9 Budget-Friendly DIY Fixes for a Bare Xeriscape Front Yard That Solved What a $5,000 Landscaper Couldn’t

7. Doubling Your Plant Inventory for Free by Dividing Ornamental Grasses

I once dropped a cool two hundred bucks on ten individual pots of fountain grass at a fancy nursery, feeling like an absolute landscaping mogul. Then, I watched my fiercely practical neighbor split a single overgrown clump from her yard into a dozen healthy sections using nothing but an old, rusty shovel.

I stood there with my jaw on the floor, realizing I had just thrown away perfectly good grocery money. That eye-opening moment completely changed how I populate my garden beds, showing me that ornamental grasses are the ultimate gift that keeps on giving.

Timing the Great Split

The secret to successfully cloning your grasses for a low maintenance front yard is all about catching them at the right moment. You want to slice into them during the early spring before the new green growth really starts shooting up, or in the late autumn when they go dormant.

Slicing them up while they are actively flowering in the dead of summer heat will shock the root system, which usually results in a sad, withered clump. Trust me, patience here saves you a ton of heartbreak and guarantees your new free inventory actually thrives.

The Slice and Plant Technique

To start, dig up the entire root ball of an established grass clump, shaking off the excess native dirt so you can see what you are working with. Take a sharp spade or an old serrated bread knife—yes, a kitchen knife works wonders here—and slice straight down through the center of the crown to create two or four smaller plugs.

Make sure each new piece has a healthy cluster of roots attached, then plant them directly into your bare zones and water them deeply. They will look a little sad for a week or two, but they quickly anchor themselves and add beautiful height and movement to your landscape layout.

Once you have your gorgeous new grasses waving in the breeze, we need a dramatic hardscape feature to give the yard a sense of natural flow and mimic a real water element. Hit that next button below because I am going to show you exactly how to build a breathtaking dry creek bed using cheap local river rock!