Environmental Science Scrapbook Article 2"Growing a Greener and Cleaner World with Ocean Friendly Gardens"
Local students, teachers, parents, and community members armed with shovels, rakes, wheelbarrows, garden gloves, mulch, native plants, and rocks united together on a cloudy day in October for the common purpose of creating the first Ocean Friendly Garden in the state of Virginia. The garden is the newest addition to a series of gardens that surround the green campus at Seatack Elementary, An Achievable Dream Academy. The project evolved as a partnership between the school and the Surfrider Foundation Virginia Beach Chapter, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of our world’s oceans, waves, and beaches. Ocean Friendly Gardens focus on CPR: conservation, permeability, and retention. The garden’s goal is to absorb as much water as possible and to use native plants that thrive in the local climate. Students, teachers, and parents from the community of Virginia Beach worked hand-in-hand with Surfrider Foundation to transform an overgrown area in front of the school beset by poor drainage, erosion issues, and flooding into a new learning garden. The result is a pesticide-free garden full of native plants and wildlife that promotes positive interaction and environmental stewardship within the local watershed to the entire community. Ocean Friendly Gardens are unique in that they use organic gardening to promote cleaner coasts and oceans by preventing urban runoff. Each property is like a mini-watershed that applies the concept of CPR to revive local watersheds and the ocean. Environmental education is centered on conservation of water, wildlife, habitat, and energy; permeability of soil and hard surfaces; and retention of rainwater. Surfrider Foundation Virginia Beach Chapter decided to launch their Ocean Friendly Garden Program by finding an area to promote these environmental concepts. After working closely with Seatack on many environmental initiatives over the years, Christina Trapani, Surfrider Foundation Rise Above PlasticsCoordinator, asked if the school was willing to install this type of garden. The answer was a resounding “Yes” and the rest is history. A Surfrider Foundation chapter volunteer who is a horticulturalist at the Norfolk Botanical Garden offered guidance with garden design and plant selection, including native plants such as wax myrtle, black-eyed Susan, pink muhly grass, and turtlehead. The garden is complete with two rain barrels, native plants, rocks, gravel, mulch, ocean themed wind chimes, and a newly installed art sculpture created by the children. Educational signage is posted in the garden to educate the entire community, and students serve as docents and environmental leaders to others in neighboring schools to showcase CPR concepts. Following the installation of the garden at Seatack, Ocean Friendly Gardens began sprouting up at other local schools in the community. Ms. Trapani shared her feelings about the partnership: “We were thrilled to be able to work with Seatack Elementary AADA since this was our chapter’s first Ocean Friendly Garden in Virginia. This was a perfect partnership for this project because of Seatack’s close proximity to the ocean and the impressive array of local, edible, and organic educational gardens that were already in place, and most importantly the enthusiasm from Seatack’s school community of students, parents, and teachers.” |
Citation"Growing a Greener and Cleaner World with Ocean Friendly Gardens." N.p., n.d. Web.
By Marie T. Culver, Teacher at Seatack Elementary School, Virginia Beach City Public Schools |
SummaryIn Virginia, members of a community are coming together to create an ocean friendly garden. They use tools such as shovels, rakes, wheelbarrows, garden gloves, mulch, native plants, and rocks to create an environment that a garden can thrive. At Seatack Elementary, this is just one of many gardens that surround its grounds. According to the article, the goal of these gardens is to "absorb as much water as possible and to use native plants that thrive in the local climate". This includes a program called Ocean Friendly Gardens which is a program that promotes CPR; conservation, permeability, and retention. The concept of CPR is to revive the local watersheds and oceans using an organic way of cleaning. OFG uses organic gardening to promote cleaner costs and oceans by preventing run off. Thoughts on the Article This article represents a way that we should all try and change the world. By using natural items, we can prevent the toxic chemicals from getting into the ocean. Since gardening is good for the soil and the benefits it has on the water it absorbs benefit the health of the ocean, it is a win-win situation. This article also presented to me that by doing one small thing to change the environment, you can influence the world. Also, since an elementary school is taking time to include the ocean friendly garden in their school, they are teaching the next generation how important the health of the world is. If we can promote this in areas all over the world, this will make a large environmental impact on our earth for the better. In my opinion, this program is amazing and it gives me hope that people out there still do care about the environment. |