This area I'm thinking of planting borders the neighbores lawn, basicly a weed patch of wild voilet and asters, native but weedy, and our lawn, he let me expand my garden to inclue the sunnest front end of his land in between his gurage and ours, sense dandelions were taking over along with the voilets I subjested it and he agreed. I want to grow a native grass bordering our gurage that looks striking and exoticly colorful, I thought either indian grass or big blue stem would do it, expect these grasses get very large and look wild I dont want my neighbor to worry. Would a shady/sun spot in damp soil next to a gurage be a good site for either of these plants?

They also need full sun and will not grow well in shade. For partial shade, consider sedges, little bluestem, Northern Sea Oats or June Grass.

For a semi-shade setting I recommend wild rye, river oats, or bottlebrush grass -- all moderately tall, with nice-looking seed heads. They will probably spread by seed, too, but I find them easy to control.