STOP Buying MULCH (Plant These Instead!) 

As you can see, there's still mulch in these photos- I will update this year when my tiny sedges are bigger and covering much more of the ground! Thanks for watching! We are a small community but your comments have been so supportive! 🌱🌱🌱

"Sedges have edges, rushes are round and grasses have knees that bend to the ground." In the middle ages, rushes were dried and filled with tallow to make a cheap candle.

Some of the sedges will after a few years have dead patches. You can get ahead of this problem by dividing the sedge plants, and replanting the offsets.

Prairie Moon Nursery and American Meadows are great online sources for natives and grasses. They have seeds, bareroot & plants. Both have sedges I have ordered from Prairie Moon Nursery they have great seeds and plants.

Hi from the arctic circle in Norway! This useful video sent me down a research rabbit hole because not only do I care about a few flower beds in my garden, but I live on the western coast on an island just south of the Arctic Circle (near Tjøtta if you're curious). So I was researching what sort of sedges we might have here and they are much the same. It turns out you gave us the best advice we were looking for to stop some of our coastal erosion. Carex arenaria (Sand Sedge) - Sandsivaks (Norwegian name) is particularly beneficial to coastal areas with sandy soil. It can do all the great things you highlighted in your video but can also withstand cold, harsh winds and stop your garden from turning into sand dunes! Really happy I found your channel, it's useful even an ocean away

I have never given sedges much thought. But now I will!

I have some native sedges on my property that i have started moving around into the landscaping, and mulch is exactly what I used them as! They saved me some money and looked great planted under a river birch! I've got my eye on some (possibly) rush as well. Thanks to the comment up above for the little rhyme!

Off topic but I LOVE your hair. So beautiful!! It fits you perfectly.

this was great! I did a few rounds of wood chip mulch that I inoculated with mushrooms, it totally worked, buy I never could beat the slugs to them 😂 and then the woodchips all decomposed and now I had big empty spots under my trees that the grass pushes in on. Will explore my local sedges for inspiration.

Watching from Europe it seems to me that Americans have a fixation for “ornamental” mulch, meaning that mulch remains visible even in full growing season and is part of the design. Imo it gives a “municipal” park vibe. Here it’s just functional to suppress weeds. Never bought any, just used fallen leaves, grass clippings, homemade compost etc. Spread in the fall or spring and it disappears from sight as soon as the plants start to grow. Can’t do the same with sedges, especially if all the situations you show in the video have mulch around sedges. Very misleading title and very misleading way to present the issue. If the aim is to reduce mulch there’s ton of ground cover plants for every situation, from shade to sun, from dry to bog. Nothing new about that.

Some are awesome. Some are invasive. Some are INVASIVE. Plz research for your area & hardiness zone so you don't replace one invasive with another. Side note: Besides speaking well, having great visuals, & giving lots of info, this person exudes personal style. Lovin the hair.

Carex pennsylvanica, appalachica, cherokeensis flaccosperma, go in just about every design I do.

Awesome video and info, thanks for sharing. "Cultivating kindness one seed at a time" 🌻🌻🙏🙏🌻🌻

Carex albicans is called white tinge sedge or oak sedge.

This is a really good channel. Not sure how long you've been around, but I feel like I got on the ground floor of something by subscribing when I did. Keep up the high quality content!

Carex can be planted as plugs which often come in 32 count trays. For $100 you can get 32 plants that will slowly spread!

Great video Lisa...if you're ever inclined to visit Northwind, pls reach out!

Here in Indiana, nut sedge is an AWFUL AWFUL WEED.

Literally just last week bought seed for pensylvanica, squarrosa, and rosea ! I bought them for a bed of dry shade on the north side of my house and a "rain" garden that's actually the AC drip pipe.

Good talk! I'm a huge fan of sedges and just planted about a bunch of C.pensylvanica under the Post Oak in the front yard. I bought 4" pots thinking that I could divide them in half or maybe even quarters, but that wasn't the best idea I've ever had. After the first few, I opted to just plant them whole and those ones look much nicer. They're all doing well, but the divided ones just have that spindly look that you know will take years to come into itself. One thing I haven't heard much about is how fast the C.pensylvanica takes to reach that full 12" diameter. I've heard 3 years for the prairie grasses, but there's never any mention of how long it takes for the carex to really start showing out. I love that segment from you 'rain garden'. The area under my oak gets standing water for a few hours, or days, when we have a good rain, but I never thought of it as a suitable site for plants that are listed as preferring wet feet. Seeing your cracked soil let me know that I can plant some of those under my oak, and I think I'll do just that. Native plants are the best, and I'm really enjoying doing my part to help restore the ecosystem. Sedges don't get nearly the love they deserve, so it's fun to stick them in the ground. As you say, anything to stop piling on gobs of mulch every year!

Ok I think you just convinced me stop pulling these little grassy clumps that keep popping up in my dry shade.

Awesome! I have some wild sedges growing in the shady parts of my yard here in MN and I'm trying to encourage them. I see them thriving in the shady, sandy soils in the woods nearby where they seem to provide year-round food for deer as well as preventing erosion!

