Grasses

Grasses

Grasses are a very valuable tool in a garden, providing a number of benefits when they're used in a way that really works.

The Different Incarnations of a Garden Throughout the Year

This is the same area we looked at in late spring, when all the rosettes of emerging plants formed a textural composition, and we also looked at the contrast you can create with leaf forms early in the season.

The area has now gone through succession, and the plants are almost at their full height now at the end of July. The Sanguisorba are now 3 m tall and provide a lovely emergent structure in the planting.

It's very important that a garden goes through a series of different incarnations like this through the course of the growing season. The succession you build into the planting is key to ensuring that there's enough interest during each incarnation throughout the year.

Grasses

Grasses provide a softness and neutrality in the planting. They also help this garden to blend in with the meadows in the background, which were the ultimate inspiration for this area of naturalistic planting.

• I've used grasses sparingly here, as I don't want them to dominate, so they make up probably no more than a fifth of the planting in this part of the garden.

Grasses are wonderful because they really start to assert themselves in high summer and carry you through into autumn. They provide a gauziness and a transparency in the planting; another form of veil through which other things can emerge.

• For example, the Molinia 'Transparent' will arch over the path in late summer and provide a really interesting transition into autumn, when the grasses then become the main feature.

Grasses also help to link the garden into the landscape.

• Deschampsia is a native perennial grass found along the woodland edge below the garden. I've brought that plant up here using a cultivar called 'Golden Vale', which is repeated throughout the planting to create a connection with the woodland beyond.

I've stepped the grasses up through the garden in such a way that as you get higher up towards the buildings, the grasses become more formal and their structures more ornamental. The grasses I've used include:

• A North American Panicum with very tall, fine, upright growth.
• Some Miscanthus very close to the house, because these are the most ornamental.

So the wilder-feeling grasses are further down the garden to help the transition into the landscape, and these have plants growing through them, such as thistles, that you also see in the landscape beyond.

Benefits of Grasses

1. They provide a softness and a neutrality in the planting to break up the perennials.
2. They create a gauziness or veil through which other plants can emerge.
3. They help to link the garden with the landscape beyond.
4. They are fantastic for picking up the breeze, particularly on this open site.

• Even on a relatively still day, there's always motion in the grasses.

1. They are fantastic for harnessing the light, especially in low light.

• Over autumn and winter, they hold the light in their foliage and flower stems, which is a wonderful quality to have in a naturalistic garden.

Limit the Number of Grass Species in Your Palette

When I arrived here, I set up a trial of about 25 grasses to see what felt right here.

• Some grasses, like Miscanthus, felt very definitely ornamental.

At the other end of the spectrum were the wilder-feeling grasses, like Molinia and Deschampsia, which felt more appropriate in this countryside setting.

Much like my hard materials rule, I have a rule that I don't ever use more than three grasses in an area.

• Grasses have quite strong characters and when you use too many, they start to conflict and you lose the joy in the individuals.
• I've probably got 9–10 grasses in total at Hillside, but in different parts of the garden.

I've got one or two more ornamental grasses, like the Panicum, coming right down to the garden edge, and conversely the wilder Molinia continuing up the garden to where it's more ornamental.

• So we have concentrations of more ornamental grasses and wilder grasses in different areas, but with a smooth transition between them, created by selected repeating elements.

Decide What Proportion of Grasses Suit Your Space

Though I've used them sparingly here, it's sometimes nice to go with the grasses and let them dominate a planting. In other parts of the garden, where I want to link more directly to the meadows or focus on their sculptural quality, I've used a much higher density of grasses.

Plant Directory

Sanguisorba

Molinia 'Transparent'

Deschampsia

Panicum

Miscanthus