Designing and Creating a Coastal Garden

Create a beautiful and practical coastal garden with this inspiring and comprehensive guide. The seaside can be a stunning setting for a garden, but it can be difficult to find plants that will thrive. Salt-laden winds make the careful selection of plants and landscaping materials vital. This book provides a step-by-step process, as used by professional garden designers, that will help you design, build and plant a beautiful, sustainable and successful garden in these conditions. From initial inspiration to planting and styling techniques, Designing and Creating a Coastal Garden will show you how to create your dream garden by the sea. The coast is a special place for so many of us. The quality of light and air, and the sense of space and freedom, have an irresistible draw on artists and holidaymakers. Those who make their homes by or near sea can feel very privileged to do so. A walk along an exposed sea front in a coastal town will usually reveal front gardens with battered specimens of the same few, not very exciting shrubs and trees. One could be forgiven for giving up on the idea of a coastal garden. But there is no need to despair. This book will show you, step-by-step, how to create a beautiful and practical seaside garden. Gardens evolve over the seasons and over the years with tweaks and experiments, as the gardener's taste and understanding of the garden develops. But a lot of frustration, disappointment and wasted money can be avoided by starting with a good design. And for no type of garden is this truer than for a coastal garden. Designing and Creating a Coastal Garden shows how, beginner or experienced, you can design a garden that will work practically, beautifully and harmoniously with a seaside setting. Detailed advice is given on what plants and what landscaping materials work best on the coast, as well as horticultural techniques and sample planting plans. It is also incredibly rewarding to create habitats and observe the wildlife in a garden. This book shows how to take inspiration from the type of coastal habitat found near a garden both for style and for successful gardening for wildlife. Whatever the scale of your project, from improving a tiny corner, to a major whole-garden restyle, this book will help you create a wonderful garden by the sea.

Alan Edmondson is based in Lymington, on the south coast of England. Co Owner of Bowercot Garden Design. Alan has been National Mastermind of Gardening and President of the National Auricula and Primula Society, and has lectured widely on the history and craft of gardening.