A lawn alternative: An intro to sedges for lawns and gardens

The City of Rehoboth Beach Trees & Green Infrastructure Committee will offer a free presentation on using sedges, grass-like plants, as lawn alternatives at 10 am Friday, March 8, in the commissioners meeting room on the second floor of City Hall, located at 229 Rehoboth Avenue. Bill McAvoy, a botanist with the DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife for more than 30 years, will speak about sedges that grow naturally in Delaware and how they can be used in landscaping, both in gardens and as sustainable alternatives to traditional grass lawns.

"We need to move away from our lawn culture," says Trees & Green Infrastructure Committee Chair Bunky Markert, "and put more value on landscapes that are beneficial to people and the environment. Communities across the country are realizing that successful conservation involves less lawn and more native trees and plants."

McAvoy has spent his career studying the flora of the coastal plain from Long Island to Florida. He has documented the flora of Delaware, with an emphasis on rare species, as the primary author of the Flora of Delaware online database.