{"id":17761,"date":"2023-03-21T13:26:12","date_gmt":"2023-03-21T17:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/?page_id=17761"},"modified":"2025-09-02T14:05:40","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T18:05:40","slug":"plant-this-instead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/plant-this-instead\/","title":{"rendered":"Plant This Instead!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
\n \n
\n \n FROM THE SPRING 2023 ISSUE<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/svg><\/span>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n\n <\/div>\n\n\n\n

Deciding which plants to use for a foundation, privacy hedge, groundcover, or other landscaping project can be a challenge. Often, we use what we see growing in our region \u2014 plants that have become familiar to us \u2014 sometimes without knowing if these plants support or harm North Carolina\u2019s coastal environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"image:<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Coastal Landscapes Initiative has identified landscaping plants to avoid because they are \u201cbad actors.\u201d The CLI team also has hand-picked attractive eco-friendly plants to use instead. We compiled it all in Plant This Instead!<\/em><\/a> <\/span>\u2014 a guide available in print and online to help our state\u2019s coastal property owners, landscapers, and designers learn more about harmful landscaping plants, as well as North Carolina plants that make better alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plant This Instead!<\/em><\/a><\/span> organizes this information according to how landscapers and property owners typically use plants: specimen trees or grasses; foundation or border shrubs; screens or hedges using shrubs, grasses, or vines; ornamental vines; and groundcovers. In each section, we identify plants to avoid and suggest attractive, eco-friendly native plants that can fill the same purpose. The plants we feature have characteristics (such as early spring flowers) similar to those most often sought in the species to avoid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plant This Instead!<\/em><\/a><\/span> also includes a pull-out poster<\/a>.<\/span> The poster provides details about the impacts of eco-harmful landscaping plants (Stop the Spread<\/em>), as well as ten more plant pests that you will want to remove quickly if they show up on your property (Don\u2019t Plant a Pest<\/em>). Catching pests early will save time, money, and energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n