An old hair comb can serve a vital purpose in the garden this November, according to a gardening expert. Ish Kamran, known as Gardening with Ish on TikTok, demonstrated how combing ornamental grass improves its appearance and provides natural frost protection.
Why Use a Comb on Ornamental Grass?
In a video posted to his 196,200 followers, Kamran said: "One of the weirdest things I have in my garden is a comb, but this helps my plants more than you'd expect." Using his Stipa ornamental grass as an example, he showed how running a comb through the blades separates them, making the grass flow better.
"By simply running a comb through it a few times, what you're doing is separating all of those blades of grass. And you should see in no time at all. Look at that, it looks a lot better. Now that's one benefit," he said.
Creating Natural Frost Protection
The second benefit involves the spent grass collected in the comb. Kamran explained: "The second benefit is all that spent grass is now here, it's collected in that comb, I like to collect quite a bit of it and I just start rubbing it together. See it makes a nice natural matting."
He advised placing this matting at the base of the grass to protect it from frost damage, noting it acts as a thermal layer during winter, stopping excess moisture from rain or ice.
How to Comb Stipa Grass
Kamran recommends gathering a section of grass in one hand, brushing upward from the base towards the tips. The comb will snag and remove old, brown, matted foliage and heavy seed heads. Repeat the process around the entire circumference until the plant appears light and airy. Combed-out seed heads can be left in garden beds to self-seed or provide material for nesting birds.
Instead of discarding old hair combs, keeping them for garden maintenance offers a simple, practical use this November.
