From The Desk Of Bill Varga
To cut or not to cut, that is the question! Actually, that’s the first question when pondering ornamental grass plantings. But let’s talk warm season versus cool season ornamental grass first. Some grasses start to grow in early spring when nighttime temperatures may still dip below freezing and others wait almost two months in our area until the soil warms and the idea of frost is in the rear view mirror. Our popular Blue Fescues, Blue Oat Grass and Tufted Hair Grass land in the cool season category and correspondingly respond better to combing out dead grass blades with minimal clipping. Warm season grasses often refuse to even show their faces (new growth), but can be cut to the ground anytime prior to May. I leave mine overwinter to provide winter interest, but if you’re ‘clean cut’, you can cut them down in late fall to save on spring work, these include the Switchgrasses, Northern Sea Oats and hardy Pampas Grass. One of the most commonly used cool season grasses, the Feather Reed group, I prefer to leave standing until spring. Its stout upright nature defies most winter snowfalls and adds contrast in the winter landscape. Although cool season, it can be cut down come spring to 10-14”. The coming seasons new growth is resting just below the cut. Too drastic a cut can set plant develop back a step or even eliminate new growth. Push the reset button! Which ornamental grass are or will you be caring for in 2021. Plan you horticultural care strategy accordingly. Ever walk into a room with some purpose in mind, only to completely forget what that purpose was? Turns out, doors themselves are to blame for these strange memory lapses. Psychologists at the University of Notre Dame have discovered that passing through a doorway triggers what’s known as an event boundary in the mind, separating one set of thoughts and memories from the next. Your brain files away the thoughts you had in the previous room and prepares a blank slate for the new locale. It’s not aging, it’s that darn door! Whew! Thank goodness for studies.
DEFINITIONS:
Adminisphere: The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.
Arachnoleptic fit: The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.
Arbitrator: A cook that leaves Arby’s to work at McDonald’s.
Assmosis: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.
Avoidable: What a bullfighter tries to do.
Beelzebug: Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
Blamestorming: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed and who was responsible.
Bozone: The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
Burglarize: What a crook sees with.
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