Caught in the Grass

If you wanted to design an instrument for catching and holding cottonwood leaves as they drift from canopy to ground, you could not design anything better than the blue fescue grasses I have planted by the dining room windows.

Each of my five clumps of grasses (Festuca idahoensis 'Siskiyou Blue') is the perfect form to capture leaves. These pictures show how they do that. I had hand-pulled leaves out of each clump in the seven minutes before these shots. Seven minutes later the grasses were adorned again with leaves spaced nicely between thin fronds and held fast against any more wind.

You couldn't place these leaves with any more precision than the wind does. It carefully positions each cottonwood leaf just so among the harp strings of the grass.

I was frustrated, pulling leaves out, trying to keep the clumps of grass uncongested. Then I gave up. The wind wants the leaves to decorate the grasses, and the grasses want the company of dry leaves and everyone was happy except the gardener.

So the gardener gave in, and says "I planned this. I wanted blue fescue grasses and dried cottonwood leaves to intermingle, and I am clever to have done that so well. Look how the grass fronds capture the leaves and display them to their best effect."

I went from frustrated gardener to celebrated design genius in a snap.