This 5 Minute Garden Job With a $4 Dog Comb in August Saves Me Hours of Weeding in Spring
Give ornamental grasses a quick groom in late summer and you'll get rid of thousands of seeds that’ll be weeds by April.
- TIME: 5 minutes
- RATING: Easy
- REWARD: Saves hours of weeding
Ornamental grasses bring a wonderful structure of golden stems that lasts all through winter and – less lovely – a mass of seedlings that I used to spend hours weeding out of borders every spring. I’m really not a fan of weeding, so I’ve come up with a novel solution that works a treat: using a $4 metal dog comb to give my grasses a groom in August. And this is a weekend win you simply can't afford to ignore if you want to reduce weeds in your garden, too.
Grooming ornamental grasses in late summer is a useful weed prevention step because it removes any seeds that aren’t firmly attached, and safely deposits them in a bucket. Most ornamental grasses produce an inordinate number of seeds and it’s estimated the most prolific varieties can produce up to a million seeds in one season. These tiny, lightweight seeds, typically held high in highly-branched plumes where they catch the breeze, are easily dispersed to self-seed all around a garden.
And don’t worry for a second that this five-minute gardening job will affect how beautiful your grasses look all through fall and winter. Any seedheads that are well-attached stay in place, and will be removed when you prune old stems in early spring.
The Best Comb For Grooming Ornamental Grasses
I have many species of grasses growing in my low-maintenance garden and I’ve tried all sorts of different combs to find the most effective type. My tool of choice is a metal dog comb such as this $4 8-inch dog comb from Amazon. It's strong, and the end with closely-spaced teeth is great for grooming smaller grasses and those with super-fine blades like Stipa Tenuissima ‘Pony Tails’ (Mexican feather grass), while the less-dense tines work better for bigger grasses such as Stipa gigantea (golden oats).
How to Groom an Ornamental Grass in August
All you need to do is gently comb through the blades of grass from base to tip.
Any loose seedheads will be removed, and you'll be surprised how many come off with just a gentle groom. All those could have grown into weeds!
Collect the excess seed in a bucket. As you’ll know all too well if you grow ornamental grasses, grass seed is resilient and quick and eager to grow, so be careful how you dispose of them. If you regularly turn your compost pile to accelerate decomposition, it may reach high enough temperatures to destroy seed viability, but I don’t like to take the risk so I put these garden groomings in my collected green waste bin.
Some ornamental grass blades can irritate and even cut skin so it’s a wise idea to wear gloves. I find nitrile gloves such as these $2 Expert Gardener Gardening Gloves from Walmart give good grip and dexterity as well as protection. And don’t make the same mistake I did last year and wear black jeans!
Why it's Well Worth Doing
Not only does a quick grass-grooming save me hours of weeding, it also improves the look of these plants through late summer and fall. Many ornamental grasses are bred to flower profusely and, as these dry into seedheads, the stems can become a tangled, matted clump. This stops the plants from moving freely, which is one of the most attractive aspects of ornamental grasses at this time of the year. By removing some of the seedheads, you restore movement, and allow the beauty of individual stems to be appreciated.
If you’ve used ornamental grasses to plant a natural privacy screen, this separation of stems makes for a more effective, airy barrier to block nosy neighbours too.
Many ornamental grasses have been triggered by this summer's heatwave to flower and seed even more heavily than usual, as a survival response.
Taking five minutes to give your ornamental grasses a quick groom with a cheap metal dog comb in August is such an easy win, and will save you from having to pluck out thousands of germinated seeds come spring. Because no matter how fabulous a plant is, if it's growing where it's not wanted, it's a weed!
Add this quick task to your list of August gardening jobs, and it will save you hours of weeding too.
More Garden Weekend Wins
This August Weekend Win is part of a series of quick and easy gardening jobs to help you create a beautiful backyard with the minimum work. There's still time to do last weekend's win, trimming lavender in August so it has time to grow a duvet of dense foliage before winter.
