Another simple fix

The other day I wrote about a little project to level part of my parkway turf, then I wrote about removing vinca from the bed in front of the house. There was another little project I tackled on that same busy weekend.

I had been thinking about this last summer, and probably the summer before too: the Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macra) that's growing between these three rocks.

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I've forgotten which exact cultivar of this wonderful grass I have, as it's been here for several years... perhaps 7 or 8. It's a slowly-spreading grass here, and I planted it between the rocks knowing that at some time the rocks would be getting in the way.

Well, "some time" is here, and the rocks are really confining the grass -- after 8 years even a slow-spreading grass gets pretty large.

You can see how the new grass shoots are being "squeezed", forced lower and lower into the soil. Some have actually tried to come up under the rock:

This grass is no bamboo though, so it can't go as far and deep as it needs to. Time for me to give it more room!

I know I have to move at least one of these rocks. This one is starting to crumble, so I don't want to disturb it:

So it looks like the one in front is the right one to work with.

To move it I just enlarged the hole that it was sitting in and moved the rock about 6" (15cm):

(Why was my rock in a hole? You never want to just plop a rock down on top of the soil -- that looks goofy and the rock never will seem completely integrated with the garden. Bury it a few inches and you'll be much more satisfied with the result.)

Then I used the soil I had just removed to fill in the gap:

I don't expect the grass to spread into this new space until next year at the earliest, but now it has room for a few more years at least.

These small projects are the ones that I love getting done in late winter, before spring really expands my to-do list!

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