Why I Oughta...

I have a little cluster of Carex Montana that I planted in Summer of 2023 along the beginning of the impromptu flagstone path along the south entry of our house.  I picked them up at Northwind Perennial Farm and they were just plug-sized .  I put them in next to the Boxwoods that are under the Linden trees and allowed them to anchor the 'corner' of the path.   These things stood-out to me so much this season that I posted about them just a month-or-so ago when I said they were thriving in this deep-shade location .  In that post, I mentioned that I "should plant 12 more of these along the path".   With Fall Planting season here, I decided to try to divide some of these Carex Montanas to get a couple of free plants.  Like I've done with other divisions - when I haven't divided said plant before - I hedged and left one of the three intact.  I didn't touch the one in back.  But, I dug up and divided the other two - which were a little bit ...

Here's a shot that shows off a couple of Carex Montana that I really like - below.  These three are tucked in against an informal flagstone path on the southside of our house - right at the feet of the Greenspire Lindens that have been espaliered.  I planted these three in July of 2023 - 14 months ago.  And they've matured by growing significantly .   These live up close to a tall fence/set of trees, so they get VERY LITTLE direct sunlight.   Ignore the clover and weeds and extension cord.  Just focus on the foliage on these three groundcover plants.  I should plant 12 more along the path. 

This Winter has been brutal on our garden thanks to the (dang) rabbits.  The pests apparently set up shop in our beds and feasted on everything they could find.  Including the Oakleaf Hydrangeas .  And all three of our Gold Cone Junipers .  Those two things had material that was well above the snow cover.  But, they were also pretty active BEFORE the snow came.  How do I know?  Have a look at the Everillo Carex that are planted in our backyard.  Sheared right off at the ground: The same thing happened in previous seasons - these same Carex Everillos were eaten by rabbits in Fall 2022 .  At that I time, I posted the photos with a little surprise - as most sources on the Web say that rabbits will stay away from Sedges.   Not so fast, my friend.  What does all of this tell me?  I have to go back to being more proactive with chicken wire cages in Fall 2024.  

The original (to our garden) sedges - Everillo Sedges - have been in the ground since the Fall of 2020 .  They're bright grasses in a dark, shade garden.  But, I don't think that I've been using them in the right ways - as I've planted them in a colony together with very little matrix-planting around them/interplanted with them.   They've been mostly neglected and suffered a bit from rabbits .  Below is a look at the 'pre-dividing' planting of these sedges: A closer look at the one on the top of that photo shows that there's some 'center rot' going on and there are a number of smaller, independent sedges.  This is just like what is going on with the Elijah Blue Fescue grass IB2DWs .  Below is a look at the carex in question that I decided to divide: There's a small buckthorn seedling coming up in there that is (obviously) due for removal.  But, It is easy to see a number of sedges here.  I opted for dividing this clump into five.  Three ...

I've mentioned over the years that plantsman and gardener Roy Diblik up in Wisconsin has turned me on to a variety of plants - but mostly sedges.  ( Insert Voiceover from Sam Eagle:  "A salute to all plants, but mostly Carex." ) Via ImgFlip - Sam Eagle Muppets - A Salute To All Nations Meme The photo at the top of this post is a trio of Carex Albicans that are planted on the border of our firepit area that is mostly full shade and pretty dry.  They are performing REALLY well in this spot and one of them (the one on the left) is the largest of the three. Looking back at the post when I planted these in August of 2022, they were just 'plugs' and small at the time .   They were purchased at Roy Diblik's nursery:  Northwind Perennial Farm where they had this sign describing Carex Albicans: You'll note that I described the site for these (by the firepit) as mostly full shade and dry.  What's the sign say?  "An excellent selection for dry, shaded sites...

Last year, the Bird planted a single Carex Albicans in her little 'garden' that is a in the shady understory section of our backyard.  I didn't think much of it at the time, nor paid much attention to it.  But it appears to have been buried under some leaves this Winter.  And, when I was nosing around that section, I noticed them.  It is green and sitting next to some Wild Onions.  See below: Interesting to note how Carex Albicans have done over the Winter - I have others planted back by the firepit - which look the same.  Also a big note:  the rabbits don't pay any attention to these at all. 

I've just about had it with the dang rabbits.  Most recently, I posted some photos of how they've gnawed at one of our contorted trees and one of our evergreens (Mugo Pine) .  And, before that, there are a bunch of posts showing these pests eating things up in the garden .   For the most part, the dang! rabbits seem to have focused on everything but the sedges in my garden.  Until..... Today. That's when I was out puttering around and saw what they had done to a few of the Everillo Sedges - Carex EVERCOLOR everillo .   I have five of these yellow-green (or some may say chartreuse) sedges planted around the Kwanzan Flowering Cherry Tree in our backyard.  Three from Fall 2020 , two from Spring 2021 .   They've done ok in this spot - with some of them growing larger than others, but for the most part, getting established and filling in some bare spots. This Fall-time damage is a first for these sedges.  I posted about how these same pl...

