Homeowners seeking native plant landscaping options that are attractive, low-maintenance, and environmentally-friendly need to consider our native North Texas grasses. These grasses will simplify your yard maintenance with minimal need for watering, fertilizing, and mowing.
Advantages of Native Grasses
- Water Efficient: Native Texas grasses are adapted to our local environment, so once established, they need minimal irrigation. Their deep root systems enable them to survive our swings in rainfall.
- Soil Health: Over millennia, these native grasses have been part of the North Texas ecosystem. Having evolved in our climate, they are critical in improving soil structure and fertility.
- Biodiversity: Incorporating native grasses into your landscape supports local wildlife by offering food, shelter, and nesting sites for insects, birds, and small mammals.
- Aesthetic Value: Varied colors, textures, and forms of grasses add dynamic visual interest to landscapes.
Considerations When Selecting Native Grasses
- When choosing native grasses for your yard, assess these important factors to ensure success:
- Growth Habit: Roughly measure the height and spread of your designated space to ensure compatibility with the size of the mature native grasses.
- Moisture and Sun Requirements: Understand how much water and light the grasses will receive to match with their needs.
- Companion Plants: Envision how the grasses will complement your existing native trees, shrubs, and / or wildflowers. Aim to create a diverse, visually interesting, and pollinator-friendly landscape.
Tips for Planting and Caring for Native Grasses
Low maintenance does not imply no maintenance. There are some tasks that may need to be done in advance of planting and then a few ongoing activities.
- Planting Season: Spring or fall is the optimum time to plant grasses.
- Soil Preparation: Typically, little preparation is required for the soil. The exception is for soils that are mainly clay and have poor drainage.
- Watering: Similar to other types of native plants, water regularly during the first year, then the grasses should thrive on natural rainfall or infrequent deep watering.
- Mowing / Trimming: Many native grasses benefit from just an annual cutback in late winter or early spring to remove dead foliage and encourage fresh growth.
- Fertilizing: Avoid fertilization, as native grasses do not require it.
Eight Native Grasses for Low-Maintenance Landscapes
The following native North Texas grasses are low-maintenance, available at native plant sales or occasionally at nurseries, and are resilient to our challenging climate.
- Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium)
- Description: An iconic native prairie grass. Compact (2-4 feet) and clump-forming, with upright stalks with blue-green foliage that turns vibrant red-orange in autumn.
- Care: Requires well-drained soil and minimal watering. If desired, cut back in late winter to early spring.
- Benefits: Highly drought-tolerant and adaptable to various soil types. Provides excellent erosion control. Attracts a variety of beneficial insects, including many species of Skippers. The seeds are prized by small birds in winter.
- Buffalo Grass (Bouteloua dactyloides)
- Description: Native alternative to replace exotic turfgrasses. Fine-textured blue-green blades (4 – 12 inches) that spread by rhizomes, forming a dense growth habit.
- Care: Requires sunny, open spaces, and minimal water. Infrequent mowing, as little as 2-3 times per year, is enough to maintain a healthy turf.
- Benefits: Extremely drought-tolerant and heat-resistant; ideal for lawns and other high-traffic areas.
- Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans)
- Description: Blue-green leaves with 3-6 feet golden-brown plume-like seed head that adds visual interest to home landscapes.
- Care: Prefers full sun and well-drained soils. Mowing or trimming in early spring encourages new growth.
- Benefits: Drought-tolerant and adaptable to a range of soil conditions. Offers excellent wildlife habitat, especially for birds, and a larval host of Pepper-and-Salt Skipper.
- Eastern Gamagrass (Tripsacum dactyloides)
- Overview: A dense clump-forming grass (2 – 3 feet tall) that thrives in a variety of conditions. Eye-catching flowers and seeds on finger-like spikes arch gracefully above the foliage.
- Care: Prefers moist soil and part shade. Mowing or trimming in spring to encourage growth.
- Benefits: Excellent for soil stabilization and as a habitat for wildlife, including butterflies.
- Texas Bluegrass (Poa arachnifera)
- Overview: Dark green evergreen foliage with thick clusters of stems and leaves (1 – 2 feet tall) rising from long, slender rhizomes. Unlike most grasses, male and female flowers are borne on separate plants.
- Care: Does best in most well-drained soils and sun to part shade. Minimal trimming or mowing requirements due to slow growth.
- Benefits: Attracts various butterflies and birds who utilize seeds and leaves for nesting material.
- Sideoats Grama (Bouteloua curtipendula)
- Overview: The State Grass of Texas. Clump-forming with unique oat-like seed spikes with 2 – 3 feet stems. Blooms June – November and foliage turns a tan color in fall.
- Care: Very little maintenance is required; trimming in the late winter if desired.
- Benefits: Provide birds with food, nesting material, and cover. Larval host for Dotted Skipper butterfly.
- Inland Sea Oats (Chasmanthium latifolium)
- Overview: Popular as a low-maintenance shade grass. Produces characteristic large, drooping, oat-like flower spikelets.
- Care: Especially in moist conditions, it will reseed readily and spread by rhizomes, so it requires sufficient space or pulling of new sprouts to control. To promote growth, cut back dead stalks in the spring before new shoots emerge.
- Benefits: Strong root system helps prevent soil erosion. Birds eat the seeds and use the leaves for nesting and cover.
- Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum)
- Overview: Historically a dominant plant of the Texas Blackland Tallgrass Prairie. Typically, 3 – 5 feet tall with bright green leaves, and adaptable to different soil types and moisture levels. In autumn, seeds are produced on large, finely textured, reddish-purple seed heads.
- Care: Mowing or trimming in early spring helps promote new growth.
- Benefits: Provides excellent erosion control and supports a diverse array of wildlife.
Native grasses offer a wealth of benefits to homeowners and the environment, including drought tolerance, erosion prevention, wildlife support, and ever-changing visual appeal. If you want a low-maintenance, simplified approach to your landscape, adding native Texas grasses is a natural choice.
