THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 2, 1996 TAG: 9605310222
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY CHRIS KIDDER
CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: 163 lines
ALTHOUGH THE FIRST Englishmen to walk the Outer Banks wrote in glowing terms of a land of plenty, their enthusiasm was more for the mainland than the beach.
``We have discovered the main to be the goodliest soil under the cope of heaven,'' wrote 16th century explorer Ralph Lane.
In Lane's time, our barrier islands were more forested. They certainly appeared more fertile than today's shifting, sand-spurred and cactied dunes suggest.
But today's beach dwellers would give Lane credit for not going overboard about the plant-growing potential of an environment that turns mighty oaks into twisted shrubs.
In fact, until recent years on the Outer Banks, horticulture and beach rarely kept company. Most folks who owned beach houses planted sea oats to stabilize the dunes - maybe a shock of Pampas grass and a yucca or two - and left the rest of the landscape to Mother Nature.
Today, the desert beach is becoming an oasis at the hands of gardeners who have learned that, with a little stage management, almost anything is possible.
Just take a look at the beautifully landscaped acre of beach surrounding the Nags Head Hammock Co. in Kill Devil Hills, just a block from the oceanfront.
Owner Chuck Sineath began taming his sandy plot nearly 10 years ago - ``back when few of the other businesses even mowed their yards,'' he says - because he enjoyed the work. When customers began telling him they stopped in because his landscaping made the store look nice, he was encouraged to do even more.
Sineath's efforts have paid off in ways he never imagined. His success in oasis-making has inspired dozens of beach gardeners to try their hands at greening the beach.
They stop in to ask how to duplicate his success, he says, or they tell their landscape people to make their yard ``look like the one at Nags Head Hammock.''
``I've bought my plants from local nurseries and relied on their advice,'' Sineath says. ``And people don't realize how much work is involved in maintaining a yard like this.''
His in-ground watering system is an important factor, he adds.
Carol Rossi, a Kill Devil Hills resident, relies on a similar in-ground system to keep her soundside oasis green but admits that she still gets the hose out to personally water her flower beds every day.
Rossi's yard, blessed with a couple of large shade trees, has distinct micro-climates determined by prevailing winds and sunlight. She has taken advantage of the variety of growing conditions in ways that illustrate the potential for seaside gardeners who understand the dynamics of the beach.
On a recent May day, gerbera daisies, hydrangea, roses, day lilies, dianthus, pansies, verbena, vinca and wax begonias bloomed with a palette of Fauvist color while chrysanthemums greened up for another season and daffodils recouped from their spring show.
Hostas and English ivy provided ground cover beyond the borders of a neatly trimmed lawn.
Rossi, a northeastern North Carolina native, insists that beach gardening has posed no problems for her. She had a much harder time in northern Michigan, where the soil was rocky and the winters were long, she says. ``I've had better success here.''
Dirt fill was added to Rossi's yard when her house was built in 1989. Other than that, she says, she's added nothing special to the soil. She feeds her plants Miracle-Gro once a month.
She declines to say how much time she spends working in her yard. ``I don't want to discourage anyone,'' she laughs. ``I love working outside. I can always find something to do.''
Gardeners on the Outer Banks face a range of challenges unique to seaside planting.
Properties of sand - its inability to hold moisture, its instability and its retention of salt - make it a difficult medium, experts say.
Gardeners will make their lives easier if they ``dig out their garden one foot deep and replace the sand with dirt and organic material,'' says gardening guru and author Robert Stiffler.
But, says Stiffler, the most serious problems facing gardeners anywhere on the beach are summed up in three words: ``wind, salt and water.''
``Sometimes distance from the ocean isn't a factor,'' says Stiffler. Salt blows in the wind, and the salt content of groundwater, especially near the ocean or sound, can be damaging to plants.
Choosing plants that are salt-tolerant helps assure success. Roses, day lilies and cannas, fruit trees and liriope will take salt, Stiffler says. Most annuals, on the other hand, won't.
But tolerating salt and thriving in it are not the same thing. Gardeners should begin their landscaping by planting or building a protective wind barrier on the windward side of their yard or garden, Stiffler says.
``Unless you have one,'' he says, ``gardening is really tough.''
Susan Ruiz-Evans, an associate agricultural agent for the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service in Dare County, agrees with Stiffler.
``I hate to tell someone they can't grow something at the beach,'' she says. ``But they need to create the right micro-climate.''
Ruiz-Evans emphasizes the need for water. ``To keep plants alive, moisture is the most critical,'' she says.
Sand, heat and wind all conspire to dry plants out more quickly than novice gardeners expect. Gardeners often try to counteract the lack of moisture by planting more deeply.
It doesn't work, she says. ``I've seen just as many plants die from oxygen starvation because they were planted too deeply.''
The Cooperative Extension Service received more than 2,000 calls in the last year, Ruiz-Evans says. Because so many of the calls were gardening related, the service has started a gardening hotline, staffed by graduate volunteers from the agency's Master Gardener program.
In addition to Master Gardener classes, the extension service offers several other public gardening seminars throughout the year. Staff will identify unknown plants and pests brought to the office.
Ruiz-Evans emphasizes using good cultural techniques and hardy plant material in gardening to reduce the need for pesticides and herbicides.
But even with the best advice, some locations are best suited to non-organic gardening. Mary Jo Campbell gave up on grass and created a Zen garden - a raked sandscape with aesthetically pleasing rock formations - atop her septic tank in Kitty Hawk.
Most gardeners can avoid trial-and-error gardening, or giving up on plants altogether, by turning to professional landscapers or experienced home gardeners.
The Dunes of Dare Garden Club draws more than half of its 80-member roster to its monthly meetings, where members share gardening information, tour area gardens and listen to experts advise them on a variety of gardening subjects.
No one says beach gardening is easy. Some like the wild dunescapes that were once the rule for beach yards. Others, like Rossi and Sineath, say gardening is a rewarding labor of love.
But whichever side of the landscaping fence you prefer, it's hard to deny that a garden full of flowers at the beach offers a small, cool comfort to the sand-weary eye. ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
CREATING AN OASIS
Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
Jaspar Mackey of Manteo mulches the garden at a business in Duck.
One merchant says a garden draws customers' eyes to the business.
Carol Rossi of Kill Devil Hills has trees on her lot that help
contribute to a healthy growing environment for her hydrangea
plants.
Staff photos by DREW C. WILSON
Mary Jo Campbell of Kitty Hawk uses a hand-made rake to create
patterns in the zen garden at her home on Ivey Lane.
BEACH GARDENING
For home gardening help, call the Dare County Cooperative
Extension Service ``Green Line'' at 473-1101, ext. 385, Monday and
Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The service begins June 10.
The Master Gardener program is a national certification program
that provides intensive education in horticultural principles.
Master Gardeners repay the cost of the program through volunteer
community service. Training is provided through the North Carolina
Cooperative Extension Service in cooperation with N.C. State
University.
For information about extension service programs and classes, ask
to be put on their horticulture mailing list. Contact the North
Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, Dare County Center, 211
Budleigh St., P.O. Box 968, Manteo, N.C. 27954. 473-1101, Ext. 241.
The Dunes of Dare Garden Club meets the second Thursday of each
month at the Thomas A. Baum Center, Kill Devil Hills. For more
information, call club president Sarah Johns, 261-6497. by CNB