Ocean Friendly Gardens

I’ve mentioned Bay Friendly Gardens before and Wildlife Friendly Gardens, but today I found out about Ocean Friendly Gardens.

All of these programs are really very similar. They all encourage and recognize property owner’s efforts to create landscapes while considering the effects that their actions have on the surrounding environment.
Ocean Friendly Gardens is a program by the Surfrider Foundation, a charitable organization which was started in 1984 by a group of surfers intent on protecting their favorite surf break in Malibu, California. The organization now has over 50,000 members and 80 chapters worldwide, all focused on protecting the world’s oceans, waves and beaches.

Surfrider Foundation members understand that runoff from gardens and hard surfaces is one of the primary sources of water pollution, which means  that home gardeners play an important role in  protecting the world’s water bodies. They developed the Ocean Friendly Gardens program to educate and encourage property owners to follow the three principles of CPR – Conservation, Permeability and Retention.

The Ocean Friendly Gardens website describes steps that gardeners can take to apply these principles:

• Conservation of water, energy and habitat through native plants (add allow some climate adapted plants), spaced for mature growth.
• Permeability through healthy, biologically active soil, and utilizing materials for - or making a cut in - driveways, walkways and patios that allow water to percolate into the soil.
• Retention devices like rain chains, rain barrels and rain gardens retain water in the soil for the dry seasons or save it to water veggies, preventing it from running off the property.

For more information about the Surfrider Foundation and the Ocean Friendly Gardens program, you can visit the DC Surfrider website.

Ocean Friendly Gardens

The David Stemper Memorial Rain Garden was created using the principles of Ocean Friendly Gardens