Amazingly, time to cut the grass

When I was growing up in suburban Chicago, the only summer chore we had that was even remotely garden-related was cutting the grass. Maybe you call it "mowing the lawn". Whatever. The act of pushing a mower over the turf grass that covered your yard. Not a favorite activity of pretty much any kid. I remember only two things about cutting the grass in the summers of my youth: the self-propelled mower with the handle that would actually fold over the top of the mower if you pushed too fast (how did I never lose any toes?), and the after-mowing reward of an ice-cold glass bottle of RC Cola in the almost-as-cold basement in front of the Cubs game on TV.

All of that has almost nothing to do with today's gardening project, except that grass is involved. And cutting. Not turf grass though -- ornamental "purple fountain grass". In fact, the small plants that I've been overwintering. They're thriving now, as I expected.

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The thing is, they're doing so well that they're taking over the growing table, and hogging more than their fair share of the light:

So I'm going to give them a little trimming. I would normally cut them pretty low, but some of them are growing a little strangely, creating these "clusters" above ground, so I'll have to cut higher:

In another month or so these may start to produce root stubs -- that's what happened to some of these plants over the summer. At that time I'll be able to cut them from the parent plant and pot them up, producing even more plants (which is my goal for these grasses this year -- I want a "mass planting" of these grasses this year, and that means as many plants as I can generate).

They've got a good amount of normal basal growth too:

So time to bring out the mower...

This is about as simple as it gets: just grab a handful of leaves and snip!

But first, I want to enjoy the lovely arching foliage for a minute...

Ok, mow away!

Unlike a lawn of turf grasses that look better after a mowing, I can't say that these ornamentals look better:

They will use less water now, and will hopefully produce even more leaves and stems. They have the same "freshly-mowed lawn" smell as an actual lawn too. Ahhhh...

With that smell in the air I can forget about the ice that is building up on all of the bamboos outside, bending them down and potentially breaking many of the culms. I can also forget about the half foot of snow that will follow the ice tomorrow, with periods of more ice mixed in.

A deep breath and that smell tells me that it's summer again, and that spring is just around the corner.

Wait, what?!