Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Bring the seaside to your garden
Enthused by a day out at the beach? These experts tips will help give your garden a seaside feel.
Anyone who has been inspired by visits to the beach and recent coastal walks can easily create a little bit of that seaside feel in their own garden. Award-winning garden designer Joe Perkins, who lives close to the sea in Brighton, and Lynette Talbot, chairperson of Sidmouth In Bloom, offer their tips on how you can recreate beach vibes in your outdoor space...
Set the scene with sandy soil or gravel
“Ideally, you’d need sandy soil or a gravel footpath. Gravel gardens can make it look like a beach,” says Chelsea Gold medallist Joe, whose 2020 Facebook show garden Growing The Future will be displayed at next year’s show.
“You could do worse than put down four or five inches of gravel, and many seaside plants would be happy growing in it. If you have poor drainage or heavy soil, build up a gravel layer, adding sand or soil to add nutrients.
“A lot of coastal plants will be perfectly happy growing into that layer and many of them don’t need much soil, and if they do, like sea kale, they will have a deep tap root which they’ll send down to stabilise themselves.” “Treat your seaside garden like an alpine garden,” says Lynette.
“You want free-draining soil, which you can build up like a rockery or cliff face, incorporating shorter grasses like carex or small miscanthus, to give you the feel of the wispy grasses along the edge of the shoreline.”
Pick suitable plants
“Coastal plants have specific adaptations which may be small leaves or, if not, they are quite waxy, with a protective coating to minimise water loss and the effect of salt,” says Joe, adding that “if you go to a shingle beach you may find sea kale, thrift and rock samphire, little clustered hummocks of varying shades of green and grey.
“If you like the spartan look, you could make a gravel garden planted with rivers of thyme, dwarf myrtle bushes and some evening primrose.”
Stock up on freedraining species
“Other good plants to create a sea feel would include santolinas, lavenders, silver-leaf plants and some sea poppies, which need to be planted in a very freedraining, gritty soil, with a good sand and compost mix because they don’t like being in a very fertile garden. Known as the horned poppy, these perennials have lemon flowers and large, bean-like seed heads,” continues Lynette.
“Thrift is another good choice and comes in colours from white to darkish red. You can buy any of the Ballerina Series in the alpine section of a local nursery.” She also recommends sea holly (eryngium), sedums, artemisia and mallows.
For border colour, you could go with acanthus, euphorbias, Phlomis russeliana (Turkish sage) and valerian (Centranthus ruber), erigeron (Mexican fleabane) and low-growing herbs such as thyme, lavender and rosemary, Joe suggests.
Add seaside accessories
“Create a small area with some shingle and put some posts on the side, with a rope link between them or some firemen’s buckets or tyres or rings which could be painted red to resemble lifebuoys, or get some glass fishermen’s jars.
“You might be able to get hold of some crayfish or lobster baskets, which give an area a nice seaside feel,” Lynette advises.
“Thick ropes, which you often see tying a boat to a mooring, are a great accessory”
Create a beachinspired social spot
“For me, being on the beach is about getting together in the evening and relaxed social gatherings, so I would think about fire pits, deck chairs and that sort of low-slung seating you can really relax into. Fire pits are great, whether you choose gas or wood fire,” Joe observes. Hammocks and outdoor bean bags could also be added to create that beach feel, he suggests.