Deergrass

The deergrass grows quickly and is nice, thick and healthy. It has handsome seedstalks for a lot of the year. A really nice, large mounding grass. After I saw how these did the first year, I got some more. And last year the first year's bunches were big enough to divide, so I risked a division and moved the littler parts down to the other end of the hellstrip, where they;re now thriving. I love this grass and can't recommend it enough. It's also nice because it's green year-round.

The Las Pilitas nursery website has a nice description of this grass, but a few things were different in my garden from their description: it does grow quickly, but took more like 4 years to get to "mature size", assuming that these large mounds I have now are finally mature. (But they're not next to a seasonal creek, so probably get less water than they would in their natural habitat. No, actually, I have no idea how much water they get, because they but up against the neighbor's lawn, and he waters a lot.) And the seed plumes are more like 5 feet tall, not 2 feet, in my garden.

For reference: shown here are 3 plants that came in 1-gallon pots from Theodore Payne nursery, planted in my garden at the beginning of February 2009. The hellstrip planting area width is 4 feet. The pictures were taken in August, 2008. This area receives full sun in the summer and partial sun in the winter. After the first 2 years, the grasses have received NO supplemental water from me, although they probably receive a little from the neighbor when he waters his lawn, which starts where these end. Last fall (fall 2007), I divided 2 of these plants and put the (much smaller) divisions on the other end of the hellstrip. The divisions are doing well, are the same height, and are now about 1 foot in diameter.