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mander8202

Plant spacing?

mander8202
18 years ago

I live in the Chicago area (zone 3) and plan on creating a grass/wildflower garden approx 400 sq ft in size in my back yard. Everything I read recommends plants versus seed for a garden this size, however I'm having a difficult time deciding on how many plants to order. One reason for the garden is to provide a natural wall from the neighbors driveway, hence I will purchase the tallest grasses possible. Because of this, I also want the garden to be dense (it'll be approx 6 feet deep). If I go by the recommendations of 1 per 12"-18", will this take a few years to fill in the gaps? Also, at $5 a plant, 400 sq ft can add up really fast.

Also, any recommendations on grasses the are wide?

thanks

Comments (4)

  • joepyeweed
    17 years ago

    I am going to attempt to answer this because no one else has.

    Yes the grasses will get that wide, they will fill in and it will take a few years. I would get big blue stem, indian grass and if you have enough moisture I would get cord grass. Cord grass is the biggest, but it prefers moist soil.

    You can get plants cheaper than $5 a piece. especially if you are buying alot of them. www.prairienursery.com

    For a more landscaped look, you should place like plants together in groups of three, five or seven...

    I would probably add a few groups of iron weed, prairie dock, culversroot, tall joe pye weed, and cupplant (tall flowering natives) into your grassy mixture.

  • ladyslppr
    17 years ago

    One way to cut costs would be to plant from seed those species that grow readily from seed, and buy selected plants of other species that are hard to grow from seed or slow to bloom from seed.

    For example, you might sow a couple of species of grasses and some legumes as the main fabric of the prairie. Select grasses that row easily and are suited to your soil and climate. Add to these seeds of plants like Black-eyed Susan or Coreopsis that will flower the first year from seed. Here and there you could add plants of slow-growing species - for example butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa) might be worth investing in plants that would bloom this summer. The main caution with seeds is that it can be hard to differentiate desirable seedlings from weed seedlings.

    If I had a space of only 400 square feet I would be a bit cautious about where I planted the tallest grasses. I wouldn't want 8 foot cordgrass in the front of my small prairie planting. Use smaller grasses in front and keep the biggies in the back, but don't rigidly divide the two to avoid an artificial appearance.

  • ccoupkir
    17 years ago

    Check out the Winter Sowing forum! I started a 1600 sq ft. prairie this spring with almost nothing but winter sown plants, thousands of them! Cost was very minimal and the results were very good. E-mail me if you'd like more info.
    BTW, where in the Chicago area is zone 3? I am in the burbs and zone 5a.

  • mander8202
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    Yea, not sure what I was thinking when I typed the original question. Definitely in zone 5a, not 3.

    Purchased about 100 wildflowers and 100 grasses from PrairieNursery.com

    So far everything is doing well, also expanded my garden to about 600sq ft.

    Thanks for all the replies....

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