Ornamental perennial grasses create colour and music in the garden throughout the year.

For the past several years, I've been quietly crusading to take back the lawn. I'm rejecting the boring monoculture of turfgrass in favour of any number of other kinds of plants, mostly by edging out a little further into the lawn every time I work around one of the garden borders. Grass is fine, but I only really want it in my pasture.

Unless, of course, the grass is of the ornamental perennial kind. From the small, clumping types that edge borders in shades of blue, gold or bronze, to the magnficent and dramatic back-of-border species, grasses have caught my imagination when it comes to adding new plants to the borders around our house. Not surprisingly, these plants are like potato chips: you can't have just one.

It's interesting to talk to gardeners who haven't yet caught on to grasses. They usually launch into a story about the horrible experience they had with "this green-and-white grass that tried to take over the garden." They're usually referring to a grass that goes by the bizarre common name of gardener's garters, Phalaris arundinacea. It has a growth habit reminiscent of the evil goutweed, unable to stay where it's planted and wanting to roam wide and free. But don't let that one bad apple-well, bad grass-spoil the border. There are dozens of well-behaved, beautiful and easy-care grasses just waiting to be discovered.

I'm a recent grass fan; when I started gardening in earnest all I wanted was colour-flowers, lots of them, as many different types as I could get. Then as my garden palate matured, I wanted to focus more on foliage, texture, different heights and unique shapes, and plants that would look great through fall and into winter.

It was a wise and enthusiastic plantsman who got me seriously hooked on grasses. Jamie Ellison teaches horticulture at the Nova Scotia Community College (Kingstec) in Kentville, NS. He and Jill Colville formerly co-owned Bunchberry Nurseries of Upper Clements; Colville still operates the nursery. I can still hear Ellison's enthusiasm about perennial grasses during our phone conversation some years ago. Everything about them is appealing, he told me: the graceful movement, the colours, the flowerheads, the music…. I was skeptical until I went to the Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens one day in August. As I stood transfixed in the grass garden, listening to the symphony of wind through the clumps of Miscanthus and Pennisetum and other species, I was a complete convert.

Grasses are a terrific option to add to a mixed border because they increase the seasons of interest in the garden. Many don't start to flower until later in the summer, when some of the summer-blooming perennials are fading. They keep their flowerheads for a long, long time, too-right through the fall and into winter, sometimes into spring depending on how much snow has fallen. If they do get covered in snow and bend over, they often bounce right back up again.

Ornamental grasses actually refers to a number of different families of plants. True grasses belong to the family Poaceae and include a wide range of genera and species. Sedges (Cyperaceae) and reeds (Juncaceae) are two other families with different growth habits, often preferring a moist growing site. One final type of plant sometimes included in ornamental grasses is the hardy bamboo-while very attractive, they're also very expensive (in part because they aren't common) and I've not tried growing them myself. I just look covetously at some and am waiting patiently for the price to drop.

There are two main types of growth habit, and this is where you need to exercise caution. Many grasses grow from clumps or crowns and spread slowly. Others, like the grow-everywhere Phalaris, spread by underground stems called rhizomes, just the way couchgrass does. When you're choosing a grass, do your homework so you know each type's growth habit. The staff at your local garden centre will likely know about this as well.

Many grasses such as switch grass, big bluestem and feather reed grass are drought tolerant, having originated on the prairies, making them ideal for hot, sunny areas or for gardens at the cabin or cottage where regular supplemental watering isn't practical. Others, including Miscanthus, and some of the reeds, prefer a moist site and are ideally situated along a stream or pond, or in a bog garden. Those that are drought tolerant tend to be rather unforgiving of excessive winter wet, so amend your soil with compost and manure to help improve drainage and provide gentle fertility.

Speaking of fertility, a light hand is the rule when it comes to fertilizing grasses. Too much fertilizer, especially one high in nitrogen, will lead to excess, lank growth, and you'll find your grasses falling over or "lodging" the way grain crops do after a wind and rainstorm. Compost is always a good choice, as is seaweed meal or a gentle manure, seaweed or compost tea, well watered in around the plants.

There's not a lot to pruning your grasses. To keep those beautiful flowerheads, don't deadhead them until the following spring. That's also the time to do a little judicious pruning. Some of the lower, clumping types always need a bit of a haircut, so cut them back until you can easily see new growth. Taller types, such as Miscanthus, need those structural stems that held the snow and gave further winter interest cut back to the ground, but do that with care so as not to disturb newly emerging shoots. With some of the sedges, you just need to trim away dead tips on the blades and any dead leaves around the base of the clump.

Division of grasses is pretty easy, although the clumping varieties often have really dense root masses. You may need an axe, a hacksaw or a really sharp knife and some musclepower to cut apart a well-established clump. Most grasses prefer to be divided in spring rather than autumn.

One cautionary word: some nurseries, especially those seasonal ones put up by big-box stores, often carry grasses that aren't hardy to our region. Oftentimes these are annual grasses but aren't labeled as such, and gardeners are disappointed when they don't come back the following year. Some of the Pennisetums, also called fountain grasses or ornamental millet, are showy but annual: the ornamental purple variety called 'Purple Majesty' is one such cultivar. Rabbit's-tail grass and quaking grass (Briza maxima) are also both annuals.

Finally, there are several very striking plants that are often called grasses but actually are members of the lily family. One of these is the black mondo grass, Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrenscens,' which really is nearly black in colour. It will not winter below zone 6, but I plant it in containers and bring it indoors for the winter. If it's happy, it will reward you with beautiful stems of pink-tinged, small bell-shaped flowers. Another popular plant often called a grass is lilyturf, or Liriope. We have a variegated one that flowers in late summer, sending up striking stems of hyacinth-like flowers.

Some Grasses to Try

• Carex: There are a number of sedges, mostly low, clumping plants that prefer a moist growing area. Look for the striking bronze hair sedge, Carex comans 'Bronze'.
• Miscanthus: Japanese silver grasses are among the most beautiful, with their fluffy, feathery heads of flowers. M. 'Purpurascens'  is the purple flame grass, with gorgeous orange-red fall colour.
• Calamagrostis: Feather reed grasses tend to have upright, tidy growth, with silvery flowerheads in midsummer. C. 'Karl Foerster' is one of the most popular, but there are also variegated cultivars available.
• Hakonechloa: Japanese forest grasses are gorgeous low-growing plants, ideal for the front of a border in partly shaded gardens. The most attractive are the variegated types, or a beautiful gold variety, H. macra 'All Gold', that definitely requires some shade at midday.
• Panicum: The switchgrasses are elegant, with airy flowers that aren't as showy from a distance as some of the others, but with especially fine fall colour. Look for P. 'Heavy Metal' or 'Prairie Fire'.
• Pennisetum: These are the fountain grasses, so you need to look for hardy varieties as well as the annual types.
• Bromus 'Skinner's Gold': This brome grass is a midsized variety, hardy and luminously green and gold.
• Imperata cylindrica 'Rubra': Japanese blood grass is a striking plant with red and green foliage that turms blood-red in fall. Does well with partial shade, and will spread in warmer climates.