hen shoppers come to Bill Strope's store 

 in Beaufort, they usually look for three things- 

 style, function and simplicity. 



When they leave, they're not wearing the 

 latest fashions. Instead they're toting bundles 

 of beach grass and bags of fertilizer 



With Strope's help, they're dressing up their 

 yards. 



He's a coastal landscaper who also runs a 

 garden center and an irrigation business. And 

 business is growing. 



The idea of coastal landscaping is taking root 

 in the minds of the state's property owners. 

 They're planting everything from North 

 Carolina-grown yaupons to the exotic purple 

 fountain grass. 



And they do it for a variety of reasons. 



Like Gail Gentry of Morehead City— she'd take 

 yard-of-the-month every time. And Clawson 

 Hicks of Pine Knoll Shores— he just wants to 

 keep his lawn from washing away. 



There's no doubt Gentry puts aesthetics first 

 for her yard. She sometimes spends 30 hours a 

 week to get that "manicured look" around her 

 Williamsburg-style home. 



"You have to make your yard fit your house," 

 Gentry says. And it has to look good. 



So Gentry plants boxwoods and mondograss 

 in front of her house, azaleas on the side, and 

 felt-like grass all around. 



And it's worth it. 



She gets compliments even in the winter. 



Still, the idea of beauty and the beach differs 

 among residents. 



Some prefer to let native species thrive in 

 their yards. They see beauty in swaying sea oats 

 and prickly yucca plants. 



With a little clipping and pruning, native 

 species can be as attractive as and more hardy 

 than exotic ornamentals. 



But there is often more to coastal vegetation 

 than beauty. 



"Some people are just looking to find 

 something to stop their sand dune from blow- 

 ing away or the beach from blowing across 

 their yard," says Ben Hill, a landscape consul- 

 tant from Manteo. 



Wind and water whisk away two to three feet 

 of North Carolina's shore each year, says 

 Spencer Rogers, Sea Grant's coastal engineer. 



Clawson Hicks knows the story. He lives near 

 the water and owns other coastal real estate. 



"I want to stabilize the soil so it won't wash 

 away," he says. So he plants plenty of grass and 

 shrubs. 



For stabilization, Rogers suggests first install- 

 ing a barrier such as a sand fence or a dis- 

 carded Christmas tree to trap the sand. Then 

 plant American beach grass and, later, sea oats. 

 Once the vegetation becomes established, it 

 will thrive on its own, he says. 



Erosion also presents a problem on the 

 sound side of the barrier islands. 



Marsh grasses work in certain sheltered areas. 

 Other erosion control methods, like bulkheads, 

 are often necessary and have fewer adverse ef- 

 fects than on the oceanfront. 



Although landscaping needs vary, most peo- 

 ple have the same general goals in mind. They 

 want a plan that requires little maintenance, is 

 attractive, functional and cost-effective. 



But landscaping doesn't come cheap. 



"People are willing to spend more money on 

 landscaping now," says Hill. "They want things 

 to look right." 



"If you're going to have enough money to 

 buy a house down here, you're usually going to 

 have $3,000 or $4,000 to landscape your yard," 

 says Franklin Walker, business manager at 

 Lloyd's of Landscape Ltd. in Wrightsville Beach. 



That's about the average cost per yard, he 

 says. The fee includes lawn design, installation 

 and maintenance. 



Other landscapers' estimates span from $500 

 to tens of thousands of dollars. 



Sprinkler or irrigation systems often run up 

 the bill. A complete irrigation system can cost 

 up to $3,000 



Landscapers install them most frequently in 

 the more southeastern counties where the 

 growing season is 245 to 300 days a year 



Barry Batchelor, owner of Azalea Coast Land- 

 scaping in Wilmington, says irrigation and land- 

 scaping just about go hand-in-hand now. 



"In fact," he says, "I can't think of a home 

 we've done in the last three or four months that 

 we haven't put irrigation in." 



To cut costs, many residents rely on their own 

 green thumbs. 



Continued 



