BEACHY KEEN
The soothing sound of waves is the soul of
seaside living in our lovely state. But look into the eyes of any beach side
gardener and see a perfect storm of frustration and rage. That “romantic” sea
spray and overly alkaline (opposite of acid) beach sand can and does thwart the
very best efforts of even seasoned gardeners who just want a presentable lawn,
colorful landscape beds, and a productive veggie garden. In past articles I’ve addressed
one approach: growing salt tolerant plants. But lots of folks want to grow
plenty of other things...what about them?
Transform the soil! Work with natural
materials that add acids, leach away salt, and add water-holding organic matter
and soon you’ll enjoy a tantalizing taste of successful seaside gardening. And
central to this approach is applying a deep mulch once or twice a year, at
least 6 inches thick each time. Excellent choices include bagged oak leaves as
they are already acidic, a big load of chipped limbs and leaves delivered by a
tree trimming company, and the manure and sawdust bedding free for the taking
at neighborhood stables. All organic matter generates natural acids as it
decays, and those summer rains will leach those acids deep into the sand and
heal it of the excess alkalinity that makes plants struggle. Soon, that loose
sand will darken and enrich and begin to hold water and support our gardening
allies, earthworms, who till the soil and enrich it for us. Mulch, mulch, mulch
those landscape beds and veggie gardens!
Powdered gymsum can be tricky to find in
bags larger than five pounds, but this natural mineral (calcium sulphate) is
unsurpassed for helping to leach salt out of soil if sprinkled on one or two
times a year, ESPECIALLY after a hurricane has splashed saltwater all over your
landscape. Chunks of broken up gypsum wallboard can be scavenged from a
construction site with the permission of the foreman, or buy whole sheets at
the hardware store and break them up...why? Place a few hand-sized pieces at the bottom of
the hole when planting new perennials and shrubs, and their roots will mingle
with this built-in defense against salt build up.
Bermuda grass is the best choice for beach
side lawns, and municipalities and hotels sod it into playgrounds and parks
where even with no care it looks surprisingly good. But if we feed it each
March, July, September and December with the same cottonseed meal we use on
those mulched gardens, Bermuda grass will become lusher and greener than you
thought possible for a lawn by the beach yet remain amazingly drought tolerant.
Sold in 50 pound bags by feed stores, cottonseed meal is a potent natural
acidifier that also supplies nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in abundance if
sprinkled on lawns and beds as heavily as you’d put parmesan cheese on
spaghetti. Fed to livestock, it is a non-burning natural soil food perfect for
healing sea side soils. And contrary to belief, your Bermuda lawn CAN be mowed with a conventional rotary mower; only
golf courses require reel mowers as they create a hard low turf surface for
balls to roll on. Each November, apply winter rye grass seed to your dormant Bermuda lawn for a quick green up that will add organic matter to
the soil when it dies and decays each spring. Mowing with the bag OFF your mower all year long will allow
the clippings to decay and nourish the sandy soil too as a form of “mulch”.
Once again, as it decays, natural acids released will steadily combat excess
alkalinity.
If you can’t find cottonseed meal at feed
stores and are comfortable with chemical fertilizers (they too tend to acidify
alkaline soils) feed the Bermuda four times a year with either Sunniland Palm
8-6-6 (if you rarely water) or something along the lines of Lesco 16-4-8 (if
you irrigate frequently) to provide ample nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium
plus trace elements like manganese, iron, magnesium, boron, molybdenum, zinc,
copper and sulphur.
The natural mineral sulfur is sold in five
pound bags at garden centers, and if sprinkled lightly atop your thick mulch
layer each spring will quickly acidify the soil when the summer rains come so
that at last your pale, sickly ixoras, gardenias, hollies and azaleas can perk
up. Again, that parmesan cheese analogy will help you decide how much to use.
Iron sulfate works even faster...apply it more like salt on food as it is
potent. Keep it away from concrete surfaces as it will stain them a rusty red
brown color. But boy does it work on yellowing plants!
Hey, nothing’s perfect....but successful
seaside gardening can be a part of
your parcel of paradise if we change the salty sand into soil.
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