Now is a great time to get planting to ensure you have your coastal garden planting sorted for Spring and Summer. To guarantee some stunning blooms and desirable foliage textures, read through some of our favourite planting combinations for your coastal garden. Coastal gardens can be a variety of styles, but we discuss and recommend plants that we know love the coastal climate and can create some ‘wow’ displays.
Timing is important
As garden designers specialising in coastal garden planting and design, we work to a planting schedule to make sure that the plants have the best chance of survival. Here are some of our tips when you are planting your coastal garden planting.
– Our sweet spot for ideal planting time is September to November, when it’s not too hot, and not too cold. This also gives the roots plenty of time to establish by the time Spring comes.
– Don’t plant in December and January as the ground is too cold!
– You can plant again in late Feb to early April, but be aware if there’s some dry days you will need water.
– Mulching is important to protect the roots and prevent weeds and April is a great time for this.
You can even plant in the heat of Summer if you so wish, but please consider you will need to drown the plants to ensure they survive the coastal heat. Wind is no joke along the coast, so make sure any delicate perennials like Delphiniums are stakes or tucked into a windbreak area.
All about taste
Now, when you’re planning what to do with your coastal garden planting scheme, the first thing to consider if your personal taste and style. Yes, sometimes ‘coastal’ can have a certain look and style, but we can adapt the plant choices to your taste. For example if you like hot colours: orange, reds, yellow, there’s plenty of choices for you. Equally you may prefer: blues, pinks, purples, and there’s many choices for that too. Alternatively if foliage and texture is your friend, coastal grasses can be a winner!
Top hot colours: Crocosmia, Kniphofia, Geum, Hemerocallis
Top cool colours: Eryngium, Armeria, Salvia, Erigeron
Top foliage plants: Crambe maritima, Senecio ‘Angel Wings’, Euphorbia, Carex
Coastal garden planting schemes often lend themselves to having additional features within them, whether this is a sea groyne, water feature or windbreak pergola. If you’re considering adding one of these features to your garden it is good to get this into the space first, and then consider how you want to frame the planting around it. Do you want colourful plants to bounce off it, do you want it to blend in with the planting, or do you want it standing taller than everything else? Some of our projects have some nice features in which you can see here at our Deal project or Rye project.
Consider the staples
When it comes to laying out the plants when you are starting the coastal garden planting, what we do as designers is place the structure first. Your ‘structure’ may be the grasses, or perhaps shrubs or trees. It is key to get them in place first so you evenly distribute the winter structure around the garden. Ideally you will gave repeated plants throughout the garden, and if you have any particularly striking coloured plants, place these second, after the grasses and shrubs are laid out. Again, this ensures that the ‘wow’ colours are evenly spread throughout the garden and it all looks cohesive.
Mistakes you don’t want to make
We see a lot of coastal gardens, and we see a lot of mistakes and there’s a few easy things to slip up on that can hinder the overall desired effect. Try not to buy one of each plant, you want to buy in groups, so at least 3 of each. Don’t buy too many flimsy plants, tall and delicate flowers that are not protected by other strong plants will be blown over in the coastal winds. Don’t only buy palms. Often people think that the only thing that will grow along the coast are palm style plants like Phormiums, often the roots become a nightmare or they all grow way too tall. It’s surprising how many different style plants will actually thrive along the coast. If you want to find out more about coastal garden planting and everything you need to inspire you – Mark has written a book all about it which you can buy here.
