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A French-Inspired Garden and Home by Judith Stringham

Potting Natural Grasses

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

As Spring awakens and rises from her deep sleep, 
wild blooming flowers appear with their cheery blooms blowing to and fro. 
Hundreds grow in the prairies, woods, pastures, 
EVERYWHERE. 


Some wild flowering grasses have tiny blossoms that are hard to see individually, but cast a faint colorful haze when hundreds grow together in a roadside patch. Hundreds of these flowers grow in the ditches near my drive. 





Others look familiar like these white Crow's Poison that grow from bulbs and fool some into thinking they are wild onions. Crow's Poison is mildly toxic if eaten and should not be ingested. Hundreds of them grow throughout our yard and woods. Each Spring they return. 




After buying wheat grass for an Easter basket, I decided to dig up some of these wild flowering grasses to pot in small rustic clay pots. Do you have the urge to dig in the dirt each Spring, also? 




A large pad of graph paper, 17" x 22", from the office supply store works nicely to protect the breakfast table from the soil, from moisture, and from scratches from the clay pots. When the top sheet gets dirty, a new clean surface appears by tearing off the top sheet. The pad's thickness keeps water from soaking through to the wood table. The pad is great for all kinds of projects that are messy from painting to gluing to potting. 




The pots can only hold small amounts of the flowering grasses with soil surrounding their roots. Since the wild grasses' flowers are small the size of the pots are in proportion to them. Bigger pots would overwhelm the small flowers. 




A larger clump of mixed grasses, Crow's Poison, and the tiny purple flowers fits inside a clear flower vase that allows the plants' root systems to be visible. 




This close view of the wild grasses lets us see the many small flowering grasses growing mixed together. 




The blue lobelia plant in the metal container is not a wild, native plant, but is a bedding plant from the local nursery. 
Many people love large showy cultivated flowers like hydrangeas, peonies, and roses, (myself included), but there is something about wild, straggly, native plants that speaks to my country roots. These sturdy little plants survive year-to-year without any extra loving care.  




Do you know the name of this tiny grass/wildflower? After hours of searching online sites for Texas grasses and wildflowers, I was not able to identify this little plant. 




Many wildflower online sites include pictures and information about Crow's Poison which grows all across the Southeast. 




All finished! See how I used these little pots of wild grasses/wildflowers in my next post. Any guesses? 




Have you been digging in the dirt at your house? Do you have any grasses or wildflowers that speak to your country roots? 

Okay.  Here is a little peek at the next post that suggests how I used these little pots of wild flowering grasses. Any guesses now? 




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Please join me at these inspiring places for more joy of living. 
SUNDAY
Dishing It and Digging It @ Rustic and Refined

MONDAY

TUESDAY