Planting gray fescue and rules for caring for cereals

Gray fescue (Kale Island) is a highly decorative perennial plant of the Zlakovy family. The unusual color of the leaves-blades of grass and the rare unpretentiousness have won the hearts of gardeners who pay special attention to the design of their sites. Gray fescue is easy to plant and requires minimal maintenance, which increases its attractiveness.

Description and varietal features

Gray fescue is a herbaceous bush-curtain up to 60 cm high. The narrow long leaves are painted in gray-blue, silvery-green, ashy colors, for which they are often given the corresponding names - ash fescue, blue fescue. It is noteworthy that the shade of the leaves often changes with weather conditions.

The narrow evergreen leaves of fescue have an unusual shape for cereals - they are thin tubes, which gives the bush an unconventional look, and also saves moisture. Spherical bushes are dense, prone to overgrowth. The root system is small, formed by thick, thin roots.

Calle's fescue blooms in the first half of summer. Although the flowers are small and inconspicuous, in general the plant looks spectacular: the inflorescences-spikelets seem to float in the air on thin stalks.

For the decoration of flower beds, varieties of fescue are often used by gray from domestic seed producers.

• Glacial Titmouse - herb bush about 40 cm high, blue-gray tubular leaves. It does not require special care, however, it is prone to freezing in snowless cold winters.
• Lapis lazuli - compact dense bush, not exceeding 20 cm. The color of the leaves is steel, with a blue tint. Unpretentious, grown mainly in the middle lane as a ground cover plant.
• Blue Bump - a tall spherical bush with azure-blue leaves. Ideal for poor and dry soils.

For planting on the site, they acquire varieties and forms of fescue, zoned for a given area. When choosing, they pay attention to the peculiarities of growing the variety, since there are also lovers of wet places (Azurit), and those requiring frequent watering (Blaufuchs). This applies to varieties of European selection.

Planting methods

All fescue grows with pleasure in well-lit places. In the hottest, sun-dried areas, they feel great. This feature is used in the design of the southern and eastern slopes of the alpine hills. But they are poorly adapted to the shade, they lose their exquisite color.

When choosing a planting site, it is important to consider that the plant does not like piercing winds and drafts.

Fescue is also unusual in that it does not require fertile soil. Loose, with good air permeability, soil that dries quickly after rain is most suitable for the plant. To exclude stagnant water, which is detrimental to the roots, it is often necessary to put a drainage layer at the planting sites. Clay areas are easily structured by adding sand and rotted compost, but no more than 3 liters of mixture per square meter.

Preparing a site for planting fescue consists of digging up the soil and removing weeds.

Seed planting

When growing species forms, one of three options is used:

• direct sowing in open ground;
• seedling method;
• self seeding transplant.

All options are equally good, seedlings easily take root in place, but with direct sowing, seedlings appear earlier.

The cultivation of varietal fescue from seeds, if they are collected on their own, is not recommended, since the plant loses the qualities inherent in the variety, including resistance to frost.

Sowing seeds in open ground is carried out with the onset of stable warm weather in the spring or shortly before the onset of cold weather in the fall according to the following algorithm.

1. Self-collected seeds are etched in a solution of potassium permanganate. Those purchased in a specialized store do not need additional processing.
2. Dig holes for sowing seeds 5 cm deep, the distance between them is at least 10 cm.
3. Several seeds are placed in each hole (the lush shape of the bushes will form earlier with this sowing).
4. The seeds are covered with earth, tamped, watered.

The sprouts appear in 2-3 weeks.

Seedlings are grown from the beginning of May according to the following technique.

1. The substrate for germinating seeds is selected lightweight, with good moisture and air permeability.
2. Seeds are laid out on the surface of the soil mixture, sprayed with water from a spray bottle.
3. The seedling container is covered with foil and placed in a warm place with good lighting. In a greenhouse, seeds germinate in a few days.
4. When shoots appear, the container is transferred to a cool windowsill. At lower temperatures, the seedlings will not stretch out and will not lie on the ground.
5. After the formation of two true leaves, the seedlings dive. For growing, several of them are placed in separate containers.

