4 minute read
Natures Seed
My Fall Gardening Hack: Native Perennial Grasses
By Skylar Christensen, Nature’s Seed
As the bright summer blooms fade into the warm tapestry of autumn, you might be noticing your landscape looking a little rough around the edges. Maybe the heat was too much in some areas. Maybe it looks a little drab now without the vibrant colors enjoyed earlier in the year. Maybe you just stopped caring around mid-August. No judgment. Luckily this is the time of year my favorite fall gardening hack takes over. By planting a wide variety of native perennial grasses, you can set your garden beds on autopilot and draw attention away from the more tired areas of your landscape.
There are many to choose from here in Utah, but my go-to native perennial grasses have always been the warm-season types such as blue grama, switchgrass, and little bluestem. The warm-season grasses have a special adaptation, a distinct way of performing photosynthesis, which allow them to thrive during the hottest, driest times of the year. This makes them resistant to heat waves, droughts, and my own neglect. They grow steadily and patiently in the background all year, letting the flashier spring and summer blooming plants do their thing.
Come late summer and early fall the grasses begin putting on a show of their own; illuminating the garden with a warm glow of rusty reds, burnt oranges, and golden yellows. Seed heads sway gently in the cool autumn breeze, their intricate detail complementing the softer texture of the grass blades below. Now is the time to take a break and let the grasses do the heavy lifting. They don’t need any trimming, pruning, or deadheading. In fact, you can forget about them until next year. Leaving your ornamental grasses untouched is an excellent way to add visual interest to the winter garden. It also benefits hibernating pollinators and other wildlife. A quick trim down to the ground is recommended in the late winter or early spring.
Blue grama, Bouteloua gracilis, has always been one of my favorite native perennial grasses. You might recognize it by its unusual eyebrow-like seed heads. I like to plant this short-growing bunchgrass along garden paths where these eyebrows can spill over the edge. Blue grama is extremely heat and drought tolerant, and in its native Utah range can be found in areas receiving as little as eight inches of precipitation a year. For those brave enough to try, blue grama can also be used as an alternative lawn grass if planted at a high enough seeding rate (around 3 lbs. /1000 sq. ft.). Keep in mind it is a warm-season grass, so it will take longer to green up in the spring and will go dormant quicker in the fall than our more traditionally used cool-season turfgrasses.
Switchgrass, Panicum virgatum, may only be native to the southern half of Utah, but it performs just fine up north too. This is one species you really need to pay close attention to what variety you’ re planting. Some varieties stay around three feet tall, others get 4-6 feet tall, and some can even reach 10 feet tall. This also means it’ s exceptionally versatile in the landscape. Plant the tall varieties in the rear of your garden beds for a quick burst of height each year, or group some together as a focal point. The red and purple seed heads are a standout in the fall garden, and their lacy feather-like texture adds movement with the slightest breeze.
Little bluestem, Schizachyrium scoparium, is also native to southern Utah even though it’s primarily associated with the Great Plains region. This outstanding ornamental grass has everything I look for in a landscape plant. It doesn’t need to be watered except for an occasional deep soak during the hottest parts of summer. It doesn’t require any maintenance apart from being cut to the ground in the late winter. It provides year-round visual interest, transitioning from its blue-green spring and summer color to its reddish-bronze hue in the fall. And unlike some ornamental grasses, little bluestem is rigid enough to withstand snowfall without bending or collapsing.
Is your gardening oomph running a little low this time of year? Give this fall gardening hack a try. Or maybe your zeal is as strong as ever, that’s fine too. Native perennial grasses have much to offer gardeners of all energy levels. For me they’ve become the backbone of my landscape. They add structure, act as filler, and when I need them the most they throw the garden on their back and carry it across the finish line.
