Ornamental grasses in the garden
Tribute to Ann O’Sullivan
Any words I might use will be inadequate when paying tribute to the late Ann O’Sullivan, whose untimely passing sent shockwaves through the community last week.
Ann was a multi-talented, multi-tasker, an understated lady in every way. Her flower arranging and her animal husbandry talents were well known. But more than that, she was simply a very nice, genuine person.
I knew her for 40 years and she always came in with a smile. We will be the poorer for her passing.
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In recent years, the use of ornamental grasses in the garden has become popular. Their uses are as diverse as the varieties. What I mean is there is a variety of grass to suit every location, though most like free-draining soil and a sunny position, but don’t overfeed them or they overgrow and flop.
In fact, they thrive on neglect – you tidy them up every spring and that’s it.
You do need to put a bit of thought into your selection as they vary in height from 12cm (5 inches) to 1.8m (6 foot) and there is a range of colours from bright yellow to sky blue. As I said at the outset there’s one for every location.
A variety called Luza will grow in shade and is evergreen, whereas Stipa Gigantea likes a well-drained, sunny position, and the sedge varieties will grow in heavy, wet soil.
To maximise their effect, they need to be planted in large numbers, and the more of the one variety you use the better.
When preparing the soil, it is imperative that all perennial weeds are removed. Anyone that has visited the garden centre will have remarked that the area inside our gate was left for two years, and the reason is I have been planning a grass bed for quite a while and we had an invasive weed called horsetails, which took a long time to eradicate.
We’ve just planted our grasses and we are looking forward to many years of nature’s beauty, with little effort.
Grasses can also be used to good effect in containers, especially for autumn planting.
More of that later – all going according to plan in early autumn, when the spring bulbs are in, I will do an article on grasses and partners in containers.
But let’s enjoy summer first?