Best Ornamental Grasses to Add Privacy to the Garden

Thanks to their fast growth rate, they are the best privacy hedges, as many new plants quickly fill over any gaps. Also, ornamental grass gives your existing landscape more beauty and privacy.

1. Feather Reed Grass

Feather Reed Grass is a dense clump of narrow, erect, green leaves, which helps grow around 3 feet long. You can find the grass coming up with pinkish purple and feathery flowers above the grass leaves during summer. It spreads to two feet, reaching 5 feet tall. This grass demands a decent amount of moisture to sustain. 

Feather reed grass can easily sustain in heavy clay soil that drains very slowly unlike any other ornamental grass. If your home has a rain garden and you want a low-maintenance and medium-height screening plant that can bear some shade, this grass option will suffice all your requirements.

2. Pink Muhly Grass

Pink muhly grass, also known as Pink hair grass, is a native beauty that homeowners can easily grow without much effort. The type of this plant is perennial and primarily found in the Southern and Eastern areas of North America. It comes up with showy pink flowers that appear during the fall, allowing it to gain some winter interest. 

It demands lean soil with dry conditions preventing erosion on the slopes. Adding consistent moisture can help gain some height. Pinky muhly grass is also known for its beauty as a low-maintenance plant. It demands full sun for its growth, while its peak time is fall when you can find pink or pinkish-red flowers. 

The plant’s mature size is 1 to 3 feet tall, while the width is 2-3 feet. It demands dry and warm climates. It shields your property, giving you enough private space to enjoy on your lawn. It does not demand much water once it is established and can easily survive without fertilizer.

3. Miscanthus Sinensis ‘Strictus’ (Porcupine Grass)

Porcupine Grass ‘Strictus’ or Porcupine grass remains a distinctive ornamental grass known for its variegated foliage showcasing the unusual, soft, horizontal yellow rings and arching leaves. You can find it extended by some gorgeous, pinkish and attractive plumes during the fall. They appear in silver color during the fall. 

It comes with leaves that turn brown during the fall. It is very similar to Zebra grass, having a stiff, dense, upright clump and 6 to 8 feet tall. It is known for being salt and drought-tolerant, apart from benign rabbit and deer-resistant. 

The aesthetically pleasing grass gives a perfect shield over the garden, allowing you to have your private space with these plants. It adds all-around beauty with less care and maintenance.

4. Purple Majesty Ornamental Millet

The Purple Majesty Ornamental Millet grass is known to have its origin in an ordinary millet, which happens to be a cereal grain. It is an important food crop found in Africa and Asia semi-arid areas. The plant is developed in the U.S. like a forage crop. It comes with a fantastic seed spike apart from having no agricultural value. We can find it becoming an award-winning example for many more home landscapes. 

The blooming season of this ornamental grass is autumn, summer, late summer and late spring. The plant habit is known to have spring and columnar. The hardness is 32 degrees F, and when we see the plants fully developed. The plant becomes dark when it comes under full sun. It also makes a good cut flower. The stunning plant can grow up to 5 feet, while the flower plumes for 8 to 12 inches. 

For good care, you must keep it moist using mulch or other organic compost. Lastly, it adds excellent privacy to your garden, allowing you to have your private space to chit-chat.

5. Ravenna Grass

It is also known as elephant grass or hardy pampas grass, but Ravenna is its common name. It is a perennial and large grass native to the Mediterranean and is commonly known as the ornamental plant. It offers a perfect blend of elegance and towering magnificence. 

This ornamental grass is known to have a year-round appeal, and it comes up with a large ornament that allows it to gain a height of 2 to 4 meters. The grass is frost, drought and deer resistant. It is also used as an alternative to pampas grass, as found in the northern gardens. 

One of the more vital features of this ornament grass is its leaf blades, which remain 3 to 4 feet 

long. These are blue-green colors having hairy bases giving a distinctive white mid-vein. In the late summer season, the plant produces tall, silver-white feathery plumes that remain attractive in floral arrangements and are long-lasting. 

