It’s the first day of the month again so that means it’s time to share another of my gardening faux-pas’ with you. The first of each month has been christening Gardening Oops (GOOPs) Day by Joene Hendry, fellow garden coach, garden blogger and soon to be fellow Professional Landscape Designer.
For my final GOOPs of 2009, I thought I would share a gardening mistake I made back in the spring which has been staring me in the face ever since…and I can’t rectify it until Spring 2010. Last fall, I planted a new perennial bed in an attempt to slowly shrink the size of my lawn. The area I choose for the new perennial garden was flanked by two mature Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’. Since fall is not the best time to divide grasses, I decided to wait until this spring to divide them both.
GOOPs...I really should have divided both clumps of grass
Well, I got lazy this spring and never got around to dividing the Morning Light on the left in this photo. But, you can see the one of the right looks healthy, in proportion to the bed and generally much happier. I got lazy partly because it’s tough work digging up a miscanthus root ball and then literally sawing through it to divide it into more manageable clumps. I got six smaller clumps from the original clump on the right. And partly, I didn’t divide the one on the left because I had no idea what to do with 5 more clumps of Morning Light. I’d already planted some in my garden and brought others to the Fairfield County Plant Swap.
So my lazy GOOPs meant the Miscanthus on the left took over that part of the garden all season long. And because it was so big and in desperate need of dividing, it started separating in the middle and falling over onto its neighbors. Some of the perennials planted close by never got a chance to shine this season.
Can you guess what I’ll be doing early next spring? Yup, dividing my miscanthus. Don’t forget to head on over to joene’sgarden to read about her GOOPs.
Debbie,
It’s easy to understand why you put off dividing your Miscanthus – it’s not a pleasant job. I often look like I had a run in with a tiger after dividing Miscanthus. Any exposed skin ends up scratched from the jagged leaf edges. Still, I don’t want to do without ornamental grasses simply because of a little discomfort every few years.
You’re right…I forgot to mention that negative aspect of dividing Miscanthus. I’ll have to rememebr to wear my long sleeves next spring when I’m dividing.
I am so with you both. I have one garden we maintain with about 20 Miscanthus that all need dividing this year… or rather they needed it last year. Drat!! I hate digging those suckers up – it hurts, it takes forever, and they are heavy as all get-out to lift and whack into chunks. That client’s going to have to hire some college kids or else get a hefty bill this January to have us skilled peeps do it. Sheesh.
Gen,
Wow, 20 miscanthus is ALOT! What will you do with all the newly divided babies? Sounds like your client can start her own miscanthus nursery. I guess one of the dark sides of a love of miscanthus is the eventual need to divide it.