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Designing a garden by the sea poses special problems for the designer. High winds and salt spray can wreak havoc with planting schemes. The need to provide sheltered areas for sitting and entertaining may be difficult to achieve.
On the positive side, the proximity of the sea greatly reduces the chances of damaging spring frosts. The designer may choose from a far wider palette of plants than is possible further inland including the exotic and sub-tropical species currently in vogue.
A balance between providing sufficient shelter to satisfy the clients' needs and allowing views to the sea to be maintained and enhanced is the challenge facing every designer.
Planting and Design for Seaside and Shelter explains the particular process of analysis needed for maritime environments, the effects of wind and salt spray and the microclimates created by sea and wind. The establishment and maintenance of shelter belts is fully explained and practical information on the choice and implementation of planting schemes. A suggested list of suitable plants for windswept sites is included. Each chapter is accompanied by case studies of actual gardens with helpful information from the designers and gardeners involved.
Planting and Design for Seaside and Shelter provides the designer with a thorough understanding of the principles involved and will be an invaluable aid for designing and maintaining gardens by the sea.
- Introduction
- Key Factors Affecting a Maritime Site – the maritime climate, the effect of wind, direction of the wind, amelioration of the climate by the sea, orientation, access to water
- Case studies: two contrasting small gardens – an exposed garden in Newhaven, East Sussex, and one in Aldwick Bay, Bognor Regis, West Sussex
- Site Analysis in a Coastal Situation – views, access, shelter, outdoor sitting and entertaining, soil types, local plant life, negative aspects
- Case studies: gardens on the sea front at Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, and at Rottingdean, West Sussex
- Developing the Design – the concept or bubble plan, themes, a seaside theme, sunken sitting area
- Case studies – garden at Winchelsea Beach, East Sussex, ‘Baywatch’ near Dublin, Ireland, nautical themes
- Naturalistic Planting in Exposed Sites – endemic plants, native versus exotic plants
- Case studies – West Mill, north Devon, coastal garden near Montrose, Angus, Scotland
- Shelter and Windbreaks – artificial shelter belts, living shelter belts, first line-of-defence shrubs, hardy shrubs, shrubs of borderline hardiness, trees for windbreaks and shelter belts (deciduous and evergreen windbreak trees), combined artificial and living shelter (hedges, suggested hedging plants)
- Case studies – gardens with established shelter belts (Inverewe, north-west Scotland
- Tresco, Isles of Scilly
- the Old Vicarage, East Ruston, Norfolk
- Trelissick, Falmouth, Cornwall
- Redlap House, Stoke Fleming, Devon)
- Planting and Maintenance – native maritime plants, maritime plants from outside the British Isles, choosing suitable plants, planting and aftercare, renovation of existing shelter belts
- Case studies – Prospect Cottage, Dungeness, Kent, garden at Bracklesham Bay, West Sussex
- Plants for Maritime Conditions – shrubs, climbers and wall shrubs, perennials, annuals, grasses and bamboos
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Gardens to Visit
- List of Nurseries
- Index
Debbie Jolley had a design practice based close to the south coast of England. She was a keen yachtswoman and developed her interest in the problems of designing maritime gardens while cruising the coasts of the British Isles and Ireland, France and the Netherlands, as well as further afield in the Caribbean and the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Debbie believed that a thorough analysis of the very distinct microclimates found in seaside gardens, together with development of a close understanding of the client’s requirements, will create gardens that relate closely to the surrounding landscape, and will provide lasting and attractive environments in which clients can relax. She believed that with the new varieties of salt- and wind-tolerant plants being introduced, designers can afford to be more experimental in their choice of plants and materials.
Debbie originally trained to be a lawyer and practised in the City of London before studying at the English Gardening School, then at the Chelsea Physic Garden, London. She was a Registered Member of the Society of Garden Designers (MSGD) and taught at West Dean College, near Chichester, West Sussex.
Sadly, Debbie Jolley died of cancer during the preparation of this book.
