Grass with indoor potted plants

Question

I have never seen any ground cover plants with houseplants. Why not?

In my specific case, I have some young dragon trees and some leftover seeds for "Easter grass" (Timothy). Will I eventually regret it if I plant the seeds into one of my dragon tree's pot?

Answer 1

Yes, I think you will live to regret it if you plant phleum pratensis or Timothy grass in your houseplant pots. This grass is persistent outdoors, may spread rapidly in the pot, or not grow very well for long indoors, and likely won't make an attractive looking composition. As for why you don't often see 'groundcover' plants in houseplant pots, that's because the pot used is of a suitable size for a single houseplant and there is insufficient soil to give root room for more than a single plant, whereas outdoors in open ground, no such restrictions are present.

Sometimes people may plant more than a single plant in a large pot, perhaps a low growing type combined with a taller, narrower type to make an attractive composition, and this can work quite well if the pot shape and plants concerned have been selected carefully with their growth habit, rate of growth and eventual size in mind. Regardless, eventually, they will need to be separated and potted individually as they get larger and require more root space.

Answer 2

Grass, likely not. Timothy is a fairly common meadow or hay material that grows quite large, and though it can be mown short, it's not really suitable for lawns (there seems to be some debate there,) much less a potted plant (past short-term use of new sprouts as "cat grass" or apparently "Easter grass.")

In Bonsai, at least, using moss as "groundcover" for the soil surface is fairly common. At that, the type of moss needs to be one that does not get excessively large/aggressively compete. This provides a "green carpet layer" more suitable to the scale of a pot.

Answer 3

I disagree. In my (very limited!!) experience:

IF:

• balcony pots, not meadow garden
• purpose is fun, not selling vegetables(obvious from the previous point)

THEN:

• short-lived plants like lattice, carrots and radishes co-exist nicely with by-annuals
• short plants, like the ones mentioned above, co-exist nicely with tall plants like peppers or tomatoes.

ANECDOTES:

• Our cat loves the grass planted alongside the tomatoes.
• A pot without a cover crop might look displeasing to some
• Any manipulation of the short crop destroys a significant amount of the main crop's root system.