JennyC wrote:
Don't mind snakes

Once you've met une vipere, you will never forget it. Once, my brother
had to leg it across the field on the side of the house convinced the
snake was 'following' him. It was so funny to watch as my petrified
brother kept falling over. It looked like a black and white comedy
movie a la charlie chaplin or something. Did we larf!! Kids can be so
cruel ;o)

deers,
Will ind them if they eat my veggies

So cute though...

River about 200 yrds away.......
Friends pool about the same distance......
House has a nice cool tower for siesta's in the heat of the day ...........:~)

Ho ... stop it. You'll only wish for time to stand still then. The
tower looks wonderful indeed, especially with the ivy on it. I've made
a fire last night and was already thinking about my trip next year. As
much as I am happy here, there's a little bit of moi still wandering in
the Perigord vert ...

"Sacha" wrote in message
.uk...
On 15/11/05 22:18, in article , "Mike Lyle"
wrote:

Tumbleweed wrote:
"Sacha" wrote in message
.uk...

I can't argue with that but it really does have to be a very large
amount of
pampas grass and Jenny and Leo have to be absolutely certain they
won't regret it. What I do keep asking myself is why anyone would
want to grow that when living in the Dordogne? And I do know that
my personal prejudice
is showing! And as a bolt on goodie, what wildlife does it
support?
I really don't know.

Gauchos?

And they can certainly get very wild. But actually, it's a good
question: does anybody know the answer? EMWTK. I don't think it
offers any food for the beasties, but it must provide shelter.

I give up. EMTWK? I suppose the plumes of the Pampas might trap insects
on
which birds could feed?

My dog loves it - and keeps pulling the plumes off and shredding them on the
lawn.

Which is one of the reasons I want to kill it. The Pampas that is, not the
dog !
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

On 16/11/05 9:54, in article
, "Ian Keeling"
wrote:

Sacha wrote:
Ah then, I might allow Jenny to plant it. ;-)) Lots of it, of course! My
youngest daughter has two in her new-to-her garden and wants rid of them.
We think the chap that does garden maintenance for all of us will be able to
do it but it will involve taking down a small wall to do it. I've pointed
out that the back garden one shields her from the neighbour's garden but she
still wants it out so that she can plant something she truly loves. I can't
imagine why I dislike them so much but they always look forlornly bedraggled
and dusty, somehow and especially so when one is planted in the middle of a
lawn.

I think I know exactly why you dislike it so much. Because people have
no taste and plant it in such inappropriate positions. With some plants
bad taste isn't too obvious, but pampas grass shouts it out with an
oversized exclamation mark!

It certainly does and the planting you describe is anathema to me. But I
don't find the plant itself particularly attractive anyway. I would use
other things in preference any day. Goodness why we have prejudices against
certain plants but others I can't abide are Calceolarias and Ceratostigma.
Even I can't understand why I don't much like the latter! I'm not mad about
Chaenomeles, either and again, I can't tell you why.

There's a wonderful example of it just a couple of doors away from me.
I'm in central(ish) London and the front gardens here are postage stamp
size - someone had the great idea of planting pampas grass in their
front garden which can't be more than about 8' x 6' right in front of
their window. Mind you, they have almost been trumped by their
neighbours who have planted a hedge of what looks suspiciously like our
old friend X Cupressocyparis leylandii around a plot of similar size.
Using leylandii virtually as ground cover?! sigh

That's exactly what it will be in the end - what a shame!
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

"Sacha" wrote in message
.uk...
On 16/11/05 9:54, in article
, "Ian Keeling"
wrote:

Sacha wrote:
Ah then, I might allow Jenny to plant it. ;-)) Lots of it, of course!
My
youngest daughter has two in her new-to-her garden and wants rid of
them.

I only wish they would survive in my garden....a wee bit too cold in the
winter tho........H

middleton.walker wrote:

I only wish they would survive in my garden....a wee bit too cold in the
winter tho........H

Sorry Harrold I forgotten, where are you from?!

"La puce" wrote in message
ups.com...

middleton.walker wrote:

I only wish they would survive in my garden....a wee bit too cold in the
winter tho........H

Sorry Harrold I forgotten, where are you from?!

Cape Cod, Massachussetts, USA.......(ex York)

I tend to think of pampas as the "prawn cocktail in avocado" of exotic plants.
Very popular in the 60's but a bit tired now, which is probably why people
want to dig them out and burn them.

a single specimen marroned in a
lawn looks daft. But planted boldly in the right setting, a big drift of
pampas grasses can look stunning all year round.

Leeds city council plant them in big drifts along the inner ring road
and very fine they look. I expect they chose them because
"The extremely sharp leaves act as barriers to animal movement".
In fact, someone in the parks and gardens department there is clearly
an expert in exotic, thug-proof and largely impenetrable plantings.

John McMillan wrote:

Leeds city council plant them in big drifts along the inner ring road
and very fine they look. I expect they chose them because
"The extremely sharp leaves act as barriers to animal movement".
In fact, someone in the parks and gardens department there is clearly
an expert in exotic, thug-proof and largely impenetrable plantings.

Travelling from Beeston to the playhouse, I often wonder how tall they're
going to let the monkey puzzle trees grow.

--
Sally Holmes
Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England

In article , JennyC
writes




Call me mad, but I'm thinking of planting one or more if we move to
France........
There is a huge filed with the property that I intend to make into a garden, so
space is not going to be a problem.

How big do they get if left?


One of the places we considered getting (just a little further south -
Poitou Charentes/Gironde - had some "wild" land attached to it. It was
semi woodland and had a quite attractive louche decayed decadence about
it

There were a couple of pampas stands that were very big. They were
absolutely huge - bigger than any others I've seen by a long way. I'm
not much good at estimating sizes and it was 18 months ago, but I do
remeber it as huge and very impressive even though I don't normally like
them much. I'd guess the clump was 7-10 metres across and maybe 6
metres tall?

I wouldn't fancy trying to remove it with a anything short of a JCB

--
regards andyw

"Sally Holmes" wrote in message
. uk...

Travelling from Beeston to the playhouse, I often wonder how tall they're
going to let the monkey puzzle trees grow.

--
Sally Holmes
Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England

Yes me too. Have you noticed how closely they are planted. Guess this will
limit the growth (perhaps)