Aren’t plants amazing? They add beauty to any setting, bring joy to those around them, help to clean our air, and can provide a great meal! Did you know that they have a lot in common with oysters as well! Oysters are amazing animals that help clean our waters, bring joy to those around them (especially fish and birds), and also make a great snack! While oysters can create beautiful things, like pearls, their shells aren’t always considered beautiful like plants are, however, the two can be brought together to help us achieve wonderful things for our environment!
Planted Oyster Gardens
What the heck is a Planted Oyster Garden you may ask yourself. Well, a Planted Oyster Garden is a beautiful, decorative display for your home that can grow plants and help support oyster reef education, even if you live far away from the marine coastline! Typical Vertical Oyster Gardens (VOGs) are strings of recycled oyster shells that are hung in coastal waterways to create new oyster reef habitats. Oysters provide many amazing benefits for our marine ecosystems, where devices like VOGs can help restore our declining oyster populations. Educating others about the importance of oysters is an important step to help with their recovery! While VOGs are great for helping with oyster restoration, they aren’t always the most beautiful to look at.
This is where the Planted Oyster Gardens come in. Using recycled oyster shells paired with attractive plants, you can create a decorative ornament for your home! The Planted Oyster Gardens are so unique and eye-catching that your friends, family, and even strangers may ask you about them. You can then use the opportunity to teach them about the wonderful benefits oysters provide for us.
Register for our next event in Pasco County on May 22nd! Sign up here!
Why should I care about Oysters?
Oysters are amazing animals that help to clean coastal waters, create ecosystem diversity, and protect our shorelines, yet we have lost over 80% of oyster populations globally.
Environmental
As a keystone species, oysters play a crucial role in maintaining healthy waters, filtering between 3 and 50 gallons of water per day. By removing sediments, algae, and excess nutrients, oysters can help prevent hazardous algae blooms and maintain clear clean waters. The clean water services that oysters provide allow seagrasses to thrive, supporting megafauna such a manatees and turtles. Oyster reefs form complex structures that can support a large range of marine species, such as fish, bivalves, invertebrates, and birds. Increased oyster reef habitats can also help attract fish to the waters, both as a food source and by acting as a nursery for juvenile fish species, helping to support our marine fisheries.
Economic and Historical
Throughout human history, oysters have been harvested from natural reefs for both food and economic support. Archeological evidence shows oyster harvested as a food source, supporting coastal populations throughout the past, with some of the oldest evidence dating back to 164,000 years ago. The sale and distribution of oysters across the globe also allowed for communities to thrive and develop in coastal regions, up through the present day. The economic benefits of oysters are valued at hundreds of millions of dollars globally, including benefits related to fisheries, aquaculture, tourism, water quality, and shoreline stabilization.
Resilience
Oyster habitats play a crucial role in shoreline stabilization and in preventing erosion. Barriers formed by oyster reefs help to act as breakwaters to reduce wave energy and protect shorelines. The structure of the reefs can breakup wave energy, absorbing or dissipating the waves and lessening impacts to the coasts. Oysters filter sediments from the water column and will deposit the sediments as a form of solid waste. This sediment waste will become trapped in the structure of the oyster reef habitats, helping to keep the water clean and build up the reefs. The reefs can also protect vegetated areas from erosion, creating a barrier between the sea and the plants. Key plant relationships can include mangroves, seagrasses, and salt marshes. Oyster reefs help to protect coastlines from waves created by storms, boats, and strong currents.
How can I help Oysters recover?
If you don’t live near the marine coastline, am important way to support oyster recovery, is to educate others and spread the word on the importance ecosystem benefits oysters provide! Advocation for the protection of oyster habitats will help protect our natural resources, allowing oyster habitats to recover.
Attending oyster restoration workshops or events can allow you to help create devices used for restoration, even if you do not live on the water yourself! Check with your local UF/IFAS Extension office to see if any events are offered near you.
If you live in a marine coastal area installing Vertical Oyster Gardens can directly help to improve water quality, restore oyster populations, and create new habitats for other species! Contact us is you are interested in a VOG for your home!
Do you want a Planted Oyster Garden for your home?
Join us for an exciting, creative, and educational workshop to build beautiful Planted Oyster Gardens and contribute to oyster restoration education. You will learn about the amazing benefits of oysters, build a customized Air Plant Garden for your home, and help support oyster restoration. Register for our next event in Pasco County on May 22nd! Sign up here!
If you can’t make it to our event, don’t worry you can make your own!
Follow these steps:
1. Get yourself some oyster shells!
- Reach out to local seafood restaurants and ask for old oyster shells, save your shells after a nice oyster dinner, or contact us for some shells at me.moore@ufl.edu
2. Create holes in the CLEAN shells (they may be stinky if you don’t let them bake in the sun)
- This can be done using a drill press, Dremel, or using a metal punch and a hammer!
3. Gather supplies
- You will need something to string the shells together, we recommend wire, string, or fishing line
- Plants! They will be placed in-between oyster shells and padded with sphagnum moss. Due to the structure of the hanging gardens plants such as air plants, ferns, and orchids are best.
- Decoration: Get creative! These can be as unique and beautiful as you want them to be! Use beads, fathers, sticks, charms, windchimes, or anything else! Paint the shells or add glitter if you want to!
4. Assemble your Planted Oyster Garden
- Secure the bottom of your line with a knot, shell, or item to support the other shells
- Place moss and your plants between two cupped oyster shells, arranging them to fit around the plants
- Wrap wire or string around the shells and plants to hold them tightly together
- String the planted shell onto the wire
- Add beads, decorations or more plants as you go!
- Check out some photos for inspiration!
If you make your own Planted Oyster Garden share it with us. We would love to see your masterpiece! Message us on Facebook or use the #plantedoystergarden with your post!
Learn more about Vertical Oyster Gardens:
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