Ocean Friendly Garden

This is what 2 tons of rock looks like...didn't fit in the hybrid

If you read my past post about Home Improvement Adventures, you know that Ryan and I have been slaving away to transform our yard from this:

Not our car...this picture was taken by the previous owners

to this:

Looks like we added palm trees but they were always there

It took a lot of hard work and we still have a few loose ends to tie up (note the grass growing in the gravel parking area...whoops) but we are nearly there! The plants growing in the dark brown area (where the pine straw is) are kind of hard to see but eventually will cover the brown area and will be green...and pink and yellow...they have little flowers! We also hope one day to make our driveway permeable (by cutting into the concrete) to further prevent runoff. 

Our front yard now requires no mowing, is drought resistant, salt tolerant and is not a wuss when it comes to massive amounts of wind (welcome to the beach). It also retains rainwater, preventing runoff into the ocean and river. We used no pesticides or fertilizers and followed the directions set out by Surfrider Foundation on their Ocean Friendly Gardens website. 

It may seem like more trouble than it's worth to create an OFG until you read about the problems plaguing our waterways, like the Indian River Lagoon. There are massive unexplained deaths of manatee and dolphin in addition to the decimation of sea grass beds and the proliferation of harmful algal blooms :(

If you want information about how you can make your yard more environmentally friendly, it is fairly simple! In Florida, there is a lot of information available about "Florida Friendly Gardens" here and Surfrider has a lot of information about "Ocean Friendly Gardens" on their website (which started in California but whose principles can be applied elsewhere). It can be a lot simpler than our yard (we did this to ourselves!!) or as complex as you'd like it to be. The main idea is to reduce the pollutants that can get from your yard to the waterways by reducing runoff, using less or no pesticides or fertilizers, conserving water and using native plants. 

Here are a few photos of the process:

Shovel champion

Dug up with one shovel...including all the St. Augustine grass

Putting down cardboard is an eco friendly way to keep weeds from growing through rock

More cardboard

Ryan takes better pictures than I do

Pink purslane is native and considered a weed by some

Perennial peanut

Plants we used:

In the mulched areas (lighter brown): texas sage, yellow bulbine, adagio and one olive tree. 

In the pine straw area (dark brown): ice plant, pink purslane, perennial peanut. 

Have you tried to make your yard more eco-friendly? Let me know in the comments! I'm always willing to learn more :)