Garden With Shrubs & Ornamental Grasses

Shrubs and grasses can liven up your landscape.

You can add shrubs and ornamental grasses to your landscape with other plants and flowers, or you can use them alone in your garden. Both can add variety throughout different seasons.

Planning

You will need to follow the soil and sunlight requirements for each of your new plants. Make a sketch of your garden plan and make a note of how much sunlight each area of your garden gets. This will help you in choosing shrubs or grasses. Also, in your sketch, draw the plants at their full expected size.

Shrubs

Lilacs are large but produce light purple flowers for a short time.

Flowering shrubs are either spring- or summer-flowering. There are also non-flowering shrubs. When choosing, consider what time each plant blooms. Mixing spring- and summer-flowering shrubs allows your garden to have color from early spring to fall.

Ornamental Grasses

Many ornamental grasses add texture to winter landscapes. They may not remain green through winter, but many of them maintain their shape and give a focal point against a background of snow. Some grasses are flowering, some are not. Giant Chinese silver grass, for example, grows up to 8 feet tall and produces silver 10-inch flowers.

References

• Colorado State University Extension: Ornamental Grasses; Carl Wilson
• University of Illinois Extension: The Garden in Winter
• Cornell University: Flower Garden Design Basics