Grass!

One of CP’s most enduring characteristics is her modesty.In the 40+ years of marriage, not once have I heard her mention that as a schoolgirl field hockey player, she was an international trialist. As a mother and senior player she represented the county. Mads followed in her mothers footsteps and played county hockey as well as being a 2 time state champion.

You watch field hockey now and it is played on artificial turf – back in the day it was on grass. Muddy grass, rock hard bare “grass” more resembling concrete, green grass,brown grass, frosted grass. Grass – one of the most taken for granted plants, one of the toughest plants, one of the most diverse plant types – plays a large but under-appreciated part in all our lives.

The house came landscaped with grass – not much else – but plenty of it. In 40 plus years of gardening this was the first experience of having warm season grass for a lawn. Ours is Bermuda grass but it could easily have been zoysia or another couple of varieties. The basic characteristic is that the grass tolerates summer heat very well but goes dormant – a nice tan color – in the winter. In the first week of October, as the leaves are falling, the first sign of the dormancy process is apparent.

Bermuda grass has two characteristics relating to maintenance. It is partial to high potassium fertilizer which helps it develop heat stress resilience. Secondly, it spreads by both above and below ground runners hence clumps of it can be found some distance from the main body of grass. Lawn edging is a critical process in keeping the lawn and adjacent beds clean looking – small but frequent doses of bed cleaning is also essential.

Despite the work involved, the lawn looks good in summer and is even quite attractive in its winter dormant state.

Now, as proud as I am about our “southern lawn”, my attention to detail is nothing compared to that of Allen – who put as much work into his lawn as he did to his roses. No weeds, perfect edging, cut twice a week,as green as green could be. Allen could easily have been a grassman at Wembley stadium, the Oval or Wimbledon. In the hottest and driest of summers,with hosepipe bans in force, his was the only green lawn in the village. Rumour has it that a shadowy figure could be seen walking across his garden at 2am, accompanied by the faint sound of sprinkling water?

The great thing about grass is it’s diversity – lawn grass, specimen grass and native grass – all different and each variety adding huge interest. There is much more potential to use grasses at AndAllen – a planning project for cold winter nights?

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