Moudry: overdue attention

A couple of months ago I posted that I was going to dig up the dozens of 'Moudry' fountain grass seedlings that have been peppering the lawn in this area for the last two or three years. Because of the summer's drought I didn't mow very often, allowing the ever-present seedlings to mature a bit.

I dug some of them up back then, but now it's time for all of them to go. I really should have done this a month ago.

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Here's another view of the area:

Although it looks pretty nice having these in a mass planting, I won't be fooled. This grass reseeds too readily, even in thick (well, somewhat thick) lawn.

The seed heads are a bit too ripe for comfort:

I'm pretty sure that some of these seeds have dropped already, or are just about to.

No more delay -- time to dig these out:

I got more soil than I really wanted with most of these:

But the seedlings have finally been removed!

I decided not to leave so much soil with each rootball, so I laid each clump into the bare area:

Then whacked with the spade a few times to loosen the soil:

That's looking better!

Unfortunately, the job isn't finished yet: I need to cut down the attractive but troublesome seed heads. For most of my ornamental grasses I use a chainsaw (when I cut them in late winter), and I tried using my reciprocating saw on this one.

That was a bad idea, as the saw vibrated the stems so much that seed went flying!

Good thing I don't have a big patch of bare soil here, eager to catch some troublesome grass seeds.

Oh, wait -- that's exactly what I have. Sigh.

So I switched to loppers. More effort, but necessary for this.

The plants are cut down now:

I decided to leave one extra clump of this intact. The one plant I had looked a bit out of place, so I'll try two next year. I don't know that 'Moudry' comes true from seed, so I'll see if the new plant (or plants as I'm pretty sure there are more than just one seedling in that new clump) looks any different than the parent.

Chances are I'll have plenty more of these growing by mid-summer. Grrr.

Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Moudry'. More trouble than it's worth.

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