Planting a Coastal Garden
Whilst being by the seaside is delightful it can create a difficult environment for growing, often daunting to any gardener, however, our blog is here to show you that it can be a blessing. Salty, harsh wind provides a tricky predicament with a coastal garden, it is too brutal for some foliage, however the good news is that it provides a haven for others! The top things to look for when creating a coastal garden, is prickly, glossy or silver foliage (as a rule of thumb!). When approaching the seaside, one can’t help but eye up the fantastic Phormiums and Yuccas that tower in the gardens without a care in the world, but these are not the only things to thrive in this environment, our blog is here to inspire you and cover different varieties which will thrive.
Firstly, it is important to say that more than likely you are dealing with soil that will be lacking nutrient and laden with salt, therefore adding well-rotted manure will help nourish the soil and help retain moisture too. This will be especially vital for shrubs and trees.
If you want to create some shelter, there are many ways of doing this from building defences to introducing structural plants. To create a hedge suitable for coastal areas you need to use glossy leaved hedging such as Grisselinia or Elaeagnus or thorns such as Blackthorn or Hawthorn. Depending on the exposure, you may be able to use a native hedging mix too. If your garden requires extra shelter, trees that will enjoy this situation are Hornbeams, Hawthorns, Pinus, Quercus, and poplars to name a few. It’s always a good idea to look around in local gardens and see what is thriving there for inspiration too.
Once you have thought about hedging and trees you may want to add some structural shrubs. Berberis and Pyracantha are wonderful examples of prickly shrubs that will thrive in this area, but both provide wonderful structures., the pyracantha providing masses of colourful Berries, attractive to birds and prior to this, masses of flowers attractive to pollinators. The Berberis similarly do the same but are available in an array of foliage colours. However, you can get away with more unique plants such as Corokia and Coprosma. Another plant to thrive is the beautiful Ceanothus, which can be somewhat difficult further inland due to the moisture!
Then, you can think about those borders and what you would like to achieve? Maybe a structural, uniform garden with elegant bushes? Or a country garden with masses of flowers and loose foliage’s sprawled between? Whatever the case, there are many different plants to choose from! to suit any taste or style.
There are obviously a lot of native plants such as Malva Sylvestris, Armeria Maritima and Crambe Maritima which will thrive and create a haven for pollinators, but you can also create the wow factor by creating textural contrasts with grasses and plants such as Eryngium (a real bee magnet!!) and Kniphofia, the clash of blue and orange contrasting against that wonderful sea backdrop! Grasses are a fantastic addition to any garden; they are particularly valuable in a coastal garden due to their fibrous root systems stopping the soil blowing away so easily and they are available in a multitude of colours with flowers and berries on some. Libertia are fantastic evergreen grasses which have beautiful subtle white orchid like flowers, Hakonechloa are available in beautiful gold tones and there are Ophiopogon which are black with impressive black berries in the Autumn. These can provide fantastic contrast to other plants but look quite wonderful planted en masse. One garden we visited had a carpet of the black Ophiopogon and a carpet of sedum reflexum ‘Aureum’ next to it, (both of which will thrive by the sea) it truly looked magnificent and is something I later copied on a smaller scale in my own garden!!!
Alpines are a fantastic choice for Coastal gardens, naturally happy clinging to rocks with very little nutrition, they thrive in this brutal environment with dry winds and little protection. I often think Alpines don’t get the credit they deserve; some think that they are just boring succulent type foliage and that’s that. This is simply not the case, even one of the most common alpines, Sedum Reflexum gives way to masses of yellow flowers which are simply irresistible to pollinators not to mention the autumnal tones. Arabis, Cerastium and Campanula provide wonderful ground cover again with masses of flowers but each having different varieties and colours to choose from. The wonderful thing about Alpines is, they come in an array of shapes, sizes and colours, generally not too high, but some producing wonderful carpets, therefore giving good ground cover. There are a large amount of Evergreen alpines available, providing a wonderful contrast to any rocky/ stony type areas, the year long.
Herbs, though some are very easily grown inland, others such as Lavender and Rosemary and Sage tend to prefer the coastal conditions. However, Basil, Coriander and Marjoram will also thrive, alongside things like Chives, therefore ensuring you will have a decent Herb Garden.
Many plants will thrive by the seaside which will make your gardener friends green with envy! Agapanthus and similar bulbs will thrive. Often being something that needs bringing in over the winter, further inland, the dry exposure is perfect for these helping them to spread easily. Here at the nursery, we stock a large range of Agapanthus, available in White, Lilac, various shades of blue and black! These generally fit in to any type of garden. If you are after more of a country garden theme, then you will need Daisies!!! Lower Daisies such as Erigeron Karvinskianus are wonderful and flower right up until late autumn, generally all Erigeron are fantastic daisies that will spread and thrive and give a wonderful show for the summer long. Other daisies such as Leucanthemum supply a wonderful show too and are a real must have for any gardens looking to attract wildlife. In fact, there is a long list of fantastic wildlife attracting perennials that will work well in a coastal garden, two other must haves (in my opinion) are Perovskia and Nepeta. Both boast that sumptuous silver tone and long racemes of flowers in a dusty blue but their greatest attribute is by far their capability of attracting all those wonderful butterflies and bees. It is fair to say though, that these can be a little common and some prefer to go for plants such as Agastache which come in a Kaleidoscope of colours these days from blue hues to a palette of sunset colours. These all lead me to the fantastic Buddliea, ‘The Butterfly Bush’ you can’t give this plant enough credit. If you want butterflies, you need a buddleia, these plants are so easily grown you will see the more common types have self-seeded in roofs and rock faces! Nowadays though there are all sorts of buddleias, suitable for any garden.
Don’t forget if all else fails our team is always here to advise and help and we also sell a ‘ready made coastal garden’ on our site which you can purchase by the square metre, so we pick all the plants and do all the thinking and picking for you!
