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Hi - I haven't weighed in on this discussion of meadow grasses sooner, because I am so ambivalent about the meadow in my own garden. I've had a "meadow" for two years and I still ask myself, "What's a meadow?" I think I have learned a few things. I know that there is no perfect meadow grass and everything planted is an experiment - an adventure, especially if one has unending energy to rip out and start again. Finding the right grass means considering: dormancy, watering and how much aggressiveness the meadow owner can tolerate. Because of my experimental nature I have two dominant areas in my meadow. More than half is what I used to call Carex pansa, now, I believe often named, Carex praegracilis. The other half is made up of Creeping Red Fescue. I started the pansa with 85 cent plugs and the fescue with a $6 bag of seed - covers about 100 square feet.

I've had this meadow, with two basic grasses separated by a conveyer belt path, for two years. There was a paddle tennis court here for 25 years. Rubble was stacked on what been the court for a year. The only plants that grew were 2 two-foot high sunflowers. I didn't need to worry about weeds. Before planting we covered the area with some mulch, then planted into the hardpan. Today, Muhlenbergia rigens and M. lindheimeri grow randomly in the meadow. I haven't tried planting wildflowers. Looking at it gives me great pleasure. I like wild and wooly things more than sharp edges. I've only mowed the meadow once, this April. The pansa looked good afterward - something like a lawn. The gorgeous green fescue was covering lots of dead grass. In a month the pansa started looking like its old curly-headed mass; the fescue looked spotty and unkempt all summer. Each plant has its problems - and leads me to keep looking for something better.

PANSA The rhizomes on the pansa creep quickly and quietly under my broken concrete hardscape, stacked wall and conveyer belt. I never know when I have to remove my "hook tool" from the garage and fish out roots. A gardener mows the lawn in the front yard. I've never ask him to dig out the pansa, because that's my job. Originally, I planted the wily stuff between stepping stones. It took me 6 months to realize that if I didn't remove it, I would have a pansa garden. I think I am more neurotic than my friends about plants that I can't control. I like to know I can depend on a plant to, more or less, stay where I put it. I think I like controlled freedom.

FESCUE The fescue, which was first temporary, is a brilliant emerald green. It's a long grass and bends as if it would be happier on a hillside than in my meadow. The problem is grubs - which make brown spots. I favor the shovel over spray, but in spite of bare spots I haven't been able to get myself to remove this grass because of its gorgeous color. The other problem is that it reseeds mightily into the pansa. I have to remind myself - that's what a meadow does. The pansa just creeps.

The first year I fertilized the meadow twice. I've cut the watering to once a week during the summer, rarely during the winter. I know here in cool Santa Monica that I'm watering too much. Of course the fescue needs a lot more water than the pansa.

I have lots of different Carexes in the garden. They are well-behaved and grow in nice round clumps.

I do have a grass lead that I haven't pursued. During research on a garden story for a Palm Springs magazine, I spoke with a University of California researcher who told me that in, what I guess would be a year from now, the university was going to introduce a Buffalo type grass that did not go dormant in winter. He said it would require little water or mowing. He was excited about it.

Sorry about my kvetching (complaining). In spite of the work, I would never trade a meadow for a lawn.

Ellen Hoffs
Santa Monica, CA
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