Gardening and Horticulture - Tall Grasses For Privacy

I have recently moved to the Snow Belt area in Dufferin County, Ontario, Canada. Our house is about 300 ft from the road, but it is a fairly busy road, lots of transports and vacationing travelers. My question is that we would like to plant Tall Grasses along our front fence area, to block the road and provide some more privacy. I am concerned with the winter weather killing them. At this moment we can no longer even see the top of our fence, completely covered in snow, and it is about 4 feet high. What grass could I plant that will make it through our winters here. I am thinking its about a zone 5 or 4.......pushing more of a 4. :)

Hello Garden Alley

If you can make it down to the Toronto area, you should check out Humber Nurseries - they are just north and west of TO and have one of the best selections of ornamental grasses available in the GTA and one of the premier authorities in Ornamentals on staff. You can also follow this link to their website to order a catologue... http://www.gardencentre.com/

For your reference, here are a couple links to the Canadian Hardiness Zones Maps:

http://sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/nsdb/climate/hardiness/intro.html

http://sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/nsdb/climate/hardiness/ph2000webmap.html

Off the top of my head, some of the Eulalia (Latin: Miscanthus) should be hardy and get high enough for an effective summer screen, but with your snow load, they would probably be flattened after a good blow. If the ground is boggy (as in a drainage ditch), some of the cattails or reeds might work, also.

Hope this helps a bit.

...And try to stay warm for the time being :)

Howie

Sorry folks, I posted a few abbreviations there that may seem a mystery unless you are from Southern Ontario...

GTA = Greater Toronto Area and TO is the local shortform for Toronto...

Howie

Miscanthus would be a great choice,but, you will need to be concerned about salt from the roadway in winter, how close are you going with the grasses? The snow load will not bother the plants at all but be sure the grasses you choose are salt tolereant.

PL