All the Dirt on Gardening

Grasses are the most important plants on the earth. They produce all the cereal grains that have fed man and animals throughout recorded history. Of the 10,000 varieties, only a few dozen have become popular as garden plants in the U.S. In other countries, growing grasses as ornamental selections goes back a thousand years. There are both perennial and annual grasses worth planting. The cold-hardy, perennial, ones form colonies that become larger from year to year. Native, annual, grasses usually produce enough seed that one planting will last several years. Grasses are available as plants and plugs from garden centers and mail order nurseries and many are easy to grow from seed. Other than tropical grasses, most are cold hardy to zone 3. In “The Guide to Oklahoma Wildflowers”, Patricia Folley describes native prairie grasses that can be grown in gardens. Big bluestem, Andropogon gerardii, called the king of native grasses, grows 2 to 5 feet tall. It turns red-purple after the fir...

Growing ornamental grasses has always been pretty popular if you consider all the amaranths, purple millet, bird seed millet, pampas grass, broom, blue fescue, plume grass, fountain grass, blue oat grass, northern sea oats - well you get the idea. Purdue University's helpful information sheds additional light on millet. "Millet is a general term for a wide range of small seeded cereals. The millets of the Poaceae (Gramineae) are small seeded annual grasses, including a wide range of cereals, that may be used both as grain and for forage. Millets can be successfully grown in a wide range of environmental conditions, being better adapted than most crops to hot, dry regions. They are of potential value particularly in semiarid regions because of their short growing seasons. They can either tolerate drought and intense heat or avoid these conditions by growing to maturity very quickly. The millets can play an important role in the economy of many less-developed countries of th...