Rough Grass & Cut Grass:- What’s the difference and how are they used in landscape design?

As a working designer, it is easy to take for granted garden elements that designers use on a daily basis, but for the general public and my students  at the Oxford College of Garden Design the difference between rough grass and cut crass is a question that crops up year after year.

Grass is probably the cheapest surfacing materials we use in gardens, and just by varying its height it can be considered one of the most useful elements as well.

Cut grass is the same as lawn. It is grass that is kept regularly mown, usually on a weekly basis during the growing season. It is kept free of weeds and bulbs and can vary in use from bowling green to children's play area.

Rough grass is lawn that has been allowed to grow longer and is usually cut just twice a year. It can contain wild flowers for summer interest and bulbs for spring colour, because you do not mow it until July, after the bulbs have died down and the wild flowers have self seeded.

In design terms, it can just be ordinary lawn which is allowed to grow longer, so providing a ground pattern that helps the designer steer the visitor in a desired direction. (people will walk on cut grass but not on rough grass)

You can also use rough grass as a sculptural form, to provide patterns on the ground which are particularly effective, when viewed from above or  planted on sloping ground so the design pattern can be appreciated.
My garden taken this spring
I regularly use rough grass round trees as a way of protecting the tree from damage by lawn mowers and strimmers and to prevent that nasty piece of tufty grass round the trucks, that would otherwise be left after mowing.

If the designer is starting from scratch, I would recommend using a fine grass seed mixtures that spreads via underground rhizome i.e. Creeping Red Fescue and Brown Top rather than clump forming varieties like dwarf rye grass otherwise any existing lawn can be turned into rough grass areas.

Rough grass can dramatically reduce maintenance and irrigation costs, as it saves on mowing time and is never irrigated.

In warmer climates during the summer the rough grass should be allowed to turn golden brown and if smaller, softer varieties are used, can give the impression of prairie grasslands and look beautiful when blowing in the wind.
At the end of summer a final cut can be given in September/October so the lawn is short enough not to obscure spring bulbs the following season.

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One Size Doesn’t Fit All: EU Legislation Could Ban the Sale of 100’s Common Garden Plants

Gardeners may be required to dig up and burn many of our favourite garden plants and Garden Centres and Nurseries, banned from selling 100’s of shrubs and herbaceous plants because of new EU legislation.

The EU has announced today that they are planning to ban the sale of 100’s of plants across Europe to stem to flow of invasive alien species (IAS).  A good idea in principal, however this proposal is poorly thought through and; like so many EU directives “one size doesn’t fit all”

One mans weed is another mans prize specimen and what might be considered invasive in one country, could be considered hard to grow in another.  The problem is that this legislation doesn’t take this into account. 100’s of our favourite garden plants, could be caught up in this blanket ban.

This would mean it would be illegal to sell for example rhododendrons because Rhododendron ponticum (a very invasive species) is in the parentage of as many as 300 garden plants. This doesn’t mean that all these are invasive, however the Royal Horticultural Society are very concerned about the lack of clarity around the new powers.

Back in September 2013 the European Commission outlined its plans to tackle the continent's invasive species. IAS are non-native plants or animals that have no natural predators, spread rapidly and overwhelm an area's native flora and fauna

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). held a conference in Switzerland and as a result of this the EU came up with a ban on the possession, transport, selling or growing of species deemed as of "Union Concern".

The list was originally going to be restricted to 50, but will now have no limit. It is not clear which species will be banned.

Wednesday's report from the Environmental Audit Committee welcomes the strengthening of the rules. Committee chairwoman Joan Walley MP said: "The UK has to be ready to take on board the step changes that there will be as a result of the European decision.

Unfortunately for gardeners, Ms Walley who obviously isn’t a gardener herself, does appreciate the implications behind this legislation.

The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) currently has its own guidelines on restricted species.So why do we need further legislation from the EU?

Nobody is denying that IAS are a problem, but If this is allowed to go ahead, gardeners could be sleep waling into a situation where their favourite garden plants are considered illegal to sell and grow.

 

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Buying Wholesale Plants: Tips & Tricks

One of the hardest things to source as a newly qualified garden/landscape designer is a good supplier of trade plants.  I never buy from Garden Centres as I consider them too expensive (Plants  can have a 200% mark-up on them) 

So here are my top ten tips, I tell my students for sourcing and buying plants from trade nurseries.



1. To buy from trade nurseries you must be a trade customer. While some nurseries offer both retail and wholesale, most trade nurseries do not accept orders from the public, so be prepared to provide proof of your trade status when you first make contact.

2. Always visit a nursery in person before ordering from them for the first time.  Many trade nurseries would want you to make an appointment to visit them rather than you just turning up on spec. Check to see how clean and tidy the nursery is, as this is often a good indication as to how good their plants are.  If the nursery is untidy or has weeds growing in the pots or in the display aisles, this is not a good sign and indicates a certain level of neglect.

3. You often have to order a minimum number of each plant, usually that’s 10 or more of the same variety.

4. In the industry we have 2 levels of plant quality, landscape and garden centre quality. For private gardens you must use garden centre quality plants and I would always stress at the time of order, that I will only accept the very best and will reject anything that is not us to scratch. With some nurseries I would prefer to hand pick my plants in order to guarantee the standard, and suggest until you know and trust your nursery you do the same.

5. Don’t be afraid to reject substandard plants, but this does mean you have to be present when the order is delivered, so they are returned on the same lorry as they arrive. The nurseries will very quickly realise that you can’t be fobbed-off with poor quality stock.

6. Herbaceous perennial plants grow and mature very quickly so order P9 size plants where possible (small square pots) rather than 1-2 litre pot size.  This means you will need to order them in good time and collect your plants in early spring before the nurseries start potting up.  If you don’t, you could end up with a plant costing twice as much and all you get for your money is a larger pot and more soil.

7. Buy plants at the right time of year.  I personally don’t like planting herbaceous plants in autumn as they don’t have long enough to get established before they go dormant for the winter.  This may result in a much higher mortality rate.  Instead I prefer to plant in spring, when I can see the young plants actively growing and they have a whole season to get established.

8. Some plants are only available at certain times of the year.  Grasses have traditionally been most abundant in nurseries from August through to October, and are much harder to get in the spring as most of the stock will have been sold the previous year and new stock takes time to grow.

9. Plants that take longer to mature i.e.shrubs and trees should always be purchased as large as possible.  I prefer to buy semi mature shrubs to give my borders an instant sense of maturity.  The money I save on buying small herbaceous plants can be spent on larger shrubs.  Semi mature trees are cheap!  You can buy an 8m Beach or Oak for between £250-£400  Don’t buy garden centre size trees as it may be decades before your garden looks like the way you intend it to look.

10. Use plants you know you can get hold of!  It’s no good specifying a rare plant that only one nursery in the world grows and then, only propagates 10 a year, because the chances are they won’t be available when you need them.  I use my nursery catalogues to choose the plants that I want and I try to order as early in the season as possible to ensure they have not run out of stock.  If they have, then I always choose the substitutes.  Most nurseries will offer substitutes, but a good designer will always go back to the drawing board and redo the plan with available stock.

    To see a list of trade nurseries I use in the UK click here

    
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