Our new home is unlike our last home in Canada, in that it is a more traditional development so we are closer to our neighbours. In our case, they are very nice people and so it isn’t an issue. But they do have a kitchen window that is oddly placed so it looks right onto our back porch. We both discretely ignore each other when they are at their kitchen sink and we are in the backyard, but it is still a bit of a bother for me.

So, green thumb warmed up, I started to take on the challenge. First go has been planting a few new trees. A flowering almond which will do a great job … in about 5 years. Over the weekend we had my parents over and I was explaining the issue when my father suggested grasses. In gardening, I am not really a ‘grass’ guy. I enjoy traditional English gardens which are billowing with perennial flowers. I was generally at war with grasses, keeping them out of the garden.

Below are pictures of our old Canadian house … and the English gardens that I built over the years.

But the notion of a grass that grows inches a day and can quickly turn into a 4 meter barrier is very appealing. After a lot of web research (which has made my Readers Digest plant encyclopaedia defunct) I landed on the Pampas Grass.

This weekends project.