A few days ago, I showed how the Bird added a single Carex Albicans to her little backyard garden and mentioned that I had bought a few more of these plugs.  I intended to plant all four back by the fire pit border, but she wanted one, so it went in her garden.  As I talked about in that post, these sedges are plugs from Northwind Perennial Farm in Wisconsin, where gardener Roy Diblik evangelizes for Carex as the cure for garden groundcover.  Below is the sign from his nursery: These Albicans are darker green than the Bromoides that I planted yesterday under the Hornbeams .  Below, you can see some of them before planting: Here, below, is the layout of these three.  They're close to the fire pit gravel border and will (hopefully) fill in and cover up some of that mulch. I could plant four dozen of these and that wouldn't be enough, so three barely makes a dent.  But, every garden has to start somewhere, right?   These three additional Carex Albica...

Just yesterday, I posted a photo showing off the Carex Albicans that The Bird planted as ground cover in her little backyard garden and talked about how that marked the 12th sedge that we've planted in the backyard.   I had posted about planting a little cluster of four Carex Bromoides earlier this Summer and included a video from Roy Diblik where he talks about his favorite Carex and how he combines them.  In that video, he talked about Bromoides, muehlenbergii & muskingumensis (Little Midge).  And how to combine them together with a dominant species and 'islands' of other species in various percentages.   That video pushed me to think about how I can use some of these in our landscape and how to create a unique pattern that is unique to our garden and isn't a 'monoculture'.   When we were up at Northwind in Wisconsin, I came home with some of the Carexes that Roy talked about:  Eight Carex Bromoides.  And Two Carex muskingumen...

The last plant that my middle child planted in her garden from Roy Diblik's Northwind Perennial Farm was a result of me advocating that she try something that Roy has (I think) made famous:  a sedge.  Or...a Carex.  She picked out a Carex Albicans . Here, below, is the sign from the nursery table up in Wisconsin: It reads:  "Perennial sedge that grows in dense, mounded tufts. In late spring, interesting scaly flower spikes emerge.  An excellent selection for dry, shaded sites." Below, you can see where she planted her Carex Albicans plug - just adjacent to the Helene Von Stein Lamb's Ear - Stachys byzantina that she planted in July of this year .  By my count, I (now) have 12 sedges in our garden. 5 Everillo sedges  - planted in 2020 and 2021 2 Carex Pensylvanica under the Hornbeams - planted in 2021 4 Carex Bromides by the Astilbes - planted in Summer 2022 1 Carex Albicans in the Bird's garden - planted late Summer 2022 I also have a pair of Prairie...

It was back at the end of May when I featured a look the little cluster of three Waterslide hostas in our backyard beds where I celebrated how all three had come back for their second full growing season.  See below, they've started to fill in the gaps and get up to their fully-mature size.  The ruffled foliage is a real star in the garden and is something I'll look-to when I bring on more hostas.   Also note - in the photo above - you can see that some of the Everillo sedges are growing at different rates.

I've planted a few different sedges in our garden in the past few years as I've become more aware of them and how they can work in various spots in the garden.  I have a few Everillo Sedges planted in a little colony and some OG's of the Sedge world: C arex Pensylvanica planted as a test .  There doesn't seem to be a bigger booster of Sedges in the gardening world than Roy Diblik from Northwind Perennial Farm.  He's actually where I've 'gotten to know' anything about sedges.  From his YouTube videos.  He posted a short video where he named his '3 favorite Carex' (embeded below), where he detailed what he likes about all three - bromoides, muehlenbergii & muskingumensis. Well...that means I have to try ALL of them, right?  I'm starting with one of them:   .  Below is the sign from Roy's nursery. The description on the sign reads:  Too nice, a good looking soft foliage grass-like plant that adds contrast to all types of shade pla...

Last year, I planted a few Carex Pensylvanica in our backyard (under the Frans Fontain European Hornbeam trees) that I brought home from Northwinds Perennial Farm up in Wisconsin.  It doesn't look like I planted anything about these being in the garden last growing season.  These were the the pilot plantings of Carex under these trees and they seemed to do fine last year.   Carex Pennsylvania can be planted as close as 1' centers where they'll knit together to create a carpet.  Mine are planted 10-plus feet apart, so there's, ummm, no 'knitting' going on.   But what *is* going on?  A really lovely Spring seed head show.  See below for a look at one of these Carex showing off dark colored, almost-black, seed heads with the flush of new Spring growth. I've taken different approaches with all three of these sedges in terms of Spring cleanup.  This one (above), I've left as-is.  No trimming at all.  One of the other ones I ran ov...

  Sedges are something that I've just recently (in the past few growing season) gotten to know and planted in our garden.  We have five of these Carex Everillos planted around my flowering cherry tree in the backyard.  They're a nice little pop of color and are evergreen through the Winter.  Normally.  Based on my experience last year, I found myself leaving the foliage all the way through Spring clean-up and then I trimmed off all the leftover blades and cut it back to a clump.  From there, the normal cycle of regrowth took over and - just like an ornamental grass - new growth emerged from the center.   This year?  Much of that 'clean up' was done for me.  By rabbits.  Those same jerks that have been eating at my Oakleaf Hydrangeas all Winter .  Or was it?  This document from Good Oak in Madison Wisconsin says that rabbits don't usually eat sedges.  From that pdf : "Rabbits do not typically eat grasses, sedges and ...