GARDENING: plants that are happy growing in coastal areas

GARDENING close to the coast has many advantages, writes TOM ATTWOOD. For me, I’ve always been envious of the milder conditions which can often mean winters where the ground rarely freezes and therefore you can grow a range of plants that you would otherwise have to bring indoors if you lived further in land. As with every scenario there are of course plants that would not be happy growing so close to the sea due to the salt in the air and also the (often) windy conditions. Every year when we go on holiday as a family a coastal walk or rock pool encounter is on the cards and I always take the opportunity to look in people’s gardens and see the plants that are thriving and you see repeated as this gives you the ideas and inspiration should you be looking to establish plants in a similar area. Many of the most successful coastal plants have silvery glaucous leaves that can put up with the salt and also the wind and long hours of daylight. Shrubs you most commonly see would include cytisus, hebe, buddleia, euonymus and one of my favourite shrubs, sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides). The shiny, waxy leaves of pittosporum are very good and both the light, silver coloured forms like Silver Queen and dark leaved cultivars such as the widely grown and much celebrated Tom Thumb seem equally successful. One plant I’ve started growing and using more is astelia. They originate in New Zealand and are not fully hardy where very heavy and relentless cold weather is prominent but in a milder coastal area they work beautifully either planted in the ground or in pots all year round. Cottage garden perennials are more tolerant but again those with silver leaves such as the catmints (Nepeta) lavender and anthemis all do extremely well and some of the finest rosemary shrubs I’ve come across have been spilling over the large rocky outcrops along the promenade in Grange- over-Sands.