A Native Grass Experiment

Poverty Grass sways in the slightest breeze.

Poverty Grass shows its silvery-gold inflorescence.

small and delicate inflorescence

I wrote about Danthonia spicata earlier this year in a Wildflower Wednesday post.  It's a cool season grass native to Middle Tennessee and can be found almost everywhere in the US and Canada.  

Poverty Grass is a perfect name for a grass that grows in the most inhospitable of 'lawn' spaces: Dry upland woods and forests, upland prairies, glades, tops of bluffs, old fields, eroded pastures, roadsides and dry disturbed areas. Of course, it's naturally occurring in my garden!

It's the dominant grass in the 'lawnette' areas of my garden.  It's a wispy, slender bladed grass that starts growing in the cooler weather of Spring, then flowers and sets seed in the early summer.  I don't water or fertilize this grass.  Traditionally, it is mowed to help balance the exuberance of my wildflowers.  But, last winter I decided to let it flower and go to seed.  I wanted to see how the grass looked full grown and I wanted free seed.

It looks lovely en mass

It looks lovely en mass.  The delicate, narrow blades are short by ornamental grass standards, about 12 inches, but, they move in the slightest breeze.  It's quite charming, sometimes it looks silver, other times quite golden.  I think it would make a delightful meadow grass...especially planted with aquilegias, phloxes and other native wildflowers. 

the wispy grass blades and seed heads dance in the breeze

In my book, this the experiment has been a success. The lawnette is:

• low maintenance: (no watering, no fertilizer, no pesticides, with only occasional mowing
• sustainable
• biodiverse (natives grasses in general are host plants for many butterflies and skippers and that increases dramatically if you plant forbs and the little bunnies love hiding there)
• charming 
• lovely
• making seed

Eastern Tailed Blue has been all over the danthonia!

 It's amazing but, this charming, hard working, grow almost anywhere grass is exactly the "weed' that lawn aficionados would work hard to eradicate!

They don't know what they are missing!

xxoogail

PS It's the perfect lawn alternative for a small garden.

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone." She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.