
How good are grasses?
We think they are fantastic! Grasses are great garden plants, practical and ornamental, low-maintenance and high-style - and we encourage everyone to plant more of them.
But what are grasses?
It's got twelve thousand members! That's a LOT of grasses... Poaceae includes native poa tussock grass or bluegrass, the plants that give the family its name. We have four kinds of Poa in our range : coastal Poa poiformis, blue Poa sieberiana, hybrid Poa Rustic, and Poa labilliardieri tussock grass. All are tough, fast-growing, grow well in a range of locations, are first-rate bank binders for erosion control, and safe havens for wildlife.Poa grasses are often recommended for planting by local council planting lists, and for bushland-adjacent gardens.
We think they are fantastic! Grasses are great garden plants, practical and ornamental, low-maintenance and high-style - and we encourage everyone to plant more of them.
But what are grasses?
 
What's a Grass?
It's got twelve thousand members! That's a LOT of grasses... Poaceae includes native poa tussock grass or bluegrass, the plants that give the family its name. We have four kinds of Poa in our range : coastal Poa poiformis, blue Poa sieberiana, hybrid Poa Rustic, and Poa labilliardieri tussock grass. All are tough, fast-growing, grow well in a range of locations, are first-rate bank binders for erosion control, and safe havens for wildlife.Poa grasses are often recommended for planting by local council planting lists, and for bushland-adjacent gardens.
 

True Grass
Along with traditional lawn turf and sports pitch grasses, the huge Poaceae family of grasses also includes these four relatives. 
Clockwise from top left : low-growing, soft-to-touch, turf-like no-mow velvet grass (Zoysia), a gentle green lawn-alternative; steely silver, super-slender and cold-hardy blue fescue (Festuca), very ornamental; deep red Japanese blood grass (Imperata) - plant this one in a black pot and place it where the sun can shine through *chef's kiss*; and fluffy cream-plumed swamp grass (Pennisetum), a favourite group of plants for all kinds of landscaping and garden planting. 

 
Clockwise, from top left : native speargrass (Austrostipa), and native wallaby grass (Austrodanthonia), blurring hte line between wild garden and created outdoor space; bold burgundy-purple fountain grass (Pennisetum) which comes in a tall bold form to chest-head height, and smaller compact form reaching around calf-knee high; and tall plumed silvergrass (Miscanthus), really popular right now for on-trend garden schemes. 
And these grassy ornamental plants below are Poaceae too - we said it was a BIG family!You can see they share family looks, across very different sizes of scale.

dwarf lookalike baby panda bamboo; ... ... giant bamboo canes;
and global food crops sugarcane, corn, wheat, oats, and rice! Yes, they're all from the same family!
 
That's because Poaceae comes from the Greek word poa, which means fodder.So to a taxonomist, a grass is something you can feed to livestock. Or humans.
 
Bamboo and sugar cane. Not much good as a lawn. We gardeners know that horticulturally a grass is also something ornamental.It grows in a clump, upright from the ground, and it has long fine leaves, or smooth slender stems that look like long fine leaves. Things that look like a grass, we call grass.

Grassy Natives
Like these natives, which might not be 'true' grasses but would be very at home in a grassy-style planting. Clockwise, from top left : knobby club rush (Ficinia), common rush (Juncus), mat rush (Lomandra), and tassel cord rush, a restio (Baloskion) 
All make unbeatable choices for planting in revegetation and rewilding areas, for bank binding and erosion control, for low maintenance landscaping, and for wildlife-friendly gardens.You'll often see them in parks, nature strips, and public access areas, because they need almost no maintenance once established. 
Three come as they are, in one standard flavour; but our mat rush Lomandras come in a wide assortment of mature sizes, leaf colours from lime green to steel blue, and cultivars bred for wet soils or dry climates - so you'll always find one that's perfect for you.
Grassy Groundcovers
In our Grassy Groundcovers category you'll also find not-true-grasses-but-very-grassy-looking-plants such as these landscaping favourites. Clockwise, from top left : sedge (Carex), a very resilient family of plants that can grow in some tough situations and still look garden-ready; lilyturf (Liriope), rugged and attractive, happy in sun or shade, with bonus flowerspikes in purple, pink, lilac and white;mondo grass (Ophiopogon), always a popular plant for mass planting, lawn effects, edging and between pavers; and coastal favourite sea thrift (Armeria), a lawn-turf lookalike until those papery pink and white buds pop up!
 
When you're planting your grassy garden, you might even include some bolder strappy-leaved plants, to create a textural contrast with the more fine-leaved grasses.Such as NZ flax (Phormium); native blue flax (Dianella) ; and even native grass trees. They're pretty grassy, right?As you can see, there's heaps of choice; whether you plant genuine dinky-di Poa family grasses, or something more ornamental and grass-like to achieve the garden look you want.
 
We say if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck... you'll find it in our Ground Cover Grassy category. All the slender-leaved plants we gardeners use in ways we'd use "true" grasses - for landscaping, for lawn looks, around pavers and paths, and as soil-cooling weed-suppressing ground cover. Simple.Spacing & Planting

That way, once they are full-grown, their leaf tips will just be touching.
 
Plant in a pattern like the five spots on a dice, so the plants fill the space evenly, and with a natural effect. You'll find more help on this here : How Many Plants You Need For Your GroundcoverRejuvenate Tired Grasses

Check local council lists

Check with your local environment officer or similar to find out what is allowed in your local area. Many local council and regional approved-plant lists include several native Poa grass species, and native rushes Juncus and Ficinia, recommending them as safe to plant by bushland. So you can plant these in confidence.
 
If you've inherited a garden of grasses, and you live by bushland, removing the seedheads before they mature and open will greatly limit the spread of your grassy plants. If you're planting a new garden near bushland, choose sterile or low-viability varieties of grassy plants as these are much less likely to set any seed that will germinate.Pennisetum Nafray and Pennstripe; and Liriope Just Right, are bred specifically for this.
 
Choose the right plants for you
You can filter all our plant categories for sunlight, temperature, water, and your soil type, to find the perfect grassy plants for your garden. You'll also find more help and info in our posts on Which Dianella Is Best For YouWhich Plants Are Best Lawn Alternatives