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Front Yard Landscaping With Ornamental Grasses

Grasses carry a front yard for three seasons on almost no work. Which to plant where, the clumping-versus-running trap, and when to cut them back.

By Salma 4 min read Save to Pinterest — opens Pinterest in a new tab
Miscanthus seed heads lit from behind by low sun, glowing gold against a dark background
Photo: Couleur, Pixabay Content License, via Pixabay
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Grasses do something no other plant does in a front garden: they move. They also hold their shape from spring to the following March on one cut-back a year.

Clumping or running — the decision that matters

The two habits
HabitBehaviourVerdict
ClumpingExpands slowly as a tuftPlant freely
RunningSpreads by rhizome, colonisesAvoid in a bed
Heavy self-seederSeeds into lawn, beds, neighboursCheck local status

Ribbon grass is the classic mistake — pretty, cheap, and it will take the bed and then the lawn. Some fountain grass and miscanthus cultivars self-seed heavily in warm climates and are listed as invasive in parts of the United States and Australia.

Check the status for your region before buying. A local extension service or native plant society answers this in one search, and it is the difference between a feature and a decade of digging.

What to plant, by role

Tall, back of bed or as a screen — 4 to 7 ft

  • Miscanthus (compact cultivars) — the classic plume, upright, reliable
  • Switchgrass — native to North America, tough, red-bronze autumn colour, stands through snow
  • Feather reed grass — the most upright and formal; excellent beside a path or drive because it does not flop into it

Medium, the main body — 2 to 4 ft

  • Little bluestem — blue-green to copper, superb autumn colour, poor-soil tolerant
  • Fountain grass — softer, arching, bottlebrush heads
  • Prairie dropseed — fine-textured, fragrant in flower, slow and very tidy

Low, edge and front — under 2 ft

  • Blue fescue — steel blue, small tufts, needs sun and drainage
  • Sedges — the shade answer, semi-evergreen, combed rather than cut
  • Japanese forest grass — shade, arching, the one that justifies itself in a dark bed

Planting them so they read as a design

  1. Drifts, not dots. Three, five or seven of one species. A single grass in a lawn looks like something that escaped
  2. Repeat along the frontage — the same grass appearing three times down a bed is what makes it look designed from the street
  3. Space at mature width. Large grasses three to four feet apart, medium two to three, small twelve to eighteen inches
  4. Contrast the texture. Grasses against broad leaves — hosta, heuchera, sedum, a clipped evergreen — because grass against grass reads as nothing
  5. Keep them off the path edge by half their mature width, or you will be walking through them by August
  6. Plant in spring in cold climates, so the crown establishes before winter

Plant them where the light comes through

The reason to use grasses is backlighting. A miscanthus or switchgrass with low morning or evening sun behind it is lit from within, and the seed heads glow.

Site them on the east or west side of the frontage rather than flat against a north wall, and the same plant does several times the work.

The annual cut-back

  • Late winter or very early spring, before new shoots appear
  • Four to six inches from the ground for deciduous types
  • Hedge shears or a hedge trimmer — tie the clump with string first and the whole thing lifts out in one bundle
  • Sedges and evergreens are not cut. Comb through with gloved hands and pull the dead blades out
  • Divide every three to five years if the centre dies out — lift, split with a spade, replant the outer sections

Do not cut in autumn. You lose the winter structure, the crown loses its frost protection, and the overwintering insects and seed-eating birds lose the shelter.

Wear sleeves and gloves

Many ornamental grasses have finely serrated leaf edges that cut skin exactly like paper, and miscanthus is the worst of them.

Long sleeves and gloves for the cut-back, and keep the blades away from bare forearms.

Mistakes that show from the street

  • One grass, alone, in the middle of a lawn. The single most common front-yard error
  • Cutting them down in October, leaving the bed bare for five months
  • Planting a running species and spending years removing it
  • Spacing from the pot, so they merge into one shapeless mass by year three
  • All grasses, no contrast — no broad leaves, nothing evergreen, nothing with a different form
  • Too close to the drive, so they are cut back mid-season and never look right

Common questions

Are ornamental grasses good for a front yard?

They are among the best value in a front garden: structure from spring to the following March, movement that nothing else provides, drought tolerance once established, and a single cut-back as the entire annual maintenance. The caution is choosing a clumping species rather than a running one, and checking mature size, because a grass sold in a two-litre pot can be six feet across in three years.

What is the best low maintenance ornamental grass?

For most temperate front gardens, switchgrass, little bluestem, feather reed grass, fountain grass and compact miscanthus cultivars do the job with one cut-back a year. Feather reed grass is the most upright and the tidiest beside a path; switchgrass and little bluestem handle poor soil and give autumn colour; fountain grass is softer and lower. Check hardiness and invasiveness for your region before buying any of them.

When should I cut back ornamental grasses?

Late winter or very early spring, just before new growth starts — not in autumn. Leaving the foliage standing gives winter structure, protects the crown from frost, and shelters insects and birds. Cut deciduous grasses to about four to six inches. Evergreen and semi-evergreen types such as sedges are combed through with gloved hands instead, removing dead blades without shearing the plant.

Do ornamental grasses spread and become a problem?

Clumping grasses stay as an expanding tuft and are safe. Running grasses spread by rhizome and can take a bed or escape into a neighbour's garden, and some are listed as invasive in parts of their range — ribbon grass is the common offender, and some miscanthus and fountain grass cultivars self-seed heavily in warm climates. Check the local status before planting; if in doubt, plant a sterile cultivar or a native clumping species.

How far apart should ornamental grasses be planted?

At their mature width, which is usually wider than the label on the pot suggests. For large grasses such as miscanthus and switchgrass that means three to four feet apart; for medium types such as fountain grass and little bluestem, two to three feet; for small sedges and blue fescue, twelve to eighteen inches. Planted in drifts of three, five or seven at those spacings they close into a mass in two seasons.

Will ornamental grasses look dead in winter?

Deciduous ones go tan and stay standing, which is the point rather than a defect — backlit seed heads and movement through winter are the main reason to plant them. They look deliberate when massed and scruffy when dotted singly around a lawn. If you want green through winter, mix in sedges, blue fescue or an evergreen shrub for contrast rather than cutting the grasses down in October.

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