Ornamental Grasses for Front Yard Landscaping
See how different types of ornamental grasses were used in this front yard for dramatic effect.
A video transcript featuring Ive Haugeland, Shades of Green Landscape Architecture
This project was a typical front yard in a typical neighborhood with big lots, a lot of lawn. It was basically mostly lawn and just a few other plants, so we did big swathes of grasses here.
Plant types
We did a lot of bunny tails, which is what you see mostly when you come from the street, which have been blooming the whole summer and still look really pretty.
There's also pink muhlenbergiathat is starting to bloom a little bit right now. There's calamagrostis, and there's also a carex tumulicola. Those are in the shadier spots up against the house and under the trees.
As accent plants for all the grasses, we used the yellow kangaroo paws. We used the phormium 'Margaret Jones' [a New Zealand flax with variegated rose-red leaves]. Also, we have some yellow Nephrolepis and some aeonium, little succulents.
We used all these grasses to make a different kind of front yard, which uses way less water, but it's also really pretty and you get a seasonality that you don't get with lawn. Another thing we had to think about here is deer. This neighborhood has a lot of deer, and everything has to be as bulletproof as possible.
