Squirrel's tail grass grows everywhere and it can serve as a very pretty ornamental grass, year after year.

In this edition, we will look at photos, gain some insight, then introduce my new Squirrel's Tail sprouts to the garden chronology. We will keep an eye on these grasses for a couple of years to watch them develop and grow into the landscaping.

Squirrel's Tail Grass

Hordeum Jubatum, aka Squirrel's Tail, stays fairly short only getting to about 20 inches high. The tops of the grass blades flare out in silky, yellow and gray panicles that turn purple and red by the end of the season.

Where to Grow Squirrel's Tail Grass

Squirrel's Tail Grass is a perennial so it will take a year or two to get fully developed, but once it matures it should add character to nearly any outdoor environment. Squirrel's tail works really well in clusters near objects like trees, rocks, mailboxes, signs, in mulch beds, or around other taller plants.

Squirrel's Tail will grow just about anywhere in US USDA Grow Zones 4 - 10!

Squirrel's Tail does really well in a wide variety of soils and we can find it already growing by the side of many roads, ponds, creeks, and rivers throughout the nation. This next photo is of a patch of wild Squirrel's Tail growing by my mailbox. I do not plan to split these but rather, let them grow for a few years, without mowing, in this location.

Where To Get Squirrel's Tail Grass

Since it is so easy to find this stuff growing absolutely everywhere. You can split a mound of Squirrel's Tail grass in mid Spring (March through May) for transplanting to your yard or containers.

Otherwise, raising Squirrel's Tail from seed can be tricky. So starting them out in a container is important when raising from seed.

However, once developed, Squirrel's Tail Grass should replicate itself by releasing hundreds of seeds per blade of grass at the end of each season. So the plant should spread on it's own too.

If you wish to buy seeds, I recently purchased mine through Amazon from Outside pride.

My Squirrel's Tail Sprouts

These are some photos of my new Squirrel's Tail Sprouts at about 6 weeks of age.

The grass will grow in these pots for the entire season, throughout the year. When it gets really cold, I will put the pots into the garage to keep them from freezing all the way through.

Garden Chronology Plans

My hope is that they are mature enough by May of 2018 to split and transplant to the yard. A few weeks ago I blogged about my Creeping Red Fescue sprouts in my back yard as well. So we will follow both of these perennials into next year when I will combine them, to create an ornamental grass border for a mulch bed that never needs to be mowed!

Growing a garden takes time, which is why the Garden Chronicles exists. I hope you join us next time to see how things are growing!

Thanks For Reading