Patti - If your not putting the grasses in a bed I'd recommend planting them as suggested by Bluestone (great mail order place by-the-way). You could put a stake or some kind of marker next to them so maybe they won't get mowed down. All of my grasses are in beds and they are only 4yrs old but have gotten HUGH!! This is a not very good picture of the bed I have devoted to grasses that was taken last year, 2nd week of June, and by the end of the growing season they were twice that size. This spring I took out 2 of the grasses and gave them to a neighbor. It was a real chore lifting those babies into the wheelbarrow. I have pennisetum also and it will get large but I move mine when ever I need to. Hope this has helped. Vikki
{{gwi:670307}}

I wasn't on over the weekend and just saw this now.
Miscanthus, as we all know, get HUGE. As dismaying as it may seem now, 30" spacing really is about right. If you want them a bit closer, you can certainly do that, but count on having to divide them in 2 years. The KF I would plant a little closer together, as it grows so upright. 24" spacing on those should be fine. Once again, you can plant them closer, just count on dividing.
I actually find dividing of grasses to be rather simple:
-Get spade shovel
-lop off a chunk of the grass
-re-plant elsewhere, or discard

Gotta love grasses

BTW, I totally understand your desire to plant things closer together. My garden is so jammed together it isn't funny. Perennials that should be 18-24" o.c.(or more) will be planted at 12" just so I get a fuller look a lot quicker. I suppose thats why I am a cottage gardener.

IMO it is best to plant the grasses at the recommended distance apart. They are just too hard to move once they get big. Then I would plant something which is very easy to move in front of them, or around them in a circle or semi-circle to fill in the empty spaces (and protect them from the mower). This will keep the garden from looking bare the first season or two. Annuals would work if you don't want to bother with perennials.

However, sedums, clumping ones like Autumn Joy, are the easiest and cheapest, especially if you have some already. They are shallow rooted, don't need any big holes, can be moved from one place to another by the shovelful, scraping out a hole and patting them in. They also look good with grasses and have a long season of interest and don't look anything like grass :~), so they are less likely to get mowed down than other things.

All you really need to get started is one big AJ. Break off pieces, root them and plant them about 2 ft out from the larger grass. You can move them out farther from the grasses when the grasses start to grow or remove them altogether. I'm sure by that time you will have some other developing area that they can be moved into. I consider SAJ to be a most useful, renewable plant to keep on hand for new projects. Best wishes, Leslie

Now that I think about it, why are you worried about them being mowed over? Arent these being planted in a bed? Is the person who mows(spouse?)that unaware of what they are mowing? perhaps a little education is in order.

THANK YOU Vikki, MrMorton and Leslie!
This is exactly the information I needed. I do NOT want to be moving anymore heavy plants.

Vikki, your grass bed is lovely. I bet it's going to be awesome by this fall!

MrMorton, your question about mowing over is a GOOD one! The problem is that this new "cottage garden" had to be put in a field. Since money is a major problem now, I'm trying to create a backdrop for my garden without investing too much cash. I'm using a mixture of helianthus, boltonia and grasses, which I hope will blend into the countryside. I do know it will take many months for any of this to achieve any height, but that's ok. Anyway, the grasses etc. create the border between the garden and the field, so it would be quite easy for the man who mows the field to clip these little fellows, even though I've allowed several feet between the field and the grass.

Leslie, I'm so happy you mentioned the sedum AJ!!! This was exactly my plan to put them between the grasses. Last year I divided all of my AJs and this year I have about three dozen plants ready to put around the grasses. I also have a few dozen each of daylilies, Rudbeckia 'Goldstrum' and Echinacea 'Magnus' to fill in this zone between the field and the main cottage garden area. I also have a long mound helping to divide the areas, which will be covered with my collection of hens and chicks and lots of different sedums and other rock garden type plants. It's a work in progress and I'm having a lot of fun overcoming all these obstacles. :-)

Thanks again to you all for taking the time to help!
PattiOh

Hi Pattiohfeffa. I haven't a clue but you have good advise here.

One thing I do know is that they grow fast.

This one I planted last fall as an iddy bitty baby. It's a monster now.
{{gwi:134668}}
Edna

Oh Cousin Edohfeffa,what a delightful space you have there!
Your grass is very lovely. Thanks!
Baby LAST YEAR huh?
It's probably drier here than most grasses would like but you all have certainly convinced me that it would be folly to plant these fellows close together!
I do love grasses and am trying to situate them so that I'll be able to see the setting sun shining through their wonderful plumage in the fall. (I should have gotten an earlier bloomer than Gracillimus! Hope it will have time to bloom.)

Patti

I'm ashamed to admit this . . . my grass gets no water. I don't have an irrigation system thus I have to water by hand in the mornings. Not an easy thing to do. The hose barely reaches that area.

The monster is called Eragrostis curvula "Weeping Love Grass"

Have you seen the Lagurus ovatus "Bunny Tails"? It's so cute, I have to have one.

That IS cute! The link below includes comments from two gardeners in Zone 5 who grow it and love it (as an annual in Z5 I presume). One comment was that the deer don't seem to care for it, so that would be a plus for some folks.
I have carefully chosen grasses that don't seed about the place and this might be one that does. Though one of the comments is that it doesn't seem to . . .
Interesting.

I'd never heard of this one Edna. Thanks!

Patti

Here is a link that might be useful: Lagurus ovatus 'Bunny Tails'