Pampas Moon
One last ‘seeds-against-blue-sky’ shot and then I will leave that theme to rest for a while, I promise. This pampas grass is down the street from me in someone’s front yard. Their neighbours have some too. So do lots of other people around here. This plant supports Christmas decorations, but also frames the moon nicely just before sunset. I probably should have tried more depth of field to get the pampas better into focus, but I am not unhappy with this shot.
I am less happy about pampas though – we had a clump in our front yard when we moved here. It had got out of hand, and was in any case in the wrong place. They are pretty hard to contain and the amount of work to dig out all of its roots (wheel barrows full) was just insane. So, while they may be spectacular plants in many ways, they are not for my garden. And this is not because of the swingers “urban myth” which I only found out about when preparing this post. According to wikipedia:
“A widespread urban myth is that pampas grass is used by swingers to advertise their presence to other swingers in the area. The most commonly repeated version states that in the UK and Ireland a patch of pampas grass is planted somewhere in the front garden to act as a signal to passersby that swingers live in the home.”
Since I have never heard this before, I suspect that it is a regional myth. But, I did live in the UK for 4 years and I never heard about it then either. So, maybe you have to be interested in swinging to even hear about this one. Except all of you reading this have now heard, mostly for the first time I am betting, and probably the only swinging you are really interested in, is the camera swinging from your neck. I guess the question I would want answered, if I knew you well enough :), is if you did know about this myth, would you still plant pampas grass in your front yard?
I used a Canon 50/1.4 lens, ISO 400, f11 both shots, 1/200th top, 1/320th bottom. The pampas was gentle moving in the breeze, swinging back and forth.
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burnt embers 
I love that sliver of moon peeking out. 🙂
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Me too, I doubt I would even have bothered with posting these (or even taking the picture) without the moon in at least one shot.
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Love the moon peeking through the grass. I have lots of ornamental grasses in the garden, they move in the slightest breeze and catch the light. Great photo subjects!
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I agree that the grasses in general are great subjects – some of the things that make it into gardens are very striking in so many different ways – often they have great textures for instance.
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I am in love with the first photo!! Truely amazing!!
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I am glad you like that one, its full moon now but cloudy or I would try for another.
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Beautiful colour contrasts and luminosity.
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hello stuaato – thank you very much.
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I love both photos! You can feel the movement in the pampas. Beautiful!
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Thank you mimo – they were moving just a bit – the photos I took, only 3 or 4, show the stems in slightly different positions from one to the next.
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Urban myths aside, I’m thinking of planting some of this grass in my back yard, since we have a huge back yard and I think it would be pretty there. It’s a gorgeous plant and I would’t mind if it took over and area in the back. I like the POV you took for these photos – gold and blue is one of my favorite combinations.
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Hi ken, thanks for commenting. You have become a real regular and that is very much appreciated. How do they do in places with colder winters? They are pretty low maintenance if you don’t mind them occupying a part of the yard – really they only seem to need a bit of a cleanup once or twice a year, though we got ours out pretty fast so I might not be remembering too well.
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These are great shots, my friend, love how the grass provides really great framing here. I would have done the same with the depth of focus on the first shot you’ve posted here, the soft grass really produces a great frame for the moon, in my humble opinion. And no, no Pampas grass for us, but not because of the swinging you’ve brought to light here, but because of the mention of wheelbarrows full of material to remove them! LOL
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Hi toad, and thanks once again. Moving the wheelbarrow loads was the easy part, getting the roots or rhizomes or whatever they are dug out was very difficult. I think I broke a brand new garden fork in the doing. 15 years later I don’t think I would be doing it, I would hire a 20 year old brute to get it out.
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eOMG, this is so beautiful. Loved both the shots, moon is perfect behind the grass, and brilliant blue in the second one! 🙂
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Hello Nandini – thank you so much for your comment. I do prefer the blue in the second shot, and wish the first shot was similar colour.
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I like this picture as it reminds me of my homeland. The plant doesn’t look so out-of-scale on the Argentine pampas.
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Hi Hitty – welcome to my blog, its great to have your comment. I love pictures of pampas grass in its natural habitat, you are lucky to have seen it in person. It would be great to
swing throughvisit the pampas in Argentina sometime. I am enjoying your blog about doll adventures in the far north – do you think they might find that the reindeer are hiding in the pampas?LikeLike
This is funny! Never heard this myth before…we may be in trouble since we have nine of these plants though out the landscape here. Uh oh. NIce photos and I would probably still plant some in the next garden(smaller varieties though).
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Hi dh – they ‘make’ smaller varieties? That is good news. I quite like the look of them, and in a dryish garden (we have very dry summers here quite often) then they look very good with some of the ornamental grasses. But their size and their ability to spread has put them out of my garden which is quite smaall.
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