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Landscape Design

Ideas for foundation plants to go with grasses?

last year

Looking for some ideas for foundation plants to plant along the concrete foundation with the ornamental grasses. The 3 grasses on the bottom left stay low to the ground. Want something that stays green. Azaleas have been suggested but not sure if they will look good. Never planted in a bed shaped like this before. Thanks for any ideas or pics.

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Comments (4)

NHBabs z4b-5a NH
last year
In order to get useful suggestions, we need to know more information.

Are you in Saudi Arabia or Maine or Vancouver of Florida or . . . Give us your state and perhaps nearest large city.

Knowing your USDA zone if you are in the US is helpful as well.

Is this are on the north side, south, east or west of the house, and how much sun does it get?

Right now the grass looks to be somewhat loosely growing, and if that is its typical growth pattern (rather than due to it being a new planting), I am not sure if it is suited to evenly spaced rows used as a frame around the garden.
aamkz thanked NHBabs z4b-5a NH
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
last year
last modified: last year
I'd like to know the type of grass as well. And is the grass growing along the left wall intentionally planted? I might want to reconsider that.
aamkz thanked gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
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Low maintenance is one thing; and deer resistance at a weekend place is going to depend a little on the acquired tastes of the wildlife in your locality. There have been umpty ump threads about this on the Cottage Garden, Perennials, Plants for Difficult Places, etc. forums and the one absolute is that there are no absolutes from one person's garden to another's. Also, if you search out deer resistant plants on the web, virtually every university extension has a site with big charts listing the regions typical plants and rates them as seriously, seldom, and/or rarely browsed. (Rabbits should also be a consideration - over the winter they'll chew down a lot of shrubs to nubs.) Low maintenance could mean more shrubs that could go for quite a long time before needing any kind of pruning or shaping; and fewer blooming perennials. In my experience, nepetas (catmint), salvias, Russian sages, artemesias, astilbes, peonies, PJM Rhododendrons, Northern Lights series azaleas, ferns, mugo pines, various spruce, creeping junipers, ninebark "Dart's Gold (chartreuse color), actaea pachypoda alba, Alpine currant, barberry (someone is going to say this is considered an invasive in some states), potentilla, and some things I'm forgetting, have never been touched by deer. I don't think they go for ornamental grasses, either. Until you get your gardeing feet wet, annuals are always a good choice along with some good bones shrubbery. It's wired in wildlife DNA to ignore annuals and go for the expensive stuff.
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I agree with georich's idea of curving beds to soften your square patio! Curved beds add a lot of interest and give you more depth for planting. I've had good luck with two particular grasses and since we are both in the same zone I think they would be a good choice. I love Feather Reed Grass 'Karl Foerster,' which gets about 3-5 feet high and 1.5-2.5' wide. It gets beautiful wheat like plumes in summer and still offers winter interest. My other favorite grass is fountain grass 'hameln,' which grows 1.5-2.5' in heighth and width. Planted near my grasses are heuchera, astilbe, catmint, coreopsis, salvia and I use some ajuga for groundcover. I know some people complain that ajuga can be invasive, but in zone 5 I don't find that to be true. This past winter nearly killed a few mounds of it! Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: Feather Reed Grass
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I would not plant a vine next to brick if there is any chance it will dig into your mortar like ivy does. I will echo everyone else on photinas....they want to be huge. They make a great living privacy fence if you have lots of room. I keep swearing I will get a photo of the ones planted at my church building. They outgrew being kept trimmed, so they are now the hulking plants they want to be. Unfortunately they are blocking all the sunlight for the bed as well. Crepe myrtles are a really nice addition. If you don't want a tree size, you can find the miniature bush types. Also look into autumn sage / salvia. Both of those will give you some nice blooms when the spring blooms have pooped out.
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aamkz
Original Author
last year
Location is in Virginia, about 1 hour east of Frederickburg. (zone 7). The bed has a Southern exposure. i do not know the name/type of the ornamental grasses. We divided some grasses from another location that were doing quite well but needed division...these are small transplants. The grasses will get much fuller, as seen with the parent plants. The green "grass" you see along the foundation is weeds - it will be removed to plant some bushes and then the bed will be mulched. Trying to figure out what could be planted where the weeds will be removed (along the concrete walls).
cecily 7A
last year
An hour east of Fredericksburg is the tidewater. Reblooming azaleas would do nicely there. If you don't care for azaleas, you can also consider Winter Gem boxwood or Japanese holly. I'd avoid dwarf nandina because it looks pretty rough after cold winters.

Your ornamental grass may be too tall for that location. Have you considered liriope?
aamkz thanked cecily 7A

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