I've been wanting to try some of this fancy grass garden thing for a while.
Today I bought some grass!

I'm on a mountain in the Monara/ACT region, it's very windy, very shaley
hydro-phobic soil, and usually quite dry. We have irrigation to get thigns
(trees!) to grow, but I've a preference not to do this.

The spot I'm going to experiment with, before doing a proper large grass
garden, is a little scrap strip at the base of a rock wall, and enclosed by
flat paving. I'm hoping the water from the lawn at the top of the wall will
filter down to my little grasses, and the paving will also trap moisture.

I want to do something like a minature landscape, with indigenous rocks, and
tufty grass. What I really like is Poa-type grass, snowgrass being the best,
but shopping in teh rain today, best prospect I found was some Blue Fescue
stuff. Had been idly thinking of Mondo, although it's not really my thing,
but lady at the nursery said it's more of a watering grass. So I'm back with
the dry tufty types to start with.

Anyway, can anyone see problems with this blue Fescue? And are there any
other good tough tufty grasses easily obtainable? It's hot and dry in
summer, (and windy), cold and dry and windy in winter.

I want to make something with embedded rocks, and tufts, maybe a little bit
of gravel... like a bonsai landscape.

--
ant

"ant" wrote in message
I'm on a mountain in the Monara/ACT region, it's very windy, very
shaley
hydro-phobic soil, and usually quite dry.


What I really like is Poa-type grass, snowgrass being the best,
but shopping in teh rain today, best prospect I found was some Blue
Fescue
stuff. Had been idly thinking of Mondo, although it's not really my
thing,
but lady at the nursery said it's more of a watering grass. So I'm
back with
the dry tufty types to start with.

Anyway, can anyone see problems with this blue Fescue? And are
there any
other good tough tufty grasses easily obtainable? It's hot and dry
in
summer, (and windy), cold and dry and windy in winter.

Just how much Poa do you want? You can stop by the roadside on the
way to Cooma and dig out as much Poa as you like.

Farm1 wrote:

Just how much Poa do you want? You can stop by the roadside on the
way to Cooma and dig out as much Poa as you like.

true, and I have quite a bit of something which I THINK is Poa on my place.
Trouble is, my region is infested with Serrated Tussock, and I'm buggered
if i can tell the difference. I was eyeing some nice looking tufts on the
driveway today, but i just don't know which is which, and I'd feel like an
idiot planting up a Special Grass Garden with serrated tussock! (it'd grow
too big, too).

I think that the tufty stuff on my hilltop is proper alpine poa, but have my
suspicions about stuff lower down, nearer the trees.


--
ant

this site might help identifyng the serrated tussock
http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/nrenin...00128CA256BCF0
00AD548ECC844336D72F0634A256DEA00293F8A

"ant" wrote in message
...
Farm1 wrote:

Just how much Poa do you want? You can stop by the roadside on the
way to Cooma and dig out as much Poa as you like.

true, and I have quite a bit of something which I THINK is Poa on my
place.
Trouble is, my region is infested with Serrated Tussock, and I'm buggered
if i can tell the difference. I was eyeing some nice looking tufts on the
driveway today, but i just don't know which is which, and I'd feel like an
idiot planting up a Special Grass Garden with serrated tussock! (it'd grow
too big, too).

I think that the tufty stuff on my hilltop is proper alpine poa, but have
my
suspicions about stuff lower down, nearer the trees.


--
ant

loosecanon wrote:
this site might help identifyng the serrated tussock
http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/nrenin...00128CA256BCF0
00AD548ECC844336D72F0634A256DEA00293F8A

Thanks. I've been to a weeds day, got a coloured sheet handout, all the
stuff, and I'm still scratching my head. Nearest thing I can find in it is
that the serrated tussock has purple bases. Haven't found any of those yet,
but there's some things near the trees that develop long seed fronds in
summer.
thing is I don't want to be ripping out good grass mistakenly thinking it's
serrated tussock. Maybe I should volunteer my place for the next weed day.

