Landscape Design With Pine & Grasses

Pine Trees

• Pine trees, particularly when planted in a row, act as a barrier, providing extra privacy, shade and a windbreak. Pine trees can also be used ornamentally, where a single pine tree functions as the visual focal point of a landscape design. Dwarf pine trees will be smaller than regular pine trees, reaching only 4 feet tall. Traditional white pine trees can reach more than 100 feet, and the variety you plant will depend on your needs and the space available. Pine tree needles will vary in color, from the traditional dark green to a silvery-blue.

Ornamental Grasses

• With over 9,000 species in Poaceae that are considered “ornamental” or decorative in nature, there is a lot of choice available. Ornamental grasses are an umbrella term used to describe “true” grass as well as rushes and sedges, even bamboo. Ornamental grass can be used as a border or edging for walkways and garden beds, and they work well as visual accents as they provide height and color. In general, most ornamental grasses require at least three to five hours of full sun each day to grow well.

Pairing

• Because of the sun requirements of ornamental grasses, growing them near pine trees, or at the base of the tree, is difficult as there is often little sun exposure. This is especially true if you have more than one pine tree. In addition, fallen pine needles acidify the soil as they decompose, making an inhospitable environment for many ornamental grasses. As pine trees are long-living, amending the unsustainable soil to be less acidic would be unsustainable. Even in cases of grasses that are tolerant of acidic soil, such as the Panicum virgatum "Northwest," the little sun exposure at the base of a pine tree makes for poor growing conditions, as ornamental grasses are, at best, tolerant of only partial shade.

Ideas

• If not planted close together, ornamental grass and pine trees can be successfully paired for a distinctive landscape design. Keeping your pine trees pruned so that healthy branches are kept within a manageable spread can reduce the shade cast by the tree, allowing more sun to reach your grasses. Use ornamental grasses as an edging material or as a ground cover further away from the pine trees. If you have dwarf pine trees, prune them regularly to maintain a manicured appearance, distinctive from the soft, wilder outlines of ornamental grasses. One possible pairing is to have a row of pine trees further to the back of your yard, providing privacy and a windbreak, while the ornamental grasses can be grown near the center or off to the sides of your yard, creating a softer boundary distinction.