Hello,

I have what my neighbor described as fountain grass in several spots
around our pool at our new house. Research shows that "fountain grass"
is a very generic term. To describe it, it was green with "wheat-like
flowering" at the top of each stalk last summer/fall. The plants are
about 6-7 feet tall. In the winter they turned straw colored and have
just began to start new green grass from the clump this month.

I cut them down to their clumps (man those things are tough!) and I
would like to reduce the size of the clumps because these things are
growing through the fence and seem overgrown. Plus the fallen stalks
are hard to clean out of the pool. Is there a recommended method to
cut out or kill off some of the clump? I'm not sure I could even get a
sharp shovel through this stuff! I'll try any suggestions you may
have.

PS -- if you have automotive questions I answer in rec.autos.tech or
email (infrequently).

Thanks for any and all help!