I am extremely lucky in that I live on a property that naturally came with a huge variety of native sedges. C. pennsylvanica is amazing as a huge carpet under trees especially when the wind blows. Thanks for your video. Subscribed.

I’ve been testing sedges (pensylvanica, radiata, albicans and cherokeensis) for a few years and love them. I just ordered 350 more plugs. I’m with you on eliminating the wood mulch. I put down three large dump truck loads each year and I’m trying to at least eliminate 2/3 of that.

I really like this look, I have a big maple tree that has made it hard for much of the yard, grass, plants. Do I have to worry about ticks? The back yard is fenced but I have a dog. Maybe just some spots of sedge to try.

It's also considered ornimental grass if you are trying to find it locally .

Perfect timing. I have a couple of sedges cooling their heels in a side plot because I am not sure where their final home will be. This is great, thank you

Until this video, I didn’t know where these cute patches of grass came from.

my soil is like clay. thx good to know!

I'm still struggling trying to identify them in the wild.

So interesting. Would love to try these under fruit trees.

Fantastic video in every way! We should be friends. So happy to find another native plant enthusiast sharing this important info! And you're doing it so well! Looking forward to learning more from you! 💚

When you say sedges, I think nutsedge, which is the bane of my existence in the garden. It’s a scourge and nearly impossible to eliminate totally. It’s horrid!

Thank you for this video! I was looking at sedges online in the fall and forgot about it until this was in my feed. I need to replace english ivy in a huge area in my backyard under pine trees. This will work great! I already have jacob's ladder and hellebore in that area. Just need to fill in the space.

I was wondering what were the robust bunch grasses I picked up from the wind. Thank you, Lisa, for the nice informative video!

I planted 11 eastern redbud and surrounded them with 300 Pennsylvania Sedge. Hoping they will grow. Fun.

Great video. Now i desperately need Sedges. I had no idea! My garden is missing an entire part! "Sedges have edges!"

Thanks for this, a book I read spoke about how living plants are best for soil health, followed by dead plant matter then mulch. In some ways though mulch is less overwhelming for a beginner because just set it and forget it. 😂 What about shade loving edible perennials instead of sedges?

Your bangs look like sedges!❤

Excellent video! Great info, great B-roll and great presentation skills! You’re awesome, so I hope you keep making videos!

I do have lots of wild grasses and sedges on my property. Some I left because they are pretty and others are growing in the wooded area off the main yards. I'd like to grow more, but my immediate worry is about ticks... Ticks love tall grass, which is why we mow low and often... Google said: "The one sedge best avoided in the Summer is the pendulous sedge (Carex pendula), found extensively in the woodland. They tend to be the home to the tick, which is becoming more common and may carry Lyme disease."

Living in Las Vegas I'm definitely looking into sedge for fillers please and thank you !

This is great! Vinca Major and Minor have become a replacement for mulch for me; they trap moisture (my dogwoods & Hydrangeas appreciate) and block out most weeds once filled out, so they are a godsend around trees/shrubs (but they are like vines so work best behind a border and an occasional edge trim so they don't drape over into lawn. I live in Michigan so my soil is really clay and dries out easily and so instead of fighting against what grows easily/naturally around here (other than damaging/invasive ones), I'm trying to find ways to incorporate plants like this video. I also don't have a ton of money to keep the pristine lawns/gardens that other people do and so videos like this are encouraging and help me feel less crazy for not going with the cookie-cutter approach so many suburban Americans have with landscaping lol.

Question, will any sedges grow under white pines? I have a roughly 14ft tall pine tree in my garden and have a few natives that I’m going to plant but I can not find any sedges or grasses besides Carex Pennsylvanica. Thanks in advance!

I’m looking for something to go under my fence line. I hate weed eating but enjoy monitoring & weeding by hand. I want it to look natural yet overgrown w/ some order. The fence will have hardy kiwi on it & maybe honey berry in front. Would the sedge be good for actually under a chain link fence & behind the next layer of edible? I’d thought monkey grass but like this look better.

I'm in 5b/6a. Subscribed!

My woodland is loaded with sedges ;) Almost anything is better than store bought mulch :(

Great video! I have some Cherokee Sedge arriving in a few weeks for along my backyard fence/vine pergola. Full sun.... What are your thoughts on that sedge type?

Sedges are very useful but I’ve found them incompatible with some plants like lantana and Vinca major.

ETSY has a great selection too !!

This is my first year planting at our new home. Deer resistance is key here, and I saw that sedge is a good choice for that!

I love sedges! Wonderful video. Makes me want to add the Appalachian and Bur sedges to my garden!

Generally i recommend checking out sedges that are native to your area. Just choosing willy nilly might not work the best, as it may not be suited for your region. Many regions will have multiple sedges native to your region, and you don't risk planting a potentially invasive sedge. For instance, where I live there are at least 100 different species of Carex that are native. With that said, typically invasive plants would originate from a region outside the country (South Africa and the Mediterranean most notably). I'm glad that Lisa is recommending to check in with Native Plant Nurseries. I also want to note that I just discovered this channel, so if Lisa regularly recommends planting native plants to your region, i wouldn't know. Finally, If you want to diversify, you could also look into ferns. Where I live, we also use Artemisia douglasiana (California mugwort) as a native under the tree plant, although it does extremely well in open sun too.

