Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

Here is a previous Mr. Smarty Plants answer that was also looking for a replacement for maiden grass. Apparently, plants referred to as "maiden grass" all are members of the Poaceae (grass) familly. specifically, Miscanthus sinensis, which is native to southeast Asia. That question came from Brazoria County TX, which possibly has different soils and rainfall from Gillespie County, and you are asking for a taller grass, so we will go to our Native Plant Database. scroll down the page to the Combination Search, select on Texas for the state, "grass or grass-like" for Habit, "dry" for Soil Moisture and a size range of 3 ft to 6 ft. We will add "evergreen" to our initial search, but cannot promise that we will get any at all, grasses are seldom evergreen. We will also check the USDA Plant Profile Map on each plant to ensure that it grows in or near Gillespie County and can therefore be expected to do well in your climate, rainfall and soils.

We were right, that search yielded exactly one plant: Dasylirion texanum (Texas sotol). It is a desert perennial, but it does grow in Gillespie County, according to this USDA Plant Profile Map.  It might be just what you want, but we will go back and eliminate "evergreen" from our search to give you some more choices.

Tall grasses for Gillespie County:

Bothriochloa laguroides ssp. torreyana (Silver beard grass)

Muhlenbergia lindheimeri (Lindheimer's muhly)

Schizachyrium scoparium (Little bluestem)

Tridens flavus (Purpletop tridens)

Follow each plant link to our webpage on that plant to learn its growing conditions, expected mature growth height, etc. You did not list the amount of sunlight the area will get, that could affect whether all these grasses would do well there, so be sure and check for Light Requirements on each page.