Leaves of Grass: 9 Ways to Create Curb Appeal with Perennial Grasses

Add romance, hazy color, and instant curb appeal by planting perennial grasses along front yards, paths, or as mini meadows. Hardy, drought-tolerant, they turn golden and feathery in winter—year-round friends. Graceful architectural clumps shine in broad swathes or as punctuation in ornamental beds.

Grasses anchor the naturalistic style popularized by Dutch designer Piet Oudolf, whose planting schemes transformed an elevated railroad into NYC's High Line. We've borrowed ideas from him and others for nine ways to boost curb appeal with grasses.

1. Crowd Control

Above: Photograph courtesy of Adam Woodruff & Associates.

On a busy Springfield, IL corner lot, designer Adam Woodruff replaced his front lawn with a modern cottage garden mix: low-maintenance perennials, ornamental grasses, shrubs. The colorful mini meadow persuades pedestrians to stay on the sidewalk. Grasses included: Sesleria autumnalis, Sporobolus heterolepis, Spodiopogon sibiricus, Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster', Molinia litoralis 'Transparent'.

Above: (L) Helenium 'Mardi Gras', Origanum laevigatum 'Herrenhausen', Baptisia 'Purple Smoke', Astilbe chinensis 'Purpurkerze', Eryngium yuccifolium, Perovskia atriplicifolia. (R) Amsonia hubrichtii, Perovskia atriplicifolia, Salvia 'May Night'. Photos courtesy Adam Woodruff & Associates.

2. Front Lawn Fix

Above: Photograph courtesy of Lucas and Lucas.

Healdsburg, CA landscape architects Lucas and Lucas substituted drought-tolerant perennial grasses for turf in Sonoma—low-water front lawn glowing golden at sunset.

3. Pathway Border

Above: Photograph by Piet Oudolf courtesy of Planting: A New Perspective.

In Oudolf's own garden, low-growing late-season grasses avoid obscuring views, interspersed with Veronicastrum virginicum and taller Molinia caerulea clumps. More: Required Reading: How to Recreate Piet Oudolf's Painterly Landscapes.

4. Pots & Planters

Above: Photograph by Meredith Swinehart.

DIY planters editor Julie Chai created deep purple drama with millet in a pot. Materials & steps: DIY Patio Planter: Dark and Stormy Shades.

Above: Photograph by Rob Co.

Jennifer Segale of Wildflower Farms plants Stipa and other grasses in containers for movement—"incredibly important in container gardens," she says. "Clusters feel heavy and stagnant without openness and ample movement." More: Garden Visit: My Driveway Oasis in Half Moon Bay, California.

5. No-Mow Lawn

Above: Photograph by Matthew Millman courtesy of Scott Lewis.

Napa Valley landscape architect Scott Lewis replaced turf with Bouteloua gracilis 'Blonde Ambition'—sturdy, stands upright through autumn into winter "until a really hard frost or big rain." More: Vineyard Haven: A Napa Valley Garden That Belongs to the Land.

6. Foundation Garments

Above: Photograph by Christine Chitnis for Gardenista. More: At Home with Rhode Island Artist Georgia Marsh.

Artist Georgia Marsh planted grasses along the house foundation as a hedging layer, adding depth to the garden.

7. Punctuation Marks

Above: Photograph by Christine Chitnis for Gardenista. More: At Home with Rhode Island Artist Georgia Marsh.

A single tall grass clump creates height and depth in an ornamental bed at Marsh's Rhode Island home.

8. Fence Substitute

Above: Photograph by Matthew Williams for Gardenista. More: An Architect at Home: A Kitchen Garden on Cape Cod.

Tall grass clumps "hide a multitude of sins" in architect Sheila Bonnell's Cape Cod garden, softening a chicken-wire vegetable garden fence.

9. Garden Sculpture

Above: South Africa-based designer Franchesca Watson uses tall grasses as focal points in Constantia suburb. More: Garden Designer Visit: A Study in Green by Franchesca Watson.

A deliberately sited grass clump can have the visual power of a three-dimensional statue.

For more plant-driven curb appeal: DIY: Container of the Month Pots & Planters.