Native Plants

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Tuesday - April 20, 2010

From: Ft. Worth, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Privacy Screening, Grasses or Grass-like
Title: Plants for pool area in Fort Worth
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

We have a new pool in our backyard, and now also quite a bit of bare land to go with it. Looking for native grass suggestions and also shrubs/trees that I can plant around the pool area for privacy and wind blocking. We live in the north Ft.Worth area

ANSWER:

Recently, I answered a similar question from someone in Plano—not far from you. Here is the link to that question and answer. You will see a list with photographs of shrubs/trees and herbaceous perennials at that link. You can also find a list of recommended native plants that are commercially available for landscaping in the North Central Texas area by visiting our Recommended Species page and selecting that area from the map or the pull-down menu. You can use the NARROW YOUR SEARCH option in the sidebar by the list to select particular characteristics you might like. The list on the previously answered question didn't have grasses included so here are some recommendations for grasses. Since I don't know what your sun/shade situation is, you should read the "Growing Conditions" for each of the plants recommended to see that they match your site.

If you are looking for turf grasses and you have plenty of sun, then you should consider a mixture of Bouteloua dactyloides (buffalograss), Bouteloua gracilis (blue grama) and Hilaria belangeri (curly-mesquite). The Wildflower Center has done extensive research on using these three grasses as lawn turf. You can read about this research and how to establish a native multi-species lawn.

Here are some other attractive grasses native to your area:

Bouteloua curtipendula (sideoats grama)

Muhlenbergia lindheimeri (Lindheimer's muhly)

Muhlenbergia reverchonii (seep muhly)

Schizachyrium scoparium (little bluestem)

Sorghastrum nutans (Indiangrass)

Here are some photos of these grasses from our Image Gallery: