Sedge lawns are a smart environmental alternative to traditional lawns.  Sedges are close botanical cousins of the conventional grasses that make up traditional lawns but they require little or no mowing, fertilizing, or chemicals.  Some also require less water than many conventional turf grasses or if dealing with a wet area, are more tolerant of moist conditions or shade.  Different varieties thrive in various regions of the US, so they can restore some of the local character that existed with native sods before agriculture and development transformed our landscape.

John Greenlee has written a book called Easy Lawns (Brooklyn Botanic Garden All-Region Guide) that talks about sedge lawns and can help identify the best lawn for your situation. He has identified five sedges that show promise as substitutes for traditional lawn grasses in a wide range of areas.  They are Catlin sedge (Carex texensis), Texas Hill Country sedge (C. perdentata), Baltimore sedge (C. senta), Pennsylvania sedge (C. pensylvanica), and California meadow sedge (C. pansa).  Each of these native sedges have compact growth and good, green color but hybridization of species being collected from populations in nature is a relatively untapped market and there are many ongoing developments.

1. Three-lobed coneflower (Rudbeckia trilobum) in Pennsylvania sedge (Carex pensylvanica), 2. carex pansa, 3. Sand Sedge (Carex pansa)

I haven’t planted a sedge lawn yet.   Have you?  I am intrigued with the more natural look, but while looking for pictures I didn’t see a sedge lawn that completely mimicked the flatness of a traditional lawn that is so cherished.  From my reading, it seems that it takes a bit of time for the plugs to grow together.  If you have some experience with sedge lawns I would love to hear your successes or advice with planting and maintaining.

Dick Cheney inspired my choice of native plants from his own state of Wyoming.  Atriplex canescens or four wing saltbush is not only visually similar (i.e. greyish white and hoary) but also able to survive where few others can or would want to (in cold deserts and other similarly under populated stark landscapes) .  The name ’saltbush’ refers to the alkaline soil habitats where it thrives and it’s salty flavor.  Researchers believe that the salts act like antifreeze, enabling the plant to continue to photosynthesize longer in winter cold and darkness.  Saltbushes have many branches; some are spiny, and stems and leaves are sometimes covered with white scales which help protect it’s self.
Like Cheney, the four-wing saltbush is important for the protection and benefit of it’s associates.  Many wildlife depend on the plant for food as well as providing cover for their burrows.  Saltbush is a member of the ‘goosefoot’ family – many others in the family are considered weeds (Russian Thistle, pigweed, arrowweed, and kochia)  – but a few relatives are cultivated like spinach, swiss chard, and sugar beets.

Oh – and another interesting trait… saltbush benefits from and requires a fungus-y undergrowth to survive.  For the saltbush, the large papery wings of the seed facilitate dispersion by the wind.  A fungus forms a beneficial association with the roots of the seedlings at germination that provides access to essential nutrients that the plant’s roots may not be able to take up on their own.

Not an attractive or well loved landscape plant, it’s popularity ratings are low.  It does however serve a purpose and is relevant to those few areas that it serves and protects.

1. L1010324a.jpg, 2. White Sands, New Mexico, 3. eSCN0094, 4. Four-wing saltbush, 5. Dick Cheney Rules, 6. Atriplex canescens, 7. IMG_5109, 8. four-winged saltbush, 9. Four-wing Saltbush

I am constantly learning new things I can do with this blog…and I just learned that I could upload animated .gif’s and have them work. (duh)   I have had a little file that my good friend and graphic design helper (Leslie Bunnell at Bunnell Design)  did for me with a Greayer Design Associates project rendering.   I have wanted to put it on our design website for a while but haven’t had the time to figure out where to put it….

So now that I know that I can put it here, I am sharing….

We did this for a brochure…the caption below the ‘before’ is “Dull. Dismal. Dated”   and then the newly imagined side is “Glamorous. Green. Gracious”.  Yes, this is what Greayer Design Associates can do for your abandoned, run-down potential boutique hotel conversion property in the middle of no-where Cambodia…

I am so excited that this works here.  Now I need to learn from Leslie how to make these for more of our ‘before and after’ features…and as always, if you have a good before and after shot…of anything garden or landscape design related (from pots to patios, landscapes to lighting,  furniture to fences, beds and borders, pools and parties) – send them here and I will see if I can rig this up to share.

Stumble it!

I set little personal goals for everything in my life…this blog included…and since I started writing it, one of my goals is to consistently increase my traffic.  I have been meeting my goal without a problem, so in light of the fact that I need a little challenge, I upped the ante… I have actually been doubling my traffic each month… As you can imagine it is quickly getting harder and harder to achieve this little goal, and this may be the last month I can pull it off before having to stretch out my time line a bit.  But here is the deal…as of right this minute (7:29 am on Jan 31, 2009) I am exactly 425 visits off my goal for January.   I would love to make it, and I am going to work hard on getting there between right now and midnight tonight….but that is a bit of  stretch (though not a huge) for a one day Saturday traffic.   Do you think you can help me get there?….maybe forward to a friend or two… I will let you know if I make it.   A few new posts are on the way…to make it interesting….

Over on Inhabitat, I read today that the Garden History Museum in London got a makeover.  It is such a remarkable change that I hardly recognized it.  I wanted to show you the stark difference between the before and after, but hunting through all my old shots — I know I had some from visits there when I was a student — I just can’t find them.

These are the pictures of the upgrade, which makes me really wonder… where is all the stuff?…my memory is that it was a bit like a curiosities shop of garden artifacts…but this new space is positively sparse.   Maybe they haven’t moved back in yet?

I did find this one picture that I took at the museum.  I was inspired by this planter; I thought it was so nice and though it was a prized antique, I think it would be easy to make something more modern and interesting with the same idea of tiles on the side of a planter box.   Now that I pulled this out of my archives, I am all inspired to go and make something like it….

This is a great place to go to while in London.  It really is beautiful and interesting.

Deborah Silver of Detroit Garden Works recently sent me a whole collection of beautiful winter containers that she and her company  have put together for their clients.  I plan to save many of them as they will be perfect inspiration to share come next Christmas, but I wanted to show you some of those that you could put together, even now, that can satisfy for a couple more months.

Willow branches and forsythia are starting to show up at the floral sections near me….as much as it is a welcome site from what has been a particularly painful winter here in N.E., it feels a bit early…don’t you think?…really – it’s not even February yet.   Well, at least it gives us a chance to change up any holiday containers to something a little more springy even if it is not likely that it will be uncovered by snow and ice anytime soon…(at least in my corner of the world).

I put this together to help get into the mood.

1. Forsythia, 2. Forsythia ‘Meadowlark’, 3. Forsythia Between Showers, 4. Forsythia, 5. forsythia!, 6. Forsythia Buds, 7. a little snow on the forsythia, 8. Pussy Willow, 9. There are willow pussies Clad in furry goods,, 10. Catkins from a willow., 11. PUSSY WILLOW, 12. siskin in spring plumage…….with matching pussy willow