Looking at the site though, all the big stuff down near the trees may well
be serrated tussock.Great!

--
ant

ant wrote:
loosecanon wrote:
this site might help identifyng the serrated tussock
http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/nrenin...00128CA256BCF0
00AD548ECC844336D72F0634A256DEA00293F8A

Thanks. I've been to a weeds day, got a coloured sheet handout, all the
stuff, and I'm still scratching my head. Nearest thing I can find in it is
that the serrated tussock has purple bases. Haven't found any of those yet,
but there's some things near the trees that develop long seed fronds in
summer.
thing is I don't want to be ripping out good grass mistakenly thinking it's
serrated tussock. Maybe I should volunteer my place for the next weed day.

Looking at the site though, all the big stuff down near the trees may well
be serrated tussock.Great!

--
ant

Take a look at

http://www.weeds.crc.org.au/document...ed_tussock.pdf

They refer to the Tasmanian DPI's checklist for identifying ST and that
states that " "The leaf cases are more tightly packed and more slender
than other tussocks and are a whitish colour - never purplr or
blue-green"

The seed heads create quite a fire hazard in the outer western suburbs
of Melbourne.

GreenieLeBrun wrote:
ant wrote:
loosecanon wrote:
this site might help identifyng the serrated tussock
http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/nrenin...00128CA256BCF0
00AD548ECC844336D72F0634A256DEA00293F8A

Thanks. I've been to a weeds day, got a coloured sheet handout, all
the stuff, and I'm still scratching my head. Nearest thing I can
find in it is that the serrated tussock has purple bases. Haven't
found any of those yet, but there's some things near the trees that
develop long seed fronds in summer.
thing is I don't want to be ripping out good grass mistakenly
thinking it's serrated tussock. Maybe I should volunteer my place
for the next weed day.

Looking at the site though, all the big stuff down near the trees
may well be serrated tussock.Great!

Take a look at

http://www.weeds.crc.org.au/document...ed_tussock.pdf

They refer to the Tasmanian DPI's checklist for identifying ST and
that states that " "The leaf cases are more tightly packed and more
slender than other tussocks and are a whitish colour - never purplr or
blue-green"

argh. they say never purple, but hte previous site said the fluffy seed-mess
is purple! and my sheet, I'm pretty sure, says the seating for the leaves
etc at the base is purple.

The seed heads create quite a fire hazard in the outer western suburbs
of Melbourne.

I do get some of the heads rolling up and becoming tumble weed type things.
But it could be good tussock, not evil tussock. Very frustrating.


--
ant

hi ant
i can see the problem, this website mentions several grasses that look
like serrated tussock, see the heading "look alikes"
http://www.esc.nsw.gov.au/Weeds/Shee...%20tussock.htm
and this one points out how similar poa is to serrated tussock:
http://www.sgaonline.org.au/weed_nas...richotoma.html
but i've learned a lot about grass weeds just because you asked!

ant wrote:

I do get some of the heads rolling up and becoming tumble weed type things.
But it could be good tussock, not evil tussock. Very frustrating.

jils wrote:
hi ant
i can see the problem, this website mentions several grasses that look
like serrated tussock, see the heading "look alikes"
http://www.esc.nsw.gov.au/Weeds/Shee...%20tussock.htm
and this one points out how similar poa is to serrated tussock:
http://www.sgaonline.org.au/weed_nas...richotoma.html
but i've learned a lot about grass weeds just because you asked!

I've got a lot of stuff that looks like the first picture, but I've never
seen rolling masses of that white flossy stuff. Purple seems to be the main
way of IDing it though. It's terrible stuff, useless as a nutrient so
animals eat it but get no benefit.


--
ant

"ant" wrote in message
...
Farm1 wrote:

Just how much Poa do you want? You can stop by the roadside on
the
way to Cooma and dig out as much Poa as you like.

true, and I have quite a bit of something which I THINK is Poa on my
place.
Trouble is, my region is infested with Serrated Tussock, and I'm
buggered
if i can tell the difference.