In the first half of May, seedlings are planted in a permanent place in the garden. The landing pattern can be any:

• dotted line - at a distance of half a meter between specimens;
• linearly (for the decoration of borders) or a continuous carpet - with an interval of 15-20 cm.

They treat the seedlings with utmost care: excess moisture, even the smallest, leads to decay of the root system.

Vegetative way

Vegetative propagation of fescue with glaucous is practiced for varietal plants. It is combined with transplanting or dividing overgrown bushes.

The optimal timing is early spring, before the start of sap flow, or autumn, when the plant is preparing for the winter dormant period.

Procedure for spring division of the bush:

1. dig out bushes that are heavily overgrown or intended for transplantation;
2. neatly with a sharp knife divide them into parts, trying to minimize the earthen lump;
3. delenki are planted in the designated places;
4. the middle part of the bush, which violates the decorative effect of the plantings, is removed and no longer used.

The optimum age for fescue fescue is at least two years.

If vegetative propagation is scheduled for autumn, they act according to a different algorithm, which allows preserving the winter hardiness of fescue.

1. The mother bush is dug up with a clod of earth.
2. It is placed in a container and determined for wintering in a cold place (2-5 ° C) with good lighting and low humidity - a cold veranda, a greenhouse empty in winter, etc.
3. At the end of winter or early spring, the bush is divided, the cuttings are placed in containers with a substrate (garden soil, humus and sand in equal parts).

Disembarkations are planted in open ground in late May - early June.

With any method of planting, it is preferable to plant several specimens of fescue in one hole so that young plants will not "get lost" next to their neighbors.

Blue fescue care

Fescue is so unassuming that it requires little or no maintenance.

Watering is very rare and sparse. Abundant watering is required only immediately after planting / transplanting. The expression “it is better to underfill than to pour” is applicable to fescue, so indifferently it tolerates drought. During the planting season, fescue is irrigated 2-3 times.

Mulching the soil next to the fescue bushes with decorative materials additionally gives two positive results: moisture preservation and weed control.

The ratio of fescue to feeding is the same - the less, the better. Fertilizers are applied only when the plant slows down or stops development. In the spring, they feed specimens growing in rocky areas. For feeding, use complex mineral fertilizers or organic matter.

When fertilizing under fescue, strictly follow the manufacturer's instructions. You cannot exceed the recommended dosage: an overly fertilized soil will immediately affect the decorative effect of the plant.

Pruning is carried out in the spring in order to restore the decorativeness of the curtains: remove dead, dried or frozen leaves. The procedure is carried out manually or with a pair of garden shears. You can use a rake - tough fescue leaves will not suffer from a rough "comb".

At the end of flowering, the peduncles are removed, preventing the seeds from ripening if they are not interested in self-sowing. To collect their planting material, the largest spikelets are left, which are then cut and dried in a dry, shaded place.

The disadvantages of fescue include "baldness" of the central part of the curtains as they grow. When the first bald spots appear, the bushes are transplanted: they are dug out, divided into parts and re-seated. With extensive cereal plantings, this disadvantage turns into a significant difficulty. The optimal transplant period is every two to three years.

Preparation for winter is determined by the variety and climatic conditions of the growing region. Plants of European selection and imported from warm regions are always covered. With a high degree of likelihood of a severe winter with a small amount of snow, hardy domestic varieties are also sheltered using straw or dry leaves.

Fescue has good immunity to major garden plant diseases and pest attacks. It is extremely rare for a grass to contract fungal diseases from plants growing in the immediate vicinity. The most dangerous of these diseases is helminthosporiosis, which manifests itself as spots on the leaves, rotting of the root system, and the color of the peduncles in a brown color. At the first signs of the disease, the plants are sprayed with fungicides - Fundazol, Topaz. If time is lost, diseased plants are dug up and burned, the soil is carefully treated with copper-containing preparations.

Fluffy clumps of gray fescue serve as an excellent background for flowering plants. It emphasizes especially large tapeworms, borders of lawns and flower beds. As a ground cover, it is used to anchor loose rocky slopes.

Gray fescue is the dream of any gardener, lazy or overly busy with growing more capricious plants. The minimum of hassle associated with planting and caring for unusually colored cereals gives excellent long-lasting results.