Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Shoveling Seagrass

We like to go up occasionally to our lot in Tarpon Springs and hang out, dreaming of the day we'll build our house there. (Yes, we're pretty boring people.) Low tide exposes a beautiful little sandy beach and the sunsets are spectacular.

A few months ago, we noticed sea grass washing up on the beach. As the weeks went by, more and more sea grass washed up until it created a thick, slippery mass of sea grass that made it just about impossible to wade out in the water. After a little research, I discovered that it's a natural annual phenomenon, which essentially turns your shoreline into a big compost pile.














We decided to reclaim our little sandy beach. We purchased a pitchfork and tarp at Home Depot and got busy. A little trial and error directed the removal efforts. The most interesting thing we learned was that there was a top layer that scooped off pretty easily with the pitchfork. Underneath that was a layer that had been decomposing for quite a while, and was basically - muck. Stinky muck. REALLY stinky muck. Hold-your-breath, cover-your-nose-with-your-shirt stinky muck.

We decided to haul the intact seagrass over to a pile to dry out. We spread the muck out in another spot because it looks like it will make a great soil amendment when it dries. After one session, here's what the beach looked like:














A few more sessions should git 'r done, and we'll have our lovely little beach back...'til next year :o)

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