Choosing the grasses

Before my next visit to Wildly Rural in a couple of weeks time, I am trying to get a better idea of how many grasses I actually need, and then decide how this quantity will be split across the different species.

I’ve marked out a few square metres in chalk on the path to the side of my house, and then filled these squares with a number of circles drawn around the correct sized plant pots (5, 10 & 20 litres). This gives me an idea of the percentage of grasses I need in relation to my perennials. Then comes the decision about which grasses to use. Not so easy! To some extent I’m limited by the quantity of each that David has at his nursery as my total number comes to just over 200 individual plants.

I decide to take all of the Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Hameln’ (20 in total) a lovely compact grass to 60-90cm in height with fluffy inflorescences like foxtails. These will act as a contrast in texture to the other grasses.

The main body of the grasses will be created with a split between Anementhele lessoniana and Deschampsia cespitosa Bronzeschleier’, which produces a neatly rounded tuft of narrow green foliage topped by a cloudlike mass of finely branched inflorescences. The Anementhele is an exceptionally graceful grass, and the delicate stems move with the slightest breeze, which will create exactly the wonderful feeling of movement that I’m aiming for.

To add height and act as a gauzy screen in areas of the garden, I choose Molinia ‘Transparent’ for its slender inflorescences held high above the foliage to 1.8m, very light and breezy as the name suggests. I don’t want too many of these, as they may become too solid which will defeat my objective, but I’ll compliment them with the slightly smaller Molinia ‘Edith Dudszuz’, for a balance between the heights.

In a few weeks time I’m going back to Cumbria to mark out the ground at the nursery with the design of my garden and set out within the planting areas with the actual grass plants, not just pots. I can’t wait!