Annual Cut of Grass

It was certainly breezy yesterday as we started our annual cut of our Hokusai Grasses. It was so sad to do it as the garden still looked fantastic, just as it had for the last six months since the miscanthus started to flower. But cut it we must or else it would never regenerate as we want it to.

I put on my gloves, roped the grasses, and then Simon used the hedgetrimmer to slice them off. We carried them away, and in between sleet storms we cleaned the gravel, as best we could, of all the debris.

Now we look forward to the new growth emerging over the next few weeks. By May/June the blue salvias which line the edge will be in flower, so will the calamagrostis and stipas. The various miscanthus including the two giants 'Goliath' and 'Professor Richard Hansen', as well as 'Silber Feder' and shorter 'Flamingo' will start to flower in September.

This sort of gardening is like a wonderful crescendo.....waiting expectantly for the high point; I love it at every stage but from Saturday to Sunday there was certainly a dramatic change!