Grass Talk
As many of you may have noticed this spring, you had some grasses
that started to grow early, but some that were agonizingly slow
to show any signs of life. The early growers are referred to
as Cool season grasses and the late starters are called the
Warm season grasses. As I cruised the gardening forums I would
see many people thinking that their Miscanthus had succumbed
to the cold winter, only to write back in a couple of weeks
to report that the plant was finally showing signs of life.
As you may have guessed, a Warm season grass requires warm
temperatures before it will send up any greenery. On the other
hand, the Cool season grasses just want to get their "heads"
out of the cold and dreary soil, and up into the sunshine. They
are happy growing when the temperature is cool and once it gets
warm their growth slows down.
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| Helictotrichon sempervirens |
My favourite grass just may be Helictotrichon
sempervirens (Blue Oat grass). It, along with Festuca
'Elijah Blue' and Koeleria, are basically evergreen
here in the southern interior of British Columbia (Canada).
In my garden Helictotrichon put out its inflorescences
along with the flowers on my irises and peonies (they
are great together in a bouquet). Now they have turned
tan. A clump of Blue Oat grass has a very graceful shape,
with some of the leaves cascading down to the ground
and the spikes of seed heads rise gracefully above the
foliage.
In their early stages the flower heads have a metallic
sheen to them that I have found impossible to capture
with my digital camera.
I have recently added some pictures of grasses to the website:
Lots of pictures of Calamagrostis
x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' have also been added. Jim just
loves the way the grass changes during the season and can't
resist capturing it on film.
Willow Talk
| Last newsletter I promised you some pictures
of my fedge. On the left is what it looked like right
after "planting" (at the very end of March). The picture
on the right (taken in late June) shows the new growth.
When I say that the sticks were "planted" I mean that
they were just stuck in the ground. Then I placed lots
of newspapers around them (to combat weeds) and laid
old plant clippings on top to hide the newspapers and
to keep then from blowing away.
| 
Newly planted fedge - March '03
|
Fedge - late June '03
|
To be a little more specific, I placed the 7'+ sticks
of Salix
triandra 'Black Maul' in the ground approximately
15" apart, at a 45 degree angle and angled to the right
and to the left. Because I already had a fence in place
to keep out the deer, I was able to weave the tips through
the wire grid. This made it very easy! Otherwise the
sticks need to be tied together or there needs to be
some other means of support for them until they are
well rooted.
Update, Jan 2005: We have
just added a page to our website on this subject. There
are links to sites with great instructions on how to
build a fedge
and other living willow structures.
Update, summer 2005: I don't know
why I wasn't smart enough to think of this when I planted
the willow rods, but they are becoming thicker and may
ruin some or all of my fence! However the fedge is in
fact a fence now, so it serves the same purpose as the
wire fence did originally (it keeps the deer out). By
the way, the deer walk within inches of the fedge and
don't eat it in the summer or in the winter. |
| Have you even visited a forum on the Internet?
GardenWeb has one of the most popular ones and I believe
they have the only one devoted entirely to ornamental
grasses. If you would like to visit, just click on this
link: Ornamental
Grass forum at GardenWeb
|
Lastly:
Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of
perspiration.
- Lou Erickson
Muriel | 
