New coastal garden

Hi everyone,
Here are some pictures of the front and back gardens of our new house. Iâ??m going to concentrate on the front garden this year as itâ??s a more manageable size and shape. Itâ??s quite exposed to the wind and not far from the sea, so Iâ??m going to plant it with salt and wind tolerant shrubs and plants, and mulch them with shingle and pebbles. Itâ??s necessary to avoid leaving any bare soil or grass, due to the unwelcome leavings of the vast local dog population.
First I need to paint the horrible concrete block walls. If time and cost were no problem I would face them with stone, but thatâ??s not really an option, and anyway they will be hidden by plants eventually.
I would like to plant a tree in the wider bed. (18 feet long and 8 feet wide). Hawthorn may be a possibility as they seem to cope with exposed conditions. I was also wondering about Malus or Sorbus, but not sure about their wind and salt tolerance. Iâ??d welcome any ideas or suggestions.
Around the walls Iâ??m going to use Escallonia, Olearia, Griselinia and other coastal plants, and for the rest of the beds I hope to create a kind of â??seaside meadowâ? of grasses with perennials and annuals mingled together.
On either side of the front door I would like to build a planting box with supports going up to the little roof thing. Then put in climbers, perhaps honeysuckle and anything else tough enough for the exposure. More suggestions please!

In the back garden, my only plan so far is to create some sort of trellis or support system on the pebble-dashed wall and grow climbers up it. Itâ??s in shade for part of the day at the moment; much shadier in winter. So probably ivies, honeysuckle, hydrangea petiolaris. Iâ??d also love some clematis, and roses at the less shady end towards the shed. Being keen to cover up as much concrete and pebble-dash as possible, I thought Iâ??d grow clematis Montana over the shed. I know it can be rampant but I think the shed needs it! (Must paint that door, too.)
I donâ??t know how well it shows up in the photos, but there is quite a steep slope from one side of the back garden to the other, particularly where it plunges into a dip at the end of the block wall and the start of the chainlink fence. It will need to be made into several levels I think, but not sure where to start, so would be grateful for any ideas. I want to grow hedges along the boundaries on each side, but need to get any earth-moving done first.
Anyway Iâ??m hoping that putting these â??beforeâ? pictures on GC will spur me into getting on with it all, so that there will be some â??afterâ? pictures before too long!
Any advice and ideas very welcomeâ?¦

Sylvia







Front garden








Front garden wider bed















Back garden. Wall for climbers








Back garden and shed











Back garden showing steep slope/dip

 

Hi there, what a gorgeous area you have, and to live that close to the sea, wow!!

Sounds like you are well on your way, sorry i cant really give you any advice on what to grow, i am in Canada, so talk about extreme weather conditions huh.
Good luck though and make sure you post more pictures too.,

 

Thanks Penny,
Your weather must be a real challenge...I'll remind myself of your snow when I'm grumbling about all our rain. I've lived very close to the sea all my life, sometimes a bit too close for comfort, as in a caravan on the edge of a cliff for the last few years before getting this house! This is actually the furthest I've ever lived from the sea, and not by choice, but we're lucky to have a warm, dry home which doesn't rock about in the wind, so I'm not really complaining!
I can't wait to look out of the window and see plants instead of bare concrete everywhere, so really have to get on with it. Thanks for the encouragement !

 

I would love to be that close to the Sea, i do live in a town that is on a Bay, and its so nice to have water access, but to live on the Sea, i've only been that close on vacation.

 

There are two gardens that have used gravel/stones or beach effectively.

First is Dereck Jarman's house in Kent - fishermans cottage on a shingle bank.

and Holbrook House - also a nursery - sampford plants, that have turned part of their large garden into growing plants through stones as a mulch but selecting/experimenting plants that benefit from the situation.

good luck

 

A couple of suitable plants for hedging would be Tamarix and Sea Buckthorn.:gnthb:

 

I've seen pictures of Derek Jarman's garden and it's very much the style I hope to create. I hadn't come across Holbrook house, so will look into that - thanks.

Tamarix is a hedging plant that's used a lot on Scilly where I come from, but I don't see it here much, so I'd definitely like to use some. I'll try the sea buckthorn too - perhaps the spines will discourage those canine visitors! I also thought Rugosa roses might be good.

 

A little progress at last!
I began digging the narrow bed under the wall, ending up with a big mound of rocks, and a much lower soil level. So added lots of well-rotted manure, and planted my climbers; Hydrangea petiolaris, rose Golden Showers, Chaenomeles, a rose I brought from previous garden, Lonicera japonica and Clematis montana alba. We still have to fix the wire support into the wall. (I know you're supposed to do that first).






We planted a hawthorn in the front garden, after about an hour excavating the hole with a crowbar! Realised this method will probably be needed for the whole garden:(



I've started on the rest of the digging, spurred on by the fact that these are waiting for a home...



and I'm raising these as well (apart from the beans!)



I still have the concrete walls to paint, as well as all the ground to dig, and that's in my time off from our veg plot, which is the "day job". So expect progress to be slow but determined!