Thank you for this video! Midwest gardener here in Michigan. Which garden centers do order from? Sedges are the superheros!

Omg the footage of you cutting back in the snow could be me today in Iowa! It's been so warm and Mother Nature wants to remind us who's boss. 😂 We've got big fat lilac buds and rhubarb coming thru, irises and all the bulbs actively growing. I did have to cover my winter sowing containers that have sprouted. I have a few Fox sedge planted on a little hill between my house and my neighbor that had seemed like it was eroding - we've had little rain and both our lawns disintegrated. Probably going to add more this year.

I have long promoted Path Rush (not a sedge but similar) on compacted soils that experience heavy traffic. You have likely seen Path Rush if you go hiking and seen a grass-like plant that is growing on a trail.

Sooooo THAT’S what all those various clumps of ‘grasses’ are, growing in my shaded wetlands (springs) backyard; I’ve noticed several different types…🤠

Just found your channel. Really like your videos and info you’re sharing! Subscribed. I’m in Wisconsin so also excited to support another Midwest gardener.

So glad that this video popped up in my feed. Seriously, this is info. that I needed. Thank you so much.

What if I just let the grass grow instead of pulling it?

How do you find Sedges? Wait until April and look at any Georgia yard that hasn't been mowed yet, like mine. LOL Never really thought of putting them in my garden because they are weeds here. If I used them I'd have to label them or they may get pulled with next year's garden clean up. Happy Gardening 🌱

If these stood a bit more upright and could tolerate a baking summer sun (7/VA) I would totally plant these but alas I have zero shade

Sedges have edges, rushes are round, grasses have asses, all the way down 😅

Now if only I wouldnt get taggedfor weeds if I planted this.

What is your lip color please?! I want to buy it!

Congratulations, I just created an entirely new playlist for gardening videos after the few drops down the rabbit hole that the Almighty Algorithm™ has seen fit to drag me down after watching this video, because this looks like incredibly handy info to be able to reference back to later for when my found family and I have space to start up our own gardens. :)

Loving the weekly uploads!

Sorry but I am in a WAR against sedges of many types They are taking over my horse pasture, are inedible for them and are unstoppable. Very invasive 😢

It seems like instead of giving your beds something that nourishes and revitalizes the soil (mulch) you are planting something that’s going to compete with your plants instead? Anything that spreads is going to have all that competition now.

Hi Lisa, is there a way to differentiate sedges from crab grass? For some reason, I've tons of what I believe are clumps of a type of carex growing all over my lawn. Thinking they are crab grass, I've uprooted some but after watching your video, I am having doubts as to whether I should leave them to grow. They have grown much faster and more vigorous than the native bermuda grass. The grass is still brown from winter, but they are lush and green and huge, but somehow do not have the sideshooting crab leg-like runners like traditional crab grass. Is there a way to tell whether they are sedges or crab grass? Thank you in advance for your help.

Now I know what I got ... I found some spikes with seeds among Japanese Grass bush so I brought to my new place to grow them. Then I googled it just to find it wasn't Japanese Grass ... What I got is a SEDGE!!

What do you think about the crabgrass? Should I kill it or leave it? Thanks!

Wow, very educational!

Sedges! Yes! Subscribed ❤😊

I always get so annoyed with my father when he has a truck collect our leaves that we rack up…it’s literally free mulch that breaks downs easily

The purpose of mulch is not to look pretty. It is not to keep weeds down. The purpose of mulch is to feed and your plants and soil, period.

urgh! Evergreen superstars, thats so cool. Seasonal depression sucks. lol

HA - That's the nursery I go to. I know that label :). I have to go check on my Rosea. Haven't even a chance to get into my woodland.

Good ideas!

carex texensis, the best part is the name.

Enjoyed the video! I planted 50 carex shortii plugs this year, but I looked into several of the species you mentioned.

I think where I live sedges are just weeds :) How to tell one from another?

Yes! I have this all over and I have a big shade garden that needs help! Thank you❤

Ooh gurl no affiliate link is a huge missed opportunity. That scarf tho 👌 werk

what are Moar Plants?

The grasses here in the PNW don’t need sun. lol. But it sucks trying to keep them alive in the summer.

🤗

Love this idea and will do it. From Texas 😊

Lol no one ever comes to Peoria 😢

How do you keep weeds from taking over the sedges??

Layers

at 14:00, you can leave all material cut as mulch in an aesthetically pleasing way. ah the irony of mulch.

I'm against purchasing mulch, but it's free at a lot of local landfills.

These are invasive & harsh with sharp frones😮

It seems nonsensical to pay for mulch.

Talked to a exterminator and he said wood mulch attracts termites. Not to eat but to live in. They'll eat your house and live in the mulch.

I have a dry shade area but we have clay soil. Only hostas can be successfully grown in the area 😢

A hot dry very sunny environment mulch is often needed to retain water. And we only water what is needed.

I like the way sedges look!

I hate mulch! It’s smelly and expensive so I want to have a NO MULCH garden and no lawn/grass yard