Plant Clueless

[Robja]

Sea oats.

We have a winner. I have 240 of them in floating trays that I hope to plant on a new dune I started in front of my house when they get big enough.

[Tenacious]

That's going to be one cool project! Take pics of the harvest and planting.

[thoffman]

what are they good for? Are they for decoration or does waterfowl feed on them?

[Robja]

what are they good for? Are they for decoration or does waterfowl feed on them?

Dune stabilization and sand collection. some people probably do harvest some for decoration and I guess some wildlife probably eats some of the oats. Only thing is that the oat is mostly husks and ususally has only 3 or so tiny seeds.

This first picture is April of 2005. In The spring of 2004 I started piling palm fronds on the beach to collect sand and in July I planted 50 new sea oats so this is what it looked like almost a year later.

This picture is August of 2009. over 2006 and 2007 I planted over 300 more plants in the first dune as well as 2 new dunes I started on either side of property line. The first dune had a little overwash during 2 tropical storms .

This is November of 2009. To date the original dune has grown over 5 ft because the sea oats continue to collect blowing sand.

[Robja]

The side dune and front dune have grown almost together so I had to fashion a walkway to get through a couple of weeks ago. In the background of the second picture you can see where I have been piling fronds and collection sand and now that it has grown up about 3 feet that is where the new plants will go.