The ornamental grass saved my life

See that picture above? I took that. It is from my own garden. If you look real close, you can see that there are three different types of ornamental grasses in the pic.

No? Trust me, for purposes of today’s discussion, there are three OG’s in there.

My garden is not dominated by flowers or shrubs or vegetables, but by grasses.

When we moved to our 2 acre rural property in New Jersey 12 years ago, it was a complete blank slate. Intimidating as hell, but a gardener’s dream.

I spent all of my time buying and planting shrubs and flowers.

I was going to make this a garden oasis for the family.

I decided that I wanted my identity tied to my success as a gardener. That was my calling, my passion. I couldn’t do much of anything else and didn’t like my job, so gardening was who I was.

It was also the ultimate outlet and escape.

Within that first year, almost all of the shrubs and flowers died. As did my self confidence. My self confidence was 100% invested in my gardening skills so my not diversified portfolio was trending downward quickly.

I had no idea that my soil drained so poorly and that very few plants could survive those conditions.

I had no idea what havoc rabbits and deer could wreak overnight.

A Google search on “plants that are deer resistant and can handle wet soil” resulted in links to ornamental grasses. I had a vague notion of what they were but never thought of them for my own garden.

I bought a few grasses online and the rest is history.

The deer ignore them. I see their look of disgust as they graze and flinch as the grass blades cut them up.

Grasses can grow in standing water.

Grasses are gorgeous in summer and fall.

Grasses look good in winter, when all others fall apart.

Grasses are easily divided so 1 can become 5 overnight. I give so many to friends who in turn give to friends.

Without the grass, there was no garden. With no garden, I take up something like high stakes poker. With poker, I lose all of the family savings and we’re all on the street.

Ornamental grasses saved my life.