February 24, 2017 – Cutting back Maidenhair grass – Miscanthus sinensis

          This week has been especially warm in the garden here in the North Carolina and now Saturday and Sunday we are expecting a cold front that will probably nix all the beautiful flowering trees.  My Bradford pears, Forsythia, and Lonicerea fragrantissima [winter honeysuckle] are all in bloom.  The show-stopper is the flowering quince at the mailbox garden.  The prettiest it has ever been.  Also, the corkscrew and weeping willows have their first tinge of green leaves and lots of crocus and daffodils are in bloom.  Lastly, of course, the scourge of my land the weed, Henbit, is in its glory.

          The weather has been warm enough so that I don’t even have to layer my garden clothing.  I just wear long sleeves so that I don’t get my forearms cut by the sharp dry Maidenhair grass.  I cut to the ground a few of the largest ones the end of January, and I have been dallying a bit on the last two groups as I want to work in warmer weather and sit on a “warmer” ground on a non-windy day.

          I have two ways of cutting them back.  I use a pruning saw or I use a pair of snippers.  I use a Kobalt angle saw – which is pretty handy.  It is lightweight.  I sit on the ground on a folded up old yoga pad and take a handful of grass and bend it to the ground and then cut if off in a jiffy with the saw.  I then neatly set that handful aside and make nice neat piles so that cleanup isn’t a hassle.

           Or, I use my Melnor 83300 Garden Snips – which I buy 2 or 3 pairs at a time each year.  I wear them out, but they fit my hand, they don’t hurt my hand and they are my “go-to” for most of my gardening needs.    I am very rough on them, so they don’t last.  I even snip the roots of weeds in the soil with them – so you can see why they don’t last.  But, I have a collection of them so I know when they are just about worn out – I use those for snipping dandelion roots below the soil.

          Again, when I work on the cutting back of the maidenhair grass I often lay a large tarp along the base of one or two of them, plunk my yoga mat on top and sit and cut away – putting the handful of cuttings on the tarp so I don’t have to go back and rack the cuttings up.

          Prior to sitting down – I take a leaf rake [I have one with a lightweight fiberglass handle that I love] and I take the rake, turn it upside down and force the prongs into the base of the Maidenhair and pull up and I get a rakeful of those “curls” that are so sharp on the forearms.  I coax those curls off the rake onto the tarp and I go once around the clump before I start.  Then, I can easily sit down in front of the clump without them in my face as I cut with my snippers or saw.

          When the tarp is half full – I get up, wrap it up like an eggroll – that is tucking the ends in and grasping both long sides and carry it to the special “maidenhair only” compost pile and dump it.

          Last week I did seven maidenhair grass clumps at the far side of our sweeping back lawn.  I was out of the house early with my cup of coffee and I was done by the time my husband had made his breakfast, washed his dishes and was bringing Jack dog out for his morning walk with the kitchen compost pail to be dumped in the compost bin.  “You sure made fast work at that.”

          If there is one thing my husband admires when he sits and watches me in the garden, it is my garden cleanup or my weeding.  Often he says, “You make that look easy.”

          Part of me actually enjoys the weeding because I am in complete control and when it is done I can sit, bask in the sun and enjoy the satisfaction of “weed-free-ness”.

          Yes, fast work – that is what you need to do with Maidenhair – find the right tool, clip or cut, and keep your cuttings neat so that you don’t waste precious gardening time raking up difficult wisps and grass blades that want to go anywhere except where you want them.

          Hopefully, you too can get out in the garden soon and enjoy the spring sunshine and your awakening from winter gardens.