I transplanted my vetiver (which started as 6 bundles, and had grown to 10, now 15!) to the harshest spot in my garden for the final phase of the Vetiver Dune Test. I was amazed how quickly it grew in our sandy, alkaline, salty soil. It's about 5 feet tall now, and flowering:
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Vetiver Grass in Flower/Seed
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It did marvelously well as a wind break for my other plants. Ginger loves vetiver as a neighbor! It was time to harvest one of the bundles of grass and see how the roots did (and how they smelled).
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| Vetiver Roots, washed |
This is just the smallest bundle of the 15 growing. The rest will remain in the ground to see how it does over longer time periods. These roots were about 8 inches long, so I'm pretty impressed. They really held the ground, too, and it took 3 intense washings to clean them!
The roots smell great, though not as strongly scented as the vetiver grown in a pot in richer, more acidic soil. This bundle is heading for a sachet. Overall, I'm very impressed with vetiver as a sturdy dune plant. The grass itself is great for weaving/basketry. They make mats of the grass in India, and I can attest to their strength and durability. Vetiver is useful, strong, beautiful, and smelly. So I'm giving vetiver 5 stars as an all-around terrific plant.
While I was working, a curious little baby snake found a nice curling up spot on a cool ceramic dish. He was only about 5cm long. So cute!
Have a great weekend!
That's very interesting with the Vetiver, congrats with your success. I love plants that smell nice! Cool little snake, love the orange band; S for snake or is that an eight? Do you know what it is? Best. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's a hatchling ringneck snake, Diadophis punctatus. They are fairly common here, but it's kind of weird to see them during the day.
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