Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2007 | Page 72
life
GARDENING
Alan Titchmarsh
SEASIDE
GARDENS
Photo by Niall McDiarmid
Sun, sand and seagulls
… the scent of suntan
lotion on the breeze …
oh, yes, I do like to be
beside the seaside.
But when you’ve had enough
sunbathing and swimming and
snorkelling, there are always
the gardens to look at. You
can’t expect too much in the
way of horticultural excellence
right next to the beach, where
the wind and salt spray are at
their worst, but in the five mile
zone that lies slightly back from
it – where there’s some shelter
and the hot-water-bottle effect
of the sea keeps conditions
warmer in winter - you’ll
often find a lot of interesting
plants that don’t survive half
so well further inland.
All along the south coast,
you’ll discover a wide range
of subtropical plants thriving.
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Cornwall is well known for its
palms. It also has the hottentot
fig, which grows right down
to the beach in places; it’s
a mesembryanthemum-like
plant, originally from South
Africa, with huge yellow daisy
flowers up to five inches
across that only open in
the sun, and mats of thick
succulent ‘fingers’ for leaves.
In some south coast gardens
you also see the sorts of exotics
that only grow in conservatories
elsewhere. Sometimes they are
just put outside for the summer,
but it’s amazing how many
now survive all year round in
a mild sheltered situation. If
you feel like making a special
trip, the subtropical gardens
on the island of Tresco in Scilly
(the Abbey Gardens), and
Abbotsbury in Dorset, give
you a real feeling for what is
possible. And the Isle of Wight
is always great for plants
and garden-visiting - you see
fascinating plants everywhere;
Osborne House is a great
day out and Ventnor Botanic
Garden is not to be missed if
you’re a keen plants-person.
But it’s not just on the south
coast that you’ll see good
seaside gardens; all round our
shores there are wonderful
plots where the owners have
taken the trouble to plant good
seaside-proof windbreaks.
Thick hedges of tamarisk, largeleaved Euonymus japonicus,
Cupressus macrocarpa or
even the dreaded Leyland
cypress stand up well to salt
sprays and filter out salt and
slow down the wind, so that
a fair old seaside garden can
be created in their lee. Take a
copy of the National Garden
Scheme’s Yellow Book with you
to the seaside, and if there’s a
private garden opening close to
the coast while you’re there, go
and visit - you’ll be amazed at
the creativity people have used
to beat ‘impossible’ conditions.
And if, freshly inspired by
your summer hols, you feel
like having a go yourself, a
seaside-style area can make
a very attractive and easily
maintained ‘garden-withina-garden’ back home. I did
it myself, round the hut that I
used for writing my novels, at
my last house. A bit of beachhut styling and jaunty colour
scheme led out into a small
seaside garden that was easily
made, quick to maintain and, if
I say so myself, very effective.
The trick is to forget
conventional lawns and flower
beds and instead draw your
inspiration from what you see
round you at the seaside – a
mixture of sand, pebbles and
shingle, with old sun-bleached
and weather-worn timber set
up to look like breakwaters or
driftwood. Add a lobster-pot,
and odd bits of nautical flotsam
and jetsam, with suitably
maritime plants – especially
seaweedy-shaped species,
and shrubs pruned into wind-
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