The Cape & Islands Chapter hosted their first Ocean Friendly Gardens (OFG) workday in May, kicking off a project that is bringing exciting changes to the landscape at a local community hub. Volunteers helped shape earthen terraces on the hillside and planted native plants that will provide vibrant pollinator habitat above ground while naturally filtering runoff through their root systems beneath the soil. This garden will help protect clean water at the nearby beach, and serve as a prominent example of a resilient Ocean Friendly Garden in the Town of Orleans.

The chapter's OFG coordinator, Peter Jensen, designed the terrace garden to naturally slow, spread, and sink rainwater and runoff as it flows down the hillside during the rainy season. Rainwater and runoff will naturally filter through the healthy soil and plant roots, reducing nutrients and pollution in waterways downstream. The rainwater retention terraces will also help hydrate the plants with enough water to be resilient through hot, dry summer months. The garden features native plants such as bearberry, inkberry, winterberry, little bluestem grass, and spotted beebalm.

The garden is located across from Town Hall and near the Centers for Culture and History of Orleans (CHO) along a road that leads to the nearby Nauset Beach. Peter has named this garden "CARPE DIEM" and included wave-shaped curves to celebrate the garden's connection to the ocean.

The slopes above and below the terrace were seeded with a blend of deep-rooted grasses that are drought tolerant, low growing, and require much less frequent mowing than traditional grass lawns. A native grass and wildflower meadow is also under development within the same hillside, inviting local birds and wildlife to this oasis of habitat. The deep roots of these groundcover plants will help stabilize the soil, reducing erosion and runoff while sponging up extra water.

Read the full article about ocean friendly native plant gardens by Kathryn Dressendorfer at Surfrider Foundation.