New Book Arrived

Looks like a good book Paul .
Plenty to choose from .

Yes, I saw it in the library a few weeks ago and decided to get it as I plan to have a mainly grasses border in my new back garden!

Will await results .

Great aren't they Amazon? No excuses now!

Well, I may make the excuse that I can't find the plants Waddy..got a feeling some of the grasses I want will be difficult to get hold of

On to the internet again then Paul. :)

Visited one of the large garden Centres, locally,yesterday.I was mainly looking at greenhouses and sheds but was really surprised that they had quite a good selection of grasses...evergreen and deciduous! So, may be visiting later in the year!

Good luck, Paul, with your new garden plans :o)

Thanks Tt....made a start of clearing an area today...ready for the garden shed!
Lots to do before I can start planning,digging and planting borders.

Good progress :o)

Good luck with your new project Paul , I'm planning on planting more grasses round our gravel entrance drive this year it will soften the edges also I don't think it will hurt too much if a car occasionally drives over one ...

Yes...they are good for gravel but I will plant in borders with a few herbaceous plants!

Paul, that sounds a great idea. You could always have a look at Knoll Gardens' website . . . they specialise in grasses and have a massive selection. Hope you'll include some Imperata (Japanese blood grass), "everyone" loves it!

Yes,Sheila, I'd like to include some reds ...most of the red grasses aren't fully hardy. In fact, I remember asking Neil Lucas(owner of Knoll Gardens) at a question and answer session at Wisley, about red grasses...it was so long ago, I can't rem'ber what he said fully.
A year or so before that I had visited Knoll gardens when staying in the New Forest...I could quite easily(and happily) have filled up my car boot with grasses fro his nursery but, at that time, I was at my old garden which was full to bursting.I will have to get what I can locally then source others by mail order.

There are so many grasses that have similar names, aren't there, but you're obviously on the right track if you've met Neil Lucas! I think it was a Pennisetum rubra that I had once that wasn't hardy, but the Imperata should be fine.

Yes, he mentioned any with Rubra won't be hardy but this seemed strange as Rubra surely means red in Latin . A lot of pennies toms are sold in markets ,garden centres etc as hardy when they actually aren't.

Hi you two , I'll certainly look at the Knoll Garden as I want more grasses this year !
I've just received my book from Amazon " No Nettles Required ". It is about wildlife gardening . I must have read a review of the author , Ken Thompson , somewhere and decided I must have a book by him .
A bit dangerous that Amazon though , one click and it's yours . Rather immediate .

Ha ha...but, you can never have too many gardening books,though, can you?

Actually, I think perhaps 63 gardening books Was just a bit too many, so I've started to "weed" (sorry) them out, and am giving them to a good cause.

(Just remembered, I've ordered Keith Wiley's book on Shade from Heffers, my old bookshop, so that'll be 64 then . . . ooops!)

Sheila !!!!
It can be like that with cookery books , too , if you're not careful .

Oh, I'm OK with cookery books Driad (phew) . . . my half dozen old ones are fine. Not that keen on being in the kitchen for too long (unless eating is involved, lol).

:O))) !

good luck, but I'e heard that bamboo can be a @@!! to get rid of if you ever decide to take it out. Please keep us updated!

Depends which kind of Bamboo Fran....some send sucker out all over the place but most of the Philostachys types are clump forming so ok!

lol ok, my knowledge of bamboo stops very soon after it begins. But there's been questions on GQT and others about how to finally get rid of bamboo - they must have planted the wrong types. I've seen pygmy bamboo, which I'm sort of hankering after, but I'd have to find a way to keep it contained, just in case.

Yes.......an old bucket or large plastic pot with the bottom cut out and put in the planting hole would help.

hope so! but it'll be some time before I'm ready for taht. Hope yours comes up sooner