Check out how beautiful ornamental gardens are in landscaping a garden in these photos:
Peculiarities of growing
From spring to autumn, the flowering of cereals, sedges, reeds, rushes continues. But usually they do it modestly and imperceptibly – greenish and brownish inflorescences so merge with the deciduous outfit that they are perceived together with it as a whole. Only a special case compels us to pay close attention to their flowers (or fruits). For example, when in early spring the candles of male spikelets of hairy, finger-like, early sedges light up over old leaves, and snow-white puffs of cottongrass vaginalis float in the air above the swamps. Or feather grass blooms in May, spreading silvery feathers in the wind.
And the most luxurious inflorescences appear in the fall, when, in addition to the popular “cones” of reeds, one can contemplate the luxury of Miscanthians, beardlings, and lightning bolts. In late sedges, the sacs increase with maturity, and the spikelets become heavy and noticeable, like in sedges of the wolf, Gray, yellow, large-headed, fox, pseudo-synovial, drooping, vesicular. In autumn, maize ripens, and yellowed ears of grain can be harvested along the edges of the fields.
Plants with long, creeping rhizomes are able to quickly occupy large areas. So their planting must be treated very prudently – some of them, for example, ground reed grass, can later be lime only with herbicides. Such plants are indispensable if you need to embellish wastelands, slopes and other troubles along roads, in large parks, in urban landscaping. They will help protect the soil from erosion on slopes, anchor sands or the banks of water bodies. Regularly mowed individual clumps of these plants look good in the middle of large lawns.
Large non-sticking species, such as Miscanthus sucrose, Spartina, spikelet, variegated varieties of two-strand, bring liveliness to the even green surface, at the same time, without contrasting with it. In flower beds, on hills, in groups of small shrubs, among gravel and other dumps, active rhizome grasses must be limited. As a limiter, special plastic curbs of different widths are used, which are sold by meters in garden centers. Plastic curbs are completely buried in the soil so that they do not collapse under the influence of the sun, accidental run over by a mower, careless actions with a shovel or just under a heavy boot. But you can also take improvised materials: concrete rings, buckets and pans without a bottom, etc. In this case, it is necessary to take into account the depth of penetration of rhizomes into the soil, which can be very significant. Powerful species (spikelet, two-source, sugar-flowering miscanthus) limit by at least 50 cm in depth, and for reliability and up to 100 cm. Lower and weaker plants (bison, drooping pearl-tree, rust-spotted sedge, quagger sedge, etc.) are sufficient to protect to a depth of 20-30 cm. It is especially difficult to contain coastal plants – reeds, reeds, cattail, mannik, creeping sedges. Even when planted in solid containers, they manage to throw the rhizomes over the edge of the container or push them into the drainage holes in the bottom of the pots. Such plants need regular supervision and pruning of unnecessary shoots at least once a season. Restricting creeping grasses not only prevents their uncontrolled spread and introduction of other plants into the planting, but makes their clumps thicker and more beautiful. This is especially noticeable in spike forests, awnless rump “Skinner’s Gold”, bison, Muskingumen sedge, Forchun’s many-flowering plant.