Myrtle Beach's First Ocean Friendly Garden

Description

Surfrider Grand Strand chapter decided to promote Ocean Friendly Gardens in our area by creating gardens at different locations and then featuring those in campaigns to encourage development by homeowners, business owners, local municipalities, schools, etc. We created our first project in April 2015 in the Gates neighborhood on the south end of Myrtle Beach, about 1.5 miles from the ocean. At the site, we have trenches beneath the gravel from the downspouts, diverting water from the storm drain, and under the gravel we used mulch. This was our first project, and we will try different materials in future projects, depending upon the space.

We plan to create another, smaller garden at a residence later this spring, and are working with the local Boys & Girls Club to clean a public park/playground and making an Ocean Friendly Garden at the site as well. In the fall we have a project planned for a school. So far the response has been positive, and another neighborhood in our area has asked our chapter to help them develop Ocean Friendly Gardens at the entrances to the neighborhood, with their primary goal being to get rid of their irrigation system and use significantly less water annually, while still having an attractive, groomed entrance. We have been working with Coastal Property Conservation Group, a local landscaping contractor, who has graciously donated their time to help develop this project, and they have been as enthusiastic as we are about creating Ocean Friendly Gardens in our area! We also asked for guidance from our local nurseries, Blue Moon and Inlet Culinary Gardens, to determine which plants would be best in the space, and they were very helpful selecting primarily native, drought resistant plants for the build.