Indio Drive #3 Shell Beach

Description

A few months before this Ocean Friendly Garden was installed, several hundred square feet of lawn was removed using a process called sheet mulching. The lawn was mowed close to the ground, clippings left in place, and a thin layer of compost was installed. The entire area was covered with cardboard, soaked then blanketed with a thick layer of organic mushroom compost which introduced beneficial bacteria, fungi and other microbes into the soil. A few months later, voila! The grass was gone, having decomposed along with some of the cardboard, all without the use of herbicides or chemicals. Soil microbes are still feasting on the organic matter and will provide aeration and fertilization for months, even years.
Unlike compacted soil in lawn areas, these areas will allow hundreds of gallons of water, which will flow through the garden from downspouts directed into the planting areas, to be captured in the soil. All of the planting areas will provide filtration as the soil immobilizes and breaks down pollutants that would otherwise run directly into our fragile coastal ecosystem.
The smaller raised planters were filled with petite varieties of agave and aloe, echeverias, senecio, sempervivum, and barrel cactus. Leucadendrons, ceaonothus ‘Julia Phelps’ and arctostaphylos ‘sentinel,’ a smaller form of manzanita, will provide height along the perimeter of the garden. The palette was rounded out with beautiful burgundy aeonium ‘Blackbeard,’ agave ‘Kara’s stripes’ and a variety of other drought tolerant plantings that add texture, and seasonal color.