Another Brown Blog Post (The More I Take Away, the More I See)

The title slide above shows a Panicum ‘Dallas Blues’ exposed by removal of several miscanthus. I knew it was there, but it had no visual impact. Now with the crush of miscanthus gone I can see I want more of this distinctive grass in the garden.

Looks a mess, I know. But it’s another clearance revelation — Here’s a rapidly growing bosque of eight Lindera angustifolia bisected by a pathway. Miscanthus mounds crowding the edges of the path have just been removed. The ground surface is chaos, but chaotic is okay for now. It’s just empty enough to spark my imagination. I’m thinking some low grasses, perhaps Chasmanthium latifolium, amsonia, other groundcover candidates for this newly exposed earth, though choices are limited in this heavy, mostly wet clay. And further up the path, perhaps some of the larger panicums with broad leaves and colors.

Further back in the corner of the garden (above) Carex cherokeensis is spreading as an evergreen groundcover (lower right) in the shade of a red maple. This gives low green cover all year long and interesting flowers in autumn.

The carex makes a prickley, unsettled baseline for the dead stalks of Inula rising through it, as well as the horizontal sketchings of amsonia skeletons, remnants of hydrangea paniculata inflorescences, and dried miscanthus along the stone wall.

Another view into that carex corner … a quiet place but strangely full of a kind of unsettled motion in this season, where now-invisible plants will appear only with the warmth of spring … for example, a nine-foot-tall geometric hedge of hornbeam immediately behind the lichen-encrusted bench. A lower evergreen groundcover might work well surrounding the bench and extending under the hedge, but it will need to be something that will thrive in the dark and the wet (something to give thought to).

Across from the carex corner is this pathway across the prairie garden. Removal of miscanthus has revealed several long-shaded molinias at the lower right (bright yellow) and several orangish Miscanthis purpurescens at right center. This is a smaller and less intrusive miscanthus that I want to use more. I hope the molinia will now have more space and light to grow.

A closer view of the trio of Molinia ‘Skyracer’, Miscanthus purpurescens, and the oversized Miscanthus sinensis.

On the opposite side of the garden, another large Panicum ‘Dallas Blues’ formerly hidden by a screen of miscanthus. You can see a bit of an area I’ve cleared behind this. I’ve already planted a few Aster tartaricus ‘JinDai’ and smaller panicums here, but the season is late and I don’t want to risk more planting before arrival of real winter.

Looking toward the house, you can see probably the largest and oldest Molinia ‘Skyracer’ in the garden. (Before I started the miscanthus removal, I didn’t realize I had quite a few molinia, mostly hidden under or behind miscanthus, so this has been a welcome surprise. With the new space and light I hope to see these growing larger and wider as spring arrives.) Even in collapse, the bright yellow of the molinia reminds me of Rumplestilskin weaving his skein of gold. And the color contrasts beautifully with the black seedpods of baptisia in the back left and the black rumpled rods of dead Silphium perfoliatum to the right.

I’m making plant lists to order for spring, but I do have quite a bit to work with in the garden already. Here, more miscanthus of course, Chasmanthium latifolium, Aster tartaricus ‘JinDai’, Pennisetum ‘Moudry’, Baptisia australis and, still hidden, some fine Sanguisorbas, Panicum ‘Cape Breeze’, Patrinia scabiosifolia, and many ferns, woodland groundcovers, shrubs and other perennials.

These two little autumn-blond grasses, Panicum ‘Cape Breeze’, one to either side of a baptisia, have surprised me after a trial in the higher part of the garden. They are much smaller than other panicums so they should help create a few areas of much lower growth than typical in my garden, letting in more light and air. Will they succeed in the lower, wetter parts of the garden? Other panicums do. I hope so.

And here two bunches of Chasmanthium latifolium at either end of the small terrace pool show their orangish hue. This is certainly one of the most versatile and generally pleasing grasses available to me, considering my wet, woodland edge ecology. They have a reputation for wildly self-seeding, but not on my heavy clay, which easily tames them. And, as you can see, accompany the blond Panicum ‘Cape Breeze’ well, as well as the mostly hidden blond of Pennisetum ‘Moudry’, just visible behind the pool.

Just below the house a pathway rises, curving by a small pond, around and up onto the gravel terrace outside the house—a well-travelled and familiar route, probably at its wildest looking now, in rainy winter. Perhaps the plantings lining this walkway could benefit from two or three humps or bumps to add rhythm.

Is this a model for a kind of wild simplicity? Wild … wild above all.

The spirit of this place.