Ornamental grass stalks

What do you do with the stalks when you cut down ornamental grasses in spring? I have three big clumps, and used the stalks from two on the ground between two beds, but I don't like that much because it seems slippery. Now I still have a wheelbarrow full from the third clump.

Maybe there is nothing one can do? I really would not like to cut them up into small compostable pieces with clippers.

Any experience?

C.

Are you talking about the big root balls, or the long blades of grass?

Pirate: I am talking about the long blades and thick hard stalks you get when you cut the grass back in the spring.

I shred the long stalks in my leaf shredder, and compost them. They break down pretty quickly. You shouldn't really have any hard pieces. I wont get to do that until April.

I keep an area in my orchard where i can layer things that take a while to break down. But the dead blades get coarsely cut & worked into the soil late Winter, along with Alfalfa pellets & a layer of mulch. I plant cover crops or add more leaves if I have any left over from Fall.

I have several clumps of ornamental grasses. When they get their annual buzz cut, the stack of blades goes under the lawn mower & then into the compost pile. When the root clumps need dividing, the excess clumps go upside down into the bottom layer of a new compost pile, to be extra sure they croak. Every year I have nice crumbly compost. Works for me.

I just did my grass the other day. Mine are low growing with long floppy blades. It leaves me with tumbleweeds of loose 'hay'. Agreed, too loose fluffy and slippery as a mulch. It may be convenient for me to use them as a base layer of a new compost. Too early to get the lawn mower out.

Sally,

I want to divide some of my grasses this spring, but I was waiting until it gets warmer. Do you think that its too early?

I think you can/ should do them early, before they get growing. Some of mine have some bits of green down in the base when I just cut the dry stuff back. They can be a bear to divide, very tough hard root mass. And when I get a clump dug, I can barely hack it into a few sections, with roots only on the one side, so they aren't very pretty at first.
I am thinking of the Black Moudry pennisetum, and another smaller Pennisetum in those comments above. My Miscanthus has not grown well enough for me to have trouble dividing.

Darn it. I was at the nursery today, and didn't get a small saw. I am going to try this next weekend when it isn't so rainy. I have some toffee carex, and miscanthus adagio as well as karl foerster that I need to divide.

A large strong serrated knife works.
An old bread knife proved successful.
But a curved handsaw works the best.

Clementime,
I need to revise my answer about cutting down ornamental grass. I was cleaning up today, and found that some of my newer grasses were really a challenge to cut down. I had planted several new grasses last year that were much larger and harder. As a result, I am not able to compost these. The carexes and karl foerster and a small miscanthus have not been problems in the past.

Sally,
I divided my 3 toffee carex today into 6. I should have divided them into three clumps each because of their size. Hopefully, they will do well. I want to have carex on both sides of the walkway. You can see two of them in this picture. I have never divided any of my plants before. If I have enough time, tomorrow will be the karl foerster, and the nepeta low walker.

penne- what a gorgeous garden! What did it take to cut them apart? Big divisions I think have done fine for me, it was a small one or two that didn't make it cuz of all the roots lost.

I used some of my finer textured dry grass to line the bottom of a large nursery pot, keeping dirt leakage down, before potting a Brugmansia the other day.

Before I started, I took out a hacksaw, and bought an axe. In the end, I just need to use the shovel. Fortunately these are fine textured, so they weren't nearly as difficult as I was afraid that they would be. I'm not looking forward to dividing the larger miscanthus. That is on my list for next weekend. I need to spend some time with the family.