Hey Elisa ! Great project there you're participating in ! There are projects like that on our coasts too. There's one I'm familiar with and much bermuda grass has been planted. I can provide with that, I've got quite a lot in my garden, but then so has Tox and I guess he won't mind sharing ;-) The bermuda is growing right there in the sand, sometimes in a mat of dead algae full of salt, no much rain and when there is it is a lot, and this grass is doing a good job rebuilding the dunes. There's also a nice bush that is used which is sea buckthorn, or scientific name hippophae ramnoides. It's a real nice bush with orange fruits in winter, and it grows in sand and doesn't mind salt. On top of that sea buckthorn fixes nitrogen like legumes so it helps the grass underneath. If you're the one with the cash then you can choose to hold the dune and feed the birds with nice bushes ! Only downside of sea buckthorn is that it is a dioecious bush, you need males and females to get fruits, and I think it must be watered the first year it is planted so as to settle properly in the sand. As for building houses where they're going to be washed away or flooded... not really dumbness, but rather greed ;-)Those nice views of the sea from the windows are worth millions aren't they, until it's the underworld and the fish one can see from the windows !

Saw Palmetto would be your number one palm. Sabals grow just behind the dune, both S. palmetto and S. minor. Yucca aloifolia is a native dune plant but very pointy, you might want to substitute Yucca elephantipes as it is spineless. Prickly pear cactus is a Florida dune native that you see ocassionally, but again not very user friendly. Keep in mind that a dune is bare sand. That works at the beach but is a maintenance nightmare in the backyard. Lots of weeding and raking. Much of the dunes are planted with low growing stuff like the railroad vine, dune sunflower and the like. I would stay away from the thorny stuff with the exception of the saw palmetto. You might want to familiarize yourself with pre-emergent herbicides. Jerry

There are several 'regular plants' that are quite salt-tolerant - but they're not very grassy! I'm guessing you don't actually want to be out in the yard with a lawn mower but you'd like some ground cover. A local beach has the following plants growing well in shifting sand dunes and plenty of salt spray: marram grass, arctotis and gazanias, coprosma, portulaca, and a native convolvulus. Further up the coast yellow lupin has been used for many years to stabilise the sand and add nitrogen to the 'soil' before it is overplanted with Pinus radiata. (Don't do it! They aren't safe in a residential area!!!) If you quite like conifers - look for dwarf versions that won't monster your house. If grasses are catching your attention - think about some of the ornamentals such as Briza and Lagurus ovatus (both of which can be useful for flower arrangements). Regular lawn species and the carexes are often too thirsty to establish - particularly in mid summer. On another stretch of coastline which is rocky and regularly deluged with spray, bull kelp, and assorted seaweeds, the marram is absent and there are more shrubby plants. You mentioned a bottle brush/Callistemon. You might also want to check out Metrosideros 'Tahiti' which is fine by the sea and doesn't grow nearly as large as its big cousin. Using seaweed: I dump on plenty at the beginning of winter and let the rain mush up all the holdfasts and stiff bits. A local plantsman gathers beach grit for mixing with ordinary potting 'soil'. He's found the trace elements make the plants more robust. Mainly it's about piling on something that's free, to begin the process of soil building. If you don't get much seaweed but are blessed with shells at the high tide mark - they can be very useful as a 'hard mulch', for holding down the sand and keeping the ground cool and moist, but do what you can to find some other source of plant material to dump on and let rot. For those first light planters - the Impatiens would probably be happy on the north side. Then you might want to put together planters for some of the tougher succulents such as Aeoniums, Echeveria, Kalanchoe, Crassula, tree Aloes, hardy bromelliads, together with beach-themed ornaments, which could make a fascinating garden statement for you. It's much easier to be cheeky and outrageous at the beach in a small garden! (Just to cheer you up - there are gardens in similar places to yours that have been built up over time and happily grow roses and other 'regular' plants. And they started with bare sand, too. Good luck!)

You can get all the info you need from the internet. Google lakeside dune native plants of southwest Michigan. If you are lucky enough to find them, get some seeds of the endangered plants in your area like Pitcher's Thistle and Houghtons goldenrod.