Top tips to successful seaside style
● If you do live on the coast, make a note of the plants in other people’s gardens – what’s thriving and what’s not? If you live inland, make a note on seaside holidays of what plants you see.
● Plant into the gravel or shingle for the best, most natural effect, or simply mulch or line your borders with gravel or pebbles for ease. You could use raised beds set into the gravel in a light, driftwood-style colour.
● If you live on the coast, be sure you’re planting sturdy, robust plants, and remember, ‘right plant, right place’. Don’t go all out on expensive, unusual plants that may succumb to the stark weather; choose common, cheap plants that’ll cope well. ● In real coastal gardens, you may need some shelter to deter winds from ripping through your plot. Make this necessity into a feature by adding wooden fences as beach shelters, or driftwood ‘groynes’.
● Turn a shed or a greenhouse into a beach hut – add bunting, deck chairs, hanging rope planters; perhaps add a bit of decking to make a seating area. Furnish with shells and other knick-knacks, too.
● Add an exotic plant or two to evoke those gardens in the south west like Trebah or Heligan. Try a phormium or a tree fern, but be sure they’ll suit your garden’s climate.
● Even the seating in your coastal garden will be the difference between success and not quite hi ing the mark – hammocks and deck chairs are obvious choices, but remember to choose naturallooking materials; faded wood or metal looks great.