Coastal gardening - plants

Annuals are easy to grow on the coast, and the most you’ll have to contend with is that they may grow less than vertically as onshore winds blow their tender stems into growing horizontally, so be prepared with stakes and ties as they get taller.

Some favourites to try are Alyssum, Antirrhinum or Snapdragon, Calendula, the tall and stunning Canna, Eschscholzia or Californian Poppy.  You can grow Fuschia as an annual plant rather than a perennial shrub and you’ll find that if you nip out the top to stop it getting too tall and spindly, the seaside conditions should produce an excellent crop of flowers in a single year.  A seaside favourite is the Gazania, with its large daisy-like flowers in hot colours.  New Gazanias are not just passionately bright but come in elegant stripes of yellow and red or purple and orange.   Climbers can get very spindly in coastal regions but you should find that in good compost the Sweet Pea will race away for you and provide an annual screen of colour and scent which you can use to back your Stocks and Lobelias, so they grow tall and straight rather than sideways.

More permanent plants include the Cistus or rock roses, all of which love these conditions, Rosemary and lavender which thrive in dry and salty conditions and the Olearia or ornamental olive, which is a pretty grey-leaved shrub with scented white flowers.

You can plant eucalyptus trees, lemons and the excellent Genista or broom to provide taller structural shapes for the garden and as long as you protect them from really harsh winter winds, the lack of frost will give your perennials a fast start in spring and keep them flowering or in leaf, well into the winter months.

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