You don’t go to your beach house to garden. You go to your beach house to go to the beach.

Still, there is a pride of ownership that might inspire those who have oceanfront homes in the Carolinas to give them some curb appeal.

On my vacation on Emerald Isle in North Carolina, I noticed that some homeowners gave over their property to drought or desiccation. My guess is, these were homes used primarily as rental property.

Other, more lavish homes had built-in irrigation systems and neat, modest designs that draw on the native, highly drought-tolerant vegetation, including palms and beach pines.

Still others homes were planted with annuals and decorated with planters, a dead giveaway that these were season-long or year-round residences. Annuals and planters take too much water and too much attention to leave them for even a day in the climate of the Carolinas.

And finally, as this homeowner has decided to do, you simply give in to nature and to the nature of vacation…and you turn your front yard into a volleyball court.

Photo credit: Jill Mihoces