Can I help my coastal plants?
QOur garden has lovely sea views, but plants take a hammering and are sometimes blown out of the ground. Evergreens turn brown and trees bend. Do you have any recommendations? Anne Tomlinson, Hastings, East Sussex
AGardens by the sea have a unique beauty, bathed in light from watery reflections and the ever-changing moods of sea and sky. To preserve your views, use swathes of low-growing plants well adapted to survive the ravages of salt, wind and harsh sun. A frame of taller windbreak shrubs can provide shelter for vulnerable plants and seating areas.
Ideal coastal plants show modifications like needle-like foliage, a thick felting of hairs, succulence and waxy coatings. Some plants will inevitably fail, but don’t waste time by mourning or replacing them. Instead, propagate the victors to use in great numbers; perhaps lavender, cotton lavender, rosemary, Rosa rugosa, agapanthus, Verbena bonariensis, sea thrift or annual viper’s bugloss, punctuated by dwarf pines and clumps of Yucca flaccida ‘Golden Sword’.
Many New Zealand natives thrive in coastal areas, but are sometimes knocked back by severe cold. For milder coastlines, cordyline, hebe, pittosporum, phormium and pseudopanax are ideal. South Westerlies carry salt spray as far inland as our garden here in East Devon, but pittosporum are unfazed. We use them widely as windbreaks, as most grow fast and are freshened by regularly thinning out longer stems; P. tenuifolium even seeds itself about.
To succeed in a seaside plot, you will need cunning and tactics. Spring is the best time for planting, so roots can anchor themselves before the gales of autumn and winter. A mulch of largesized shingle over the soil surface will prevent erosion, anchor plants down and seal in moisture.