THE GRASS IS GREENER?

Actually, it turns out it's not about being green at all. The mind-shift needed is to accept and value brown - especially when a key aspect of utilising grasses is how many of them "stand" well through the autumn and over the winter months providing form and structure, and movement in the wind catching the afternoon sunlight or gleaming with early morning frost. I spent such a good day with Roger and Jenny Lloyd in their fascinaring garden at Highfield Farm with panoramic views across the hills and valleys of South Wales. Roger has an infectious delight in grasses - the garden is a showcase, maximising their beauty through clever planting combinations and careful consideration of how light is filtered through them towards the standpoint of the viewer. This is all really crucial stuff when working with grasses. What is also made clear here, is that amongst the many different species and varieties available to us, grasses offer so much potential not only to extend our interest deep into autumn, but they offer many exciting possibilities in design too. They work as dramatic specimen plants (think Cortaderia - the Pampas grasses - but with far better possibilities than the 1970s front garden staple we're so familiar with), as border structure (such as Miscanthus 'Morning Light' or Calamagrostis brachytricha), as informal screening (like Panicum virgatum 'Northwind' or Miscanthus sinensis 'Gracillimus'), or denser still as hedging (Minscanthus malepartus would be superb), as a naturalistic planting matrix (think Seslaria autumnalis, and Piet Oudolf) and when interacting with sunlight and the breeze (such as the arching Stipa gigantea, "golden oats" up to 2m in height, or Molinia 'Transparent' offering views through to Asters and Rudbeckias beyond). There's even the very useful "Hak-macs", Hakonechloa macra the Japanese forest grass, which is happy in deep shade or containers and available in bright green or the paler gold 'aureola'. What's particularly encouraging is Roger's approach to annual maintenance: take a herbaceous sickle or lightweight electric topiary trimmer and cut them down to 15-20cm in March - that's it! Grasses are relatively easy and undemanding to grow, so there's really only two problems... which varieties to choose, and which of your favourite late-flowering perennials to grow with them! Sounds more like fun than a problem to me.