Serrated is very fine and will look almost purplish is you catch it in
a sideways light in Autumn when the seed heads are on it. Poa (in all
it's guisdes) is a much more robust beast. BTW, if you have got
serrated, get onto it in Spring or otherwise the mogrel will take over
your block and end up strangling you in your bed.

"ant" wrote in message
...
GreenieLeBrun wrote:
ant wrote:
loosecanon wrote:
this site might help identifyng the serrated tussock

http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/nrenin...A3C187100128CA
256BCF0
00AD548ECC844336D72F0634A256DEA00293F8A

Thanks. I've been to a weeds day, got a coloured sheet handout,
all
the stuff, and I'm still scratching my head. Nearest thing I can
find in it is that the serrated tussock has purple bases. Haven't
found any of those yet, but there's some things near the trees
that
develop long seed fronds in summer.
thing is I don't want to be ripping out good grass mistakenly
thinking it's serrated tussock. Maybe I should volunteer my place
for the next weed day.

Looking at the site though, all the big stuff down near the trees
may well be serrated tussock.Great!

Take a look at

http://www.weeds.crc.org.au/document...ed_tussock.pdf

They refer to the Tasmanian DPI's checklist for identifying ST and
that states that " "The leaf cases are more tightly packed and
more
slender than other tussocks and are a whitish colour - never
purplr or
blue-green"

argh. they say never purple, but hte previous site said the fluffy
seed-mess
is purple!

It isn't a full on purple people eater type purple, more a tinge of
purple if you look at it side on and get a good lot of it to see at
one time - Autumn is the best tiem for this.

I could send you a sample if you'd like :-))

Back to your original question........

Have you thought of putting in some Stipa grasses? They are quite
elegant and there are soem wild hereabouts.

Farm1 wrote:
"ant" wrote in message
...
Farm1 wrote:

Just how much Poa do you want? You can stop by the roadside on the
way to Cooma and dig out as much Poa as you like.

true, and I have quite a bit of something which I THINK is Poa on my
place. Trouble is, my region is infested with Serrated Tussock, and
I'm buggered if i can tell the difference.

Serrated is very fine and will look almost purplish is you catch it in
a sideways light in Autumn when the seed heads are on it. Poa (in all
it's guisdes) is a much more robust beast. BTW, if you have got
serrated, get onto it in Spring or otherwise the mogrel will take over
your block and end up strangling you in your bed.

That's the paterson's curse! I spray it with everything going, and always
there's a few taht survive. There's about an acre of it, with the thistles,
just lurking and riding the frosts, waiting for it to warm up. I'm going to
hit it hard this spring, had enough of it.

The purple thing is what I always remember from the various info sheets
about Serrated. I just haven't seen it here, but still...
and it's so hard to nuke, it's a bit like bamboo.

Meanwhile, I very much like poa, especially snowgrass. The local nurseries
all flog the Blue Fescue, which worked well in my miniture version, but I
have aspirations to something a bit more exotic.


--
ant

Farm1 wrote:
Back to your original question........

Have you thought of putting in some Stipa grasses? They are quite
elegant and there are soem wild hereabouts.

Never heard of it. Is it fine like Snowgrass, or more whippy?
A neighbour grows the various grasses for landscaping, and I'm planning on
tackling him this weekend. Not sure if punters can buy his stuff or if it's
just for landscapers. He has an amazing range of stuff though.

--
ant

"ant" wrote in message
Farm1 wrote:

Have you thought of putting in some Stipa grasses? They are quite
elegant and there are soem wild hereabouts.

Never heard of it. Is it fine like Snowgrass, or more whippy?

I don't know Snowgrass. Stipa is all the range in UK gardening
magazines but it grows wild and naturally around this region and is a
lovely clumping grass which isn't invasive but gets really nice seed
heads on it.

Stips Gigantea is the one I keep seeing referred to int he UK mags.

Micheal McCoy (the Aus dry garden bloke) uses it to great effect.

Here's some info on all sorts of grasses including Stipa
http://www.acsgarden.com/article_item.aspx?id=46
http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s787872.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1063711.htm