It acts as a good shield giving you good privacy. An established plant can easily survive with less water and fertile soil.

6. Switchgrass

Switchgrass is one of the best ornamental grasses that fall under the perennial warm-season grasses. It is native to North America and remains a natural component of the tallgrass prairie covered among the great plains. 

Well-established Switchgrass can grow to a height of 6 feet tall. The ideal soil type includes moist, clay and sandy soil with acidic pH values including alkaline and neutral. It comes in pink color. 

The favorable light for Switchgrass is full sun position, which allows vigorous growth, upright and tall stalks giving you the best color. A drought-tolerant species can easily manage both hot and dry conditions. It provides a good privacy option on your lawn, acting as a good shield.

7. Big Bluestem Grass

Big Bluestem grass is among the warm grasses that sustain dry seasons. The tall perennial ornamental grass is native to the U.S. It starts in spring being blueish-green and turns a brownish shade during the fall. It attracts too much wildlife, including many insects that feed on its foliage, and grasshoppers also hop around them. Besides, there are few birds that consume its seed. 

It can reach up to the height of 10 inches in favorable conditions. In spring, you can find it in bluish green, while it is brown and tan during the fall. It has solid stem grass, and some species have hollow stems. If you look at them on any windy autumn day, you think of the grass dancing while you see them moving back and forth.

Growing it in favorable conditions like full sun and moist soil, you find them blooming with minimal care. With such simple maintenance and good privacy, you can find Big Bluestem Grass, a perfect choice for ornamental grass. 

8. Umbrella Bamboo

Umbrella bamboo remains a gorgeous variety of ornamental grass native to mountainous parts of China. It has been found in the U.S. for the past few decades. The beautiful look of the grass comes with the arch coming down like an umbrella. The dense clumps of this grass make it lush green during winter. 

They are known for their tendency to grow faster and with minimal care, allowing you to enjoy an impressive 3 meters. It has sprawling leaves that make an ideal outdoor landscape. You can find some gorgeous flowers that are showcased while growing them on this grass in favorable conditions. You can find them in dense clumps that help keep their lush color green during winter. 

Umbrella bamboos are simple to care for as they are a bit fussy regarding soil and sunlight. You need to give their flowing leaves good trimming. If you intend to plant them directly over any ground, you must be aware that they need to take over the garden if they are not contained quickly.

9. Pampas Grass

Pampas grass is found in around 25 varieties and is known by many names, including silver pampas grass, pluma, Toradora, paint and tussock grass, to name a few. However, the popular ones in the garden include only the three pampas grass planted today. The pampas grass remains invasive during mild climates and can quickly reach a height upto 12 feet tall. 

The grass is drought tolerant and needs water only during the extended spells when these are established. It does not demand fertilizer, and you can find a tough version of plant in it that grows upto zones 5 to 9. These perennial grass remain popular garden favorites that bear tall plumes of silvery flowers found in the mid-green foliage. The grass requires minimal maintenance and care. 

10. Blue Oat Grass

Blue oat grass is native to Europe and is defined as a perennial grass having a clumping and dense habit of the foot that remains 3 m long and stiff. It looks like Blue fescue, but the only difference is the size. Blue Oat grass is a larger plant that grows upto 30 inches in width and 75 cm tall. 

These are unique in their look and color and prove perfect ornamental grass for garden owners. Flowers have tips over the tapered leaves and remain tipped with many kinds of golden oat seed heads. It gains a light brown hue during the fall, while it remains a beautiful light brown in the winter. 

The grass demands well-drained and moist soil in part to full shade. It often likes fertile soils and tolerates less fertile, heavy, sandy clay soil. The plants are set with a two-foot gap that can further form a solid mass of foliage. Also, we see Rhizomes remain a less invasive option for landscape.

In conclusion, the best ornamental grasses to add privacy to a garden are ‒ Feather Reed grass, Pink Muhly grass, Porcupine grass, Purple Majesty Ornamental millet, and Ravenna grass, to name a few. You can choose the one depending on your weather conditions and aesthetic appeal.

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