Border Grasses for Walkways

Types

• Ornamental grasses are either warm-season or cool-season grasses. Warm-season grasses sprout in late spring, when warm weather has established itself. In fall and winter, they take on a straw color that provides structure and movement if left uncut. Cool-season grasses are evergreen or appear very early in spring.

Grasses

• For a sunny walkway, blue fescue (Festuca glauca) provides a border of blue-green tufts that grow 5 to 8 inches tall. This cool-season grass is hardy in United States Department of Agriculture Zones 4 through 9. Another cool-season grass for a sunny site is blue oat grass (Helictotrichon sempervirens). It forms 2-foot-tall gray-blue clumps and spikes of oat-like seeds in summer. It's hardy in zones 4 to 9. A choice for a shaded walkway, hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) resembles bamboo foliage with its variegated yellow-green feathery foliage. These exotic clumps grow between 1 and 2 feet tall and are hardy in zones 6 to 9.

Grass-likes

• Some perennials, though not considered true grasses, have a similar appearance and ease of maintenance. Sedges are one example. The sedge Carex conica forms 6-inch evergreen clumps with dark green leaves edged in white. It is hardy in zones 5 to 9. Lilyturfs (Liriope) are also favorite grass-like walkway borders. They comes in dark green and variegated forms. These semi-evergreen mounding clumps are hardy in zones 6 to 10.

Maintenance

• Grasses and grass-likes are extremely low maintenance plants. In addition to being pest- and drought-tolerant, warm-season grasses require only one ritual: cutting back to within a few inches of the ground in March. Divide every few years as needed. Cool-season grasses generally require a light clean-up trim in spring to remove dead foliage, as well as periodic division.