Winter cutting ornamental grasses
We have just experienced the cat equivalent of a McNab.
In Scotland you are hailed with a McNab if you can stalk and shoot a deer, catch a salmon and bag a brace of grouse within daylight hours of a single day.
This morning I almost stepped on and narrowly avoided a large decapitated rat in the courtyard; a mouse in two parts on her favourite rock. And just now…. a regurgitated baby mole rat. She lost style points for up-chucking the mole rat and leaving stains on the deck. Which I just scrubbed.
But still, three rodents in one day.
In her honour we are calling it a Creature. I know that Lisa’s Lily could probably top that in the feline hunting stakes. But round here we are impressed.
And I probably only noticed the mouse as it was on this rock and I have been plodding up and around it for a day.
The annual cutting back of the eragrostis grasses on the oak bank has begun.
And I actually completed it in two short days. (You have to allow time for scrubbing rodent guts off the deck, hauling firewood and generally enjoying winter reading by the fire.)
And if you are looking for a sort of low maintenance drought-stricken solution. I do recommend these grasses. They look like you have made an effort.
All that survives on this bank is one American oak (drought-stricken most years), one self-seeded oak…
Isn’t it glorious? It has come back nicely from a heavy early October snow fall when so many branches cracked.
And weeds.
And for the past few years a few rows of the grasses. They actually do a pretty good job of smothering most weeds all year.
When it comes to maintenance nothing could be easier. Cut back once.
I always start by weeding the rows in between the grasses. It has been quick work as the soil is so soft and they really are weak annual grass softies.
I pull off the iris stalks and sorry-looking leaves as I go. The very front of the oak bank is a death trap and I only do a close weeding of that job in summer when the rocks aren’t slippery from seeping mountain rain. You have to lean a ladder up against the rock to reach.
And then it’s on with the cutting. And all the grass material goes back onto the paths between the rows to work as a mulch.
And that’s it for another year.
I have of course been tidying the rest of the oak bank. It was very weedy.
And planting tulips around the shrubs. And generally giving this part of the garden a bit of attention.
It’s tricky to photograph. I kept trying to keep the car in the courtyard out of the shot. And none of the shots do justice to just how much wonderful weeding I did. So I am miffed.
We had to do some other cutting back lower down the farm this week…
Yes, that is the electricity supply to the house. It’s a good thing our wires in the forest have a good bit of give in them. This one had really stretched the wire. But we saved the power. And I noticed that another tree nearby was a useful harvesting opportunity.
A monster pine tree came down last week. Yet another. There have been dozens all over the farm this year.
I went to inspect it and decided it would serve as a bit of Christmas cheer in the house.
So out came the secateurs, and I came back with armfuls.
I left the branches out overnight so bugs could escape.
And then in they came and helped make the dining room a bit Christmassy.
I put olive branches instead of pine in the big vases on the bookcases this year. I had to cut back the olive anyway when I was harvesting. So they came in handy.
And now it’s time to indulge the very pleased with herself hunter.
And keep her in for a bit and save the rodent population for another day.
Lisa
12th December 2023 @ 4:31 pm
Bravo the Creature! Lily has been rather resting on her laurels of late (or more accurately a cushion by the wood heater).
Have cut nothing back here yet on the grounds that it’s bad to trample over sodden ground any more than absolutely necessary. This is mostly an excise but it’s certainly sodden. Even when the rain stops hours & hours afterwards there’s a gurgling noise from the ground beneath your feet as the water ever so slowly percolates downhill.
Christine
13th December 2023 @ 9:44 pm
Creature deserves a medal. A mole rat a day (may) keep your tulips alive…. I’ve given up on them after losing hundreds. Thanks to my own Furry Killing Machine, aka Tiftik, I know more about the internal organs of rodents than I would like. His tableau de chasse up to now includes two ermines, several rabbits, a black rat, several moles, a few bats… all brought in through his cat flap. Some alive, to play with.
I admire your weeding, what neatness, what lovely free-draining soil. Gardening is impossible here at the moment between the incessant rain, the cold and the wind. Gnashing my teeth. Sorting and re-sorting my seed box before the arrival of The Great Tunnel.
Lindy
16th December 2023 @ 8:36 am
Argh, you must start to dread the sound of the cat flap and wonder just what your beastie has brought in! It is funny how I can curse my drought-stricken summers, but still revel in the fact I can garden most of the year in the free draining granite sand. Have you read Charlotte Mendelson’s Rhapsody in Green? she is a fabulous writer and lately, a gardener… I can still vividly recall a scene where she is sitting at her kitchen table with her precious seed packets sorting and arranging and planning… and she didn’t even have a garden! Bring on your Great Tunnel when you can have some squelch free gardening at altitude at last.
Christine
19th December 2023 @ 9:34 am
Most of the ‘crimes’ are committed overnight, so the moment I dread most is coming downstairs in the morning, watching carefully where I step and listening for strange noises… I haven’t read Rhapsody in Green but I certainly will now. I see it’s available on Kindle so I can start right away. Thank you for the recommendation! As my garden is on a slope, it’s not so much the squelching that’s the issue but the hard frosts/snow/high winds (or all three at once). The wonderful tunnel will be free of all that if it doesn’t succomb. Choosing model (sturdy) and site (sheltered) very carefully.