182E - Grass: you've got to love it

September has started with very high temperatures: above 30°C, extreme for our delta. My plants are taking it in their stride. The prediction is for heavy thunder and rain,  so I hope they will be still as happy afterwards.

My Pennisetum centre stage.

  My grasses are really at their best right now. When I planted them 3 years ago they were still a bit shy, hiding themselves behind the other perennials. And in year 1 their wild sisters ran rings around them, as if they wanted to show them how it is done. Especially the Pennisetum were dragging their feet. But look at them now!  Almost a metre high, and with gorgeous soft bushy heads.

  The Carex in Hunky Dory are all transplanted from my balcony. I thought it was a cool look to have them on the railing (and it was!), but I quickly realised they would be far happier in the garden.

Carex at the bottom, Cortaderia at the back.

And they are. Compared to the ordinary lawn grass which I trim, the Carex is looking lush! I have it dotted around the garden.

The Cortaderia are doing well too. They were thought to be old fashioned, so very 1970s, but I think they are actually very cool. They take our fierce SW gales without complaint, which I think is legend.

Very tactile, you want to stroke them.

Another grass I moved from the balcony is Stipa tenuissima Ponytails, although I have two plants left there.

Now this one actually looks better on the balcony, I feel. In the garden it rather disappears amongst the other plants. Perhaps it cannot stand the bullying from the wild grasses, that grow much faster and then flop all over the place.

One wild grass that loves to live in my garden is a species we call Hanenpoot (cockrel's foot). It grows outwards from a distinct centre, with very broad soft stems. It is pretty enough to tolerate it in places where it is not in the way, but I trim it in others. Pulling it up is a way to deal with it as well.

Bulbs and wild grass in the woodpile.

   Another type of wild grass I have to deal with, is Couch grass (Kweek in Dutch). It is everywhere. It is my own fault, for I have a 2m wide strip of grass next to my compost heaps, which I leave unmown for the small animals. 

   Especially my frog pond suffers from Couch grass boldly going where no grass should go. It grows in the water, and when I try to pull it out, along comes a mat of roots from the bottom. So far my proper aquatic plants don't seem to suffer, but I dislike it, because it spoils the esthetics of my pond. It looks very scruffy.

Oh, I have finally decided what to grow in the border next to the greenhouse path. I have loads of spring bulbs in there (with a background of hydrangeas), so it looks great from Feb till the end of April, but when they are spent, it looks bare. I experimented with calendula, nasturtiums, digitalis, but it was never just right. I have decided on iris and daylillies. I am trying to grow them from seed, but I have bought some plants as well, and put them in today. Gave them loads of water, as the promised showers never arrived. 

Patience is a virtue, but my virtue...not so much.

Have a lovely weekend, and take a look at the extra photos.

Renée