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Barbie's garden Design Gardening Home page features Miscellaneous Perenniels

Grasses highlighted – 1st anniversary

I have been asked a few times by many to put together a more detailed post on the Grass Feature in my front garden. It is one of my very special places in my garden and takes pride of place (ok – the veggie patch is still the number one!) This is the month of its 1st Anniversary, so we can really go back and see how it looked 1 year ago.

There are a variety of grasses and they were all chosen to work well together – height, shape and colour. I remember the planning and drawing and the digging and arranging and re-arranging. It was one of my more dramatic and labour intensive projects because of the dry river bed feature in the middle of it all.

As it looks now – with all the grasses labelled.

1. Pennisetum “Red Buttons”

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2. Carex Buchananii

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3. Carex Amazon Mist

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4. Festuca Glauca

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5. & 8. Calamagrostis “Karl Foerster”

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6. Miscanthus Sinensis Gracillimus

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7. Panicum Virgatum “Shenandoah”

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9.  Deschampsia Caespitosa “Tuffed Hair Grass”

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10. & 13. Phorium Rubra nana & 11. Pennisetum Setaceum Rubrum-Red Fountain Grass

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12. Carex Frosted Curls

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14. Aristida & other

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I hope that this has been interesting. It was great to see how this Grass Feature keeps changing through the seasons – Autumn shows a new face.

Happy Gardening xxx

 

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Barbie's garden Design Gardening Home page features Miscellaneous

Grasses revisited

I have been slack with my blog posts of late – not because I’m not in the garden and taking photos, its because work has me tied to the computer all day! I spend every spare moment in the garden and at every opportunity, I have my camera with me. So the photo library is full, I just have to take time now and tell you whats been happening. Have a look and see …..

[one_third]Shenandoah[/one_third]

[one_third]Red Buttons[/one_third]

[one_third_last]Angel’s Fishing Rod[/one_third_last]

[one_half]Miscanthus[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Miscanthus “Zebra”[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Filling out nicely[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Carex and Calamagrostis[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Different textures[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Calamagrostis[/one_half_last]

I am so pleased with the grasses patch and it is only young still. Wait until it fills out and matures! I’ll keep you posted

Happy Gardening xxxxx

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Barbie's garden Design Do it yourself Gardening Home page features Miscellaneous

New grass patch

Hi Chris – today was the day! I fetched my grass sods from our friend, Kevin, who grows the most amazing indigenous grass. (Star Light Lawn) This grass is Cynodon – an indigenous grass, valued for its drought tolerance compared to most other lawn grasses. Also known as Bermuda grass, originally from the savannas of Africa. It grows in open areas where there are frequent disturbances such as grazing, flooding, and fire.

Although most of these species have remained in Africa, today Cynodon dactylon is found in warm climates all over the world between 45° south and 45° north latitude. It can be found growing in pastures and the understories of open woodlands and orchards. It is called bermuda grass in the United States because it was introduced from the Bermuda Island.

Bermuda grass is a creeping grass, and will creep along the ground and root where ever a node touches the ground, forming a dense mat. It also reproduces from roots under the ground. It has a deep root system, and in drought situations the root system can grow 47 to 59 inches (120-150 cm) deep. Most of the root mass lies 24 inches (60 cm) under the surface.

To contact Kevin for roll-on-lawn at Star Light Lawn, please phone 082 441 3696 / 021 572 0089 or email info@starlightlawn.co.za

Watch the video below to see how easy it was!

Categories
Barbie's garden Design Gardening Home page features Miscellaneous Perenniels

Grass Feature – Part 2

The Dirty Gardener!I have finally finished! Whew! It has been a gruelling 2 days hard labour – my back is in spasms and my left hand middle finger is swollen and sore! But all the aches and pains aside – it was a wonderful experience from start to finish. All the excitment when putting pen to paper and actually seeing  it come to life!

From the adventure we took to Elgin Valley to buy the grasses, to the painful digging and planting of my trees,  to the continuous shopping for sand, stones, compost, and more plants, to the marking out and constant rearranging of each grass, to the individual planting of each one! It was a true labour of love and I always kept my intentions full of love and goodness. This is so important when I work with plants because they feel it and I truly believe that they grow better!  I even bought LOVE that I planted in the garden. Can you see it? Well, all I can say while I stand back and gaze at my beautiful grass garden – It is really and truly BEAUTIFUL!! No more to say ……you can see for yourself! So, let the dirty gardener go and clean up all the mess I made and get out of the rain!!

Enjoy the photos!

[one_half]Grass feature with river bed[/one_half]

[one_half_last]River bed layout[/one_half_last]

[one_half]River bed[/one_half]

[one_half_last]River bed feature[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Grass feature nearly done[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Grass feature finished[/one_half_last]

You can view the whole story in the Flickr Gallery: