The Holy Grail of naturalistic landscape design is to find a good replacement for the millions of acres of useless, energy and water-hungry non-native turf grass planted across North America. While tallgrass prairie communities have sadly been extirpated from much of North America, most people (and their neighbors) do not want 3-9 foot tall grasses and wildflowers carpeting their front yards. What most homeowners want is a low-growing, low-maintenance, low-input, attractive “grass” alternative that can tolerate moderate trampling and provides a benefit to struggling native insect and bird populations. Cornell has been working on a solution to this problem for many years, and below are the results.
I was not aware of Danthonia before watching this video, but I have grown Sporobolus heterolepis (prairie dropseeed), a highly underrated bunch grass (not occurring naturally in Alabama but worthy of consideration because we are not far outside its natural range), while living in Illinois; this grass looked great mixed with Echinacea pallida and liatris species. Buffalograss (Bouteloua dactyloides) is a warm season grass commonly used as a native lawn alternative in the Plains states but may also be worthy of consideration in Alabama, where our grasslands have largely been extirpated.
In addition to the plants listed in Cornell’s video (all of which should be good choices for Alabama), I have also many of the following grasses and forbs forming low-growing meadow communities in our region:
- Cherokee sedge (Carex cherokeensis) growing with Crow Poison (Nothoscordum bivalve) and native alliums (eg Allium cernuum)
- Chasmanthium sessiliflorum (longleaf woodoats) and Bouteloua curtipendula (sideoats grama) growing with whorled milkweed (Asclepias verticillata), butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), yarrows, Delphinium carolinianum, Manfred virginica (false aloe), Euphorbia corrolata (flowering spurge), Hypericum spp, Penstemon tenuiflorus, Sedum pulchellum/ternaturm and various Houstonia spp on dry rocky sites
- Liatris microcephela growing among Nuttall’s Rayless Goldenrod (Bigelowia nuttlii) and Viola pedata on sandy soils
- Phyla nodiflora (frogfruit) is recommended for our region, is good for wet soil conditions and has been used successfully as an herbaceous lawn alternative
What grasses and forbs have you noticed in North Alabama that might form a good meadow community?