Lighthouse Gardens and Nature Walk

Mosquito Inlet was a remote place in the late 1800s. Lighthouse keepers planted gardens to supply themselves and their families with fresh vegetables. Today, volunteer gardeners grow vegetables, herbs and flowers here. One of the garden plots contains indigo, a cash crop for local plantations during the 18th century.

Behind the garden is the nature walk. The nature walk area is an example of a costal hardwood hammock. Located less than a quarter mile from the ocean, this plant community is typical of those growing along high energy shorelines. The vegetation here is strongly affected by wind and salt spray, and includes live oak, yaupon holly, wax myrtle, saw palmetto, low growing vines, grasses and herbaceous plants. Indigo snakes, gopher tortoises, squirrels, raccoons and armadillos forage in the hammock.

Coastal hammocks also provide critical resting and feeding habitats for migratory songbirds. In the summer months mosquitoes are present in large numbers.