Between the house and the drive the ground slopes gently to the south; the area was initially colonised by weeds with poppies dominating. The gentle swaying heads put me in mind of the swathes of grasses I'd loved at places like The Garden House in Devon or in the iconic schemes of Piet Oudolf. We could do something here, maybe.
I started off with three perennial grasses including a pink flowering pampas (Cortaderia selloana Rosea); I wanted an easy going, fast growing and bold statement plant and certainly got one.
Here it is (above), a good 2m from the path, but despite paying close attention to the expected size of the thing, within three years (below) it was far too big for the space and was quickly dubbed Cousin It.
And it kept getting bigger. Last year the hedge trimmer was taken to one edge in an attempt to keep the path between It and the house usable; I was fed up of slicing open my leg each time I stood on one end of a trailing leaf and then dragged it across my shins. Hedge cutting simply moved the cutting edges to face height. It was going to have to go.
What a shame. This was without a doubt the first plant that was thoroughly happy in my soil-free clay, possibly because in reality It was in the sand and stone overflow from burying the septic tank (you can see both the inspection hatches in the second photo). On line searches suggested that we could simply dig it up, divide the clump and replant; two for the price of one. I set off out into the garden with the intention of spending an hour cutting the foliage back to a foot or so from the ground, ready for moving the next day.
But the beast now dwarfing the 'little' grass next to it did prove to be useful in my wildlife garden; the operation was delayed with the discovery of a hibernating hedgehog tucked away beneath the leaves. It would take a very thick skinned predator to extract it from under there.
Two weeks on, spring was well under way and the hedgie had moved on to its summer residence, and together we decided to tackle the quick task of cutting back, digging up (we knew it was shallow rooted), splitting and replanting the pampas. Cutting back the razor edged fronds took most of the afternoon and burnt out the hedge trimmer. We were both cut all the way up our arms and across the face! After a quick couple of hours loosening the soil around the thing, it was obvious that this was going to be a mammoth job.
The core of the plant was rock hard and in the end we had to use a mattock to break up the ground beneath it and an axe/pruning saw/iron bar combo to break off manageable pieces.
This is about a sixth and just about all we could lift into the wheel barrow. And once it was out, what to do with it? I can't abide throwing stuff out and part of our frugal life severely frowns upon it. Where could we usefully put four or five plants that could in a year or two each grow to three metres in every direction? Above the house we have a couple of distinct areas - fruit trees separated by a fledgling rose and budleija hedge from the 'meadow', an area of rough grass which only has an annual haircut. I had thought about putting a natural growing willow fence along the side of the meadow, but just how good would a row of monster ornamental grasses look, delineating the wild meadow on one side and the mown area to the other?
The brown area is the meadow just after its annual haircut (see here) with the fresher green grass to the right. A shallow stream runs down this area during wet weather so it is always either a bog or rock hard clay.
It took another two days to hack out four lumps of pampas, dig out holes in the clay up by the meadow and drop the pieces of Cousin It into them. We barrowed the nasty meadow clay down to fill the immense crater left behind, and barrowed the light dry sandy soil back up to pack back around the roots. I say we, but my barrowing and digging days are probably behind me, so I carried tools, held plants upright and generally supervised.
The row of pampas, tops cut off, but the first time we have ever planted out such big plants. And they were free, not counting the cost of a new hedge trimmer! The meadow area is to the right (and that is our log pile at the bottom of shot).
Looking across the meadow to the pampas parade. I'm expecting this area to be a riot of wildflowers in the next few weeks or so.
The crater left behind has been back filled and I've planted out a hardy palm, trachycarpus fortunei which will one day be a tall and stately tree. Two grasses are still here and I shall add some low growing specimens plus some hardy perennials, depending on what bargains I can track down. Ialso have a banana to go in here, to add to the exotic look.
And there is still one lump of Cousin It looking for a home.
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