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Craig Sailor is the Arts & Entertainment editor at The News Tribune. Last year he planted his first vegetable garden. Focusing on unusual varieties, “Freak of Nature” returns for 2008 with a new crop of uncommon vegetables and flowers. This year he’ll try yin yang beans, giant pumpkins, blue poppies and mutant sunflowers. He gardens at his North End Tacoma home and sneaks seeds in to his mother’s garden at Willapa Bay when she’s not looking. E-mail him at craig.sailor@thenewstribune.com.

Sue Kidd is the Lifestyle Editor at The News Tribune and the ringleader for the Home&Garden section. She is a decent vegetable gardener, but occasionally a tragic mess at growing other stuff. She’ll blog about gardening events, gadgets, her weird obsession with guerrilla gardening and all her assorted garden disasters. E-mail her with thoughts/rants/questions/bizarre observations. sue.kidd@thenewstribune.com.

More gardening blogs:
Greengirl
"Starting seeds, dreading weeds."

You Grow Girl
"Gardening for the people."

Between Plow and Wood
"Meditations on farming, nature, food, art, sustainability, the environment and rural living."

Downtown Tomatoes
"A gardening club for the rest of us."

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Get Growing
A Gardening Blog
Friday, February 29th, 2008
Reader question: How to cut back flax and pampas
Posted by Sue Kidd @ 02:20:52 pm

This just in, another reader question:

Do you know the best way to prune back large pampas grass and New Zealand flax?

Anyone have thoughts?

My neighbors and I attacked a gynormous flax last summer. It's on the west side of her yard. We tried to prune carefully, removing the dead stalks, then trying to reasonably trim the outer layers. The thing was just overgrown and taking up too much space. It wound up looking kind of funky. I have a flax in my back yard, sort of newish, but I imagine it will be a gigantic mess in the next few growing seasons. It is a large variety, not a dwarf. Advice appreciated.

Comment here, or e-mail me at sue.kidd@thenewstribune.com

Categories: Q & A • 1 comment

COMMENTS:

minnieb @ 21:44 - Friday, March 7th, 2008 Email
Pruning Pampas Grass can be quite an ordeal. Be sure to adorn a suit of armor because the blades are serrated and can slice your skin very easily. Sticking a bare arm into one can leave you with the sensation of a hundred paper cuts. Use sharp shears or hedge trimmers for a larger one. Cut the grass blades, but leave the core of the clump. It won't be pretty for awhile, but it'll look cleaner after the new blades grow in.

New Zealand Flax can be a challenge also. Cut out the dead blades and the flopped over ones on the outside of the clump. If your Flax is too big for your space, I would dig it out and plant a smaller variety. Some varieties can get 6 feet tall. They may not look so intimidating when they're sold in a 1 gal pot, but always keep in mind their ultimate size.

Happy Pruning!

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