Adding vertical accents

There’s one. You can actually see it.

No, not the gorgeous view. The vertical cypress in the foreground.

If you peer very hard you can see more in the jungle of grasses on the lawn bank.

The ones here were so consumed by the surrounding vegetation I had to hack my way through to water them all summer. They are only new plants after all and need a bit of nurturing in their first year. They have gone from the irrigated plant nursery down by the Rhone river to this drought-stricken bank at altitude.

The effect I am aiming for on this bank is a waving sea of grasses with the sudden popping up of green from the cypresses.

They are called Totem. And that is what they are supposed to do.

Poor little things.

So this week it was on The List. Hack back.

Give the poor things air. And a last water before winter.

That’s better.

In Spring I will remove some of those closer growing eragrostis curvula grasses so I can actually see. And even get daring and take out those bright yellow sticks that marks where I need to aim my hose.

I’ll be recycling those yellow markers for the other side of the garden. I bought more cypresses for the pool bank. More hacking and wading my way in on the cards. What larks.

And let’s finish with a photo from a few years back. It keeps coming back in my Facebook feed and I just loved those autumn golds from before. Not so thrilling this year. But we can’t all be that demanding.

It’s not Vermont.