Native Grasses and Sedges: Smart Choices for Better Landscapes

Looking for strategies to boost your landscape’s ecological impact? Join us for a look at plant-based solutions to common landscape challenges. Rather than oceans of mulch and vast expanses of turf grass, try using use native grasses and sedges. These extraordinary plants help preserve and build the soil, outcompete weeds, and offer a host of ecosystem benefits. Discover how greener grasses help build better landscapes and communities.
Shannon Currey is a horticultural educator with Izel Native Plants. She’s worked in the nursery trade since 2005, with most of that time at Hoffman Nursery, a wholesale grower specializing in graminoids. In 2022 she joined the Izel Native Plants team to expand their education and outreach efforts. Shannon is based in Durham, North Carolina and loves exploring the incredible plant diversity around her.

[@karenschrantz2307]

Fantastic video, learning so much and love the photos as examples

[@tomdoyle4851]

this is an excellent presentation, exactly what i was looking for as i'm planning 2024 gardens. Thank you.

[@cindyahonen]

You had me at gin and tonic! Thanks for the great info!

[@karenschrantz2307]

what are some coordinating plants that are native that would be of interest in spring and early early summer before these grasses come back? Anyone have any suggestions?

[@karenschrantz2307]

What about having to cut these grasses down in spring? Then left with nothing for several months…???

[@l800x8]

Liriope muscari Common Name: big blue lilyturf Native Range: China, Taiwan, Japan

[@threeriversforge1997]

A great illustration of Piedmont Sprawl at 7:50. People don't realize that the policies and laws that they support will have a huge and very negative long-term consequence. Open immigration, the changes started in 1965, or so, have meant huge numbers of people entering the area, and all those people need houses, roads, schools, businesses, etc. While we talk about taking care of our gardens, we forget that this idea extends to our state and our nation as a whole. You cannot allow immigration in unchecked, no matter if it's interstate or extrastate. We often like to brag that people from Illinois or New York are moving to the southeast because we're so awesome in so many ways, but we forget just what that means in the grand scheme of things. Look at those images of the population density and all the open spaces that we've lost. That's not caused by citizens of the state having babies. Rather, that's tens of millions of people moving here not just from the North or the West Coast, but from dozens of other nations, as well. It's great that we are moving more and more towards native plants to protect our ecosystem and open spaces, but I worry that folks don't see the parallels with other issues. We must "tend our garden" in every sense of the word, even when that means making tough calls.