Sheering Ornamental Grass
Debbie Teashon
March 11, 2010
If you haven’t given your grasses their annual haircut, now’s the time before their new growth is well on its way upward. I don’t know about you, but I have struggled with this task in my quest for a quick and convenient way to tackle this annual chore. My trusty Felco hand pruners thrash about in the grass blades trying to cut through, but they work better to slice through twigs and small branches than skinny, dead grass blades.
Grass shears are better; however, it still takes a while to cut through the blades of grass on a large, established clump, and it also brings many carpal-tunnel-syndrome movements with the wrists before the grass comes down. Shears are ok if you only have a few bunches of ornamental grass, but if you have many, the gas-powered hedge trimmer may be the answer to turning a grueling chore into short work.
Along comes professional gardener Philip Bloomquist to show how to make quick work of the annual chore of bringing down the tan, dead stalks of a Miscanthus before the new blades shoot out of the ground. Phil's tool of choice is an Echo gas-powered hedge trimmer. After putting on protective eyewear, he started the trimmer and in minutes, the grass was down on the ground. Even though I didn’t find the trimmer to be that loud, like many other power tools, Philip recommended wearing earplugs.
Bloomquist gave a dramatic demonstration of how easy the right tool can make short work of a chore. However, I think hiring someone to do the task is even better!
When he finished cutting the grass down, I quickly loaded the dried blades into the wheelbarrow to haul to the compost pile. Mission accomplished.
Gardening for the Homebrewer: Grow and Process Plants for Making Beer, Wine, Gruit, Cider, Perry, and More
By co-authors Debbie Teashon (Rainy Side Gardeners) and Wendy Tweton
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