{"id":560,"date":"2011-10-05T10:10:08","date_gmt":"2011-10-05T14:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/?p=560"},"modified":"2011-10-05T10:10:09","modified_gmt":"2011-10-05T14:10:09","slug":"thriving-sea-oats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/?p=560","title":{"rendered":"Thriving Sea Oats"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/?attachment_id=561\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-561\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-561\" title=\"100_2439\" src=\"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/100_2439-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/100_2439-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/100_2439-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a>I moved to the beach for the ocean, the waves, the sand, the sun and the lifestyle those things bring with them.<\/p>\n<p>After I arrived, I also grew to love many things I had little noticed before.<\/p>\n<p>Dune grass in general and sea oats in particular are chief among those things.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/?attachment_id=562\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-562\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-562\" title=\"100_2451\" src=\"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/100_2451-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/100_2451-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/100_2451-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a>The golden yellow stalks reflecting the early fall sun and the grass bending with the breeze coming off the ocean are a part of what is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153right with the world.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d As comfort food is to the stomach, so the untamed growth of sea oats is to the soul.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to their aesthetics, they serve a practical purpose. Sea oats span the Carolina coast and beyond, fortifying the dune structure by expanding their roots deep into the dunes.<\/p>\n<p>Also, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve yet to kill any, a bright spot in my otherwise sordid past with vegetation.<\/p>\n<p>They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a hardy, happy lot, able to withstand sun, wind, rain, cold, salt water, hurricanes, this one island mom in the Carolinas, and the like. And unlike <a title=\"Still Trying For My Green Thumb\" href=\"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/?p=537\">my last sago palm<\/a> that claimed to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153want minimal attention\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but clearly needed more than I had to give, much like a boyfriend I had in the 80s, at least sea oats truly can survive without any attention from humans.<\/p>\n<p>Which is good.<\/p>\n<p>Because I really like them. So I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d prefer not to mess with them on the pretense of increasing their odds of thriving, knowing that in truth, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d just be proving the survival of the fittest gardener principle. Which basically is that if your gardener isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fit (a.k.a. me), in the end, you are just a little sago palm without hope.<\/p>\n<p>(Are there life parallels that can be drawn here? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so hard to be sure.)<\/p>\n<p>So grow, sea oats, grow, unencumbered by the failures of mothers too busy to remember to water, too oblivious to the <a title=\"Planting Dune Grass When Your Green Thumb Sucks\" href=\"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/?p=93\">existence of fertilizer<\/a>, too stupid to consider things like soil composition, drainage, and sun exposure.<\/p>\n<p>Be free. Be yourselves.<\/p>\n<p>Be not dead, but thrive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I moved to the beach for the ocean, the waves, the sand, the sun and the lifestyle those things bring with them. After I arrived, I also grew to love many things I had little noticed before. Dune grass in general and sea oats in particular are chief among those things. The golden yellow stalks [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[80,9,578,105,100,465,552,577],"class_list":["post-560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islandlife","tag-beach-life","tag-dune-grass","tag-golden-sea-oats","tag-island-life","tag-island-living","tag-island-mom","tag-moving-to-the-beach","tag-sea-oats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}