Little St.
Simons Island (LSSI) is a privately owned, 10,000 acre barrier island eco-lodge
resort in Coastal Southeast Georgia. Accessible
only by boat and limited to 32 overnight guests each day, LSSI’s deserted
beaches, dense maritime forests, and vast saltmarshes offer guests
extraordinary opportunities for bird watching, wildlife viewing, fishing,
hiking, and kayaking.
The Certified
Organic Garden at LSSI is dedicated to the research and demonstration of organic
crop methods for coastal southeast soils, while providing the best possible
produce for the guest meals on the island.
The garden
produces 75 different varieties of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers year
round and creates a living classroom for our guests to learn about organic
gardening and composting.
We
accomplish organic growing here by using vermicomposting “red-wiggler” worms to
break down our food waste and shredded office paper into a nutrient dense and
biologically rich soil amendment. Known
by growers as “black gold”, the worm castings, along with carefully tended soil
building techniques, make it possible to grow food here (at the beach) without
the reliance of synthetic chemical fertilizers and harmful pesticides.
The organic
garden has evolved since the first seed was planted in 2008 to include
intensively planted raised beds, traditional field crop space, herb gardens,
and an orchard of citrus, figs, and berries.
We are thrilled to participate in the sustainable food movement in the
Southeast and love to share what we learn with our guests and the greater
community of gardeners and friends.
We intend to
use this blog to share our daily experience of our “seed to table” garden
project. From season to season, what and
how we are growing, guest activities in the garden, and of course the inspired
and healthy ways our chefs celebrate the harvest each and every day in the LSSI
Kitchen.
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