Field Grasses

[Patty S]

The field next to us is all dead & dry now, since we don't have much summer rain here.

It's a good thing that someone mowed it in July, cuz in past years it wasn't being mowed, & was a real concern for those of us living on the edges of it.  All it would take is a careless cigarette tossed out a car window from the street below, to ignite the whole thing. We all had to mow our own firebreaks along our property lines, but that was actually not a whole lot of comfort for us, as we had a field in Montana that we grew alfalfa or oats on, & after the harvest, that stubble would actually burn faster than the tall spots that were left! Last year while visiting with our Fire Chief, I mentioned the neglected field, & he must have looked up the owner & said something to him, cuz it's been mowed every few months, since!

ANYWAY... that wasn't what I intended to talk about! As I was saying, the field is all dead & dry now, except for a strip that's about 3 feet wide, right next to my Iris row, where it gets the run-off when I water the plants on the hill above the Iris. I noticed today that those grasses are heading up & making seeds, so I got out the weed eater after dinner & wacked them down... but not before I took a few pics! (I don't know the names of any of these.)

There's one kind of grass that I think is really pretty when the breeze blows & it "ripples", but I don't want it in our yard or on our hill, so it had to come down.
     

Another one is just a pain in the rear, cuz it's very prolific & will take off anywhere it can.  This is a HUGE pest in my gardens!
     
    Sorry... didn't have a nickel with me, but that's a close-up!

The REAL demon grass is next to my Deer Barrier garden. I wouldn't even call it "grass", cuz it's more like plants... complete with a rhizome-type root! It's pretty enough, cuz it's the nice big kind that you can slip a blade reed from & chew on it (like the "redneck hayseeds" do, according to BG!) It's really sweet tasting, but I've been working on this patch of grass for 3 years now, & can't seem to stay ahead of it!
     
(I didn't get a pic of the grass before I cut it down, but you can see a couple of the wide, dark green blades next to the root, in the pic above.)

That "root" isn't where it stops though!  With a shovel, you can get down to the real "meat" of this plant, & see how it spreads so easily!
     
It's extremely draught tolerant, & must be in the "super duper hardy" classification!  It's a genuine PAIN! Care must be taken when this is dug out, cuz even a little piece of it will generate a whole new plant!
 (Now why won't flowers do that?!)

[Jim]

The first picture sure looks like the foxtail that Franny had in the mystery topic. 

The second one looks very similiar to the dreaded bermuda grass. 

[patches]

Here's a picture of some of my Bermuda Grass.