It's an interesting idea, and was mentioned by someone else on the forum a few months ago. I plan to try it next spring, but to be honest, I don't hold out much hope for success. The dead center of a donuting OG is pretty fertile soil to begin with, and if the grass was inclined to grow back into the center, it would be a fairly good medium for it. I dug out a couple of 3' diameter Miscanthus plants last year, and the center of each had long ago died out. They were excellent soil in the center, but no new growth from the grass crowns. I think the tendency is for new growth on the outside of the crown, no matter what is on the inside.

That said, I'm still going to try it. It can't hurt. I would say it should be done any time before bloom season..preferably early spring.

Donn,

This was a place that looked like a grass display field on a manicured acreage but I missed the part about where it is located. All the grasses had plenty of room and could be viewed from a distance to see the forms or they were grouped plantings for examples of what you can combine. It wasn't a "garden". The grass he demonstrated this on, I noticed, was not a huge specimen like some I have seen in this condition. "Nip it in the bud" was my reaction and do it before too much dies out in the center. He said he routinely goes around and does this as regular maintenance when the center begins to die out as it keeps you from having to create 4 or 5 new grass plantings and you can just keep growing the original one. Perhaps catching it early is the secret? The size he cut out looked about 5 or 6" in diameter and some of it was green. It was not blooming.

I was mistaken about it being a local Oklahoma Garden show. It was PBS "Victory Garden" and with all the OETA stations we now have they repeat episodes and I am going to try to catch it again and listen and watch from the beginning.

The dirt looked like good, damp loam.

Almost every clump of Pampas grass I've seen around here this summer suddenly had dead centers, as if everyone bought them the same year. Perhaps they hit the garden centers a few years back and flew off the shelves? These, almost without exception, have massive dead areas in the center and I cannot imagine doing this technique on something like that. The "darling" this year seemed to be Ravenne Grass.