Coastal Gardens

Coastal Gardening Books

Some suggested reading for you......

Note: Click on the Highlighted Text Link to find out more on each title and purchasing information

Coastal Gardening  

by Graham Clarke & John Bickerton

Many of us dream of living by the sea, but how to tackle the sometimes tricky planting conditions that coastal gardening demands? This inspirational and practical book explains how to design, plan and plant up your garden by the sea, making the most of the coastal microclimate. An exposed situation, extremes of weather, soil type and salty air can be difficult to deal with. Learn how to design and choose the right plants that will thrive, whether it is for a windswept, sheltered, container, productive or tropical or exotic-looking garden.

About the Authors
Graham Clarke trained in horticulture at the Royal Horticultural Society Garden, Wisley, and then spent a year working in the gardens at Buckingham Palace. He has been a gardening writer for over 25 years and is author of many popular books, including Success with Water-saving Gardens and five other titles in the Success with series. A former editor of Horticulture Week, Graham still contributes to this industry favourite as well as Healthy & Organic Living, Amateur Gardening and The Garden. John Bickerton trained as a designer and gained a wide experience in this area working for Amateur Gardening and Your Garden magazines, designing and coordinating their show gardens at Chelsea Flower Show, Hampton Court Flower Show, Ideal Home, Amateur Gardening Spring Show and the National Amateur Gardening Shows including achieving a Gold Medal at Chelsea 1998.

  Seascape Gardening  by Anne Halpin

Gardening by the sea is unlike any other gardening experience in the world. The gentle, misty light, moderate climate, and natural beauty of the coast only make seaside gardens more beautiful. Add to that the pleasant memories of summers spent by the sea as a child, and the allure is irresistible for most any gardener or ocean-lover. But aside from the scenic landscape and romantic setting are serious challenges to be overcome. The Coast is known for its extreme weather - storms blow in during the winter with gale-force winds, spraying sand and salt on every plant in their path. Even during the summer, high winds, fierce sun, and periods of drought challenge the toughest plants. Seaside gardens must be able to tolerate the elements and still look good. Author Anne Halpin is a renowned garden designer and writer. She navigates the rocky shores and sandy dunes, showing readers how to plant and care for seaside gardens that work with the elements, not against them. Keeping in mind those who only dream of living by the sea, Halpin also offers portraits of successful seaside gardens up and down the coast, with stunning images from award-winning photographer Roger Foley.

Seaside Gardening : Revised and Explained (Hardcover)

by Theodore James and Harry Haralambou

This new, updated edition shows astonishingly beautiful spaces in a range of shoreline settings, including ocean dunes, rocky coasts, and wetlands. In addition to including 65 new photographs, this edition features a completely revamped and expanded Plant Encyclopaedic, with a new section on tropical plants and tender perennials. The book's lush photographs of seaside oases offer gardeners ideas for using colour, fashioning landscapes, creating patio and deck garden; and constructing ponds, paths and trellises. And a Practical Guide, comprising up-to-date information about sandy soil, salt water, deer, and other seaside predicaments, makes this a complete resource for anyone who gardens in this demanding environment.

Coastal Gardening (Paperback) 

by Julian Slatcher

This book explains the techniques and introduces the plants that will help you to make the most of your coastal garden. The author takes you through the processes of designing, building and maintaining a garden by the sea.

 Subjects included in the book :The Living Windbreak, Use of Colour in the Garden, Laying Patios and Paths, Positioning of Plants, a Garden Calendar and advice on over 150 plants that thrive in Coastal Gardens.

The Seaside Gardener (Paperback)

 by Richard Mortimer

A comprehensive guide for those who have to contend with wind and drought on sandy soil. It contains invaluable advice for the beginner as well as providing more than 750 plant descriptions which is excellent source material for the experienced coastal gardener, as well as for the Garden Planner.

Gardens by the Sea (Hardcover)

by Barbara Segall (Author), Jerry Harpur (Photographer) "The garden at Lamorran House in southwest Cornwall overlooks the sheltered Fal estuary ..."

This book highlights 21 of the world's most inspiring coastal gardens - among them a clifftop garden in Devon, a garden in California that appears to dissolve into the sea; blazes of colour on the shores of New Zealand, islands off the coast of Massachusetts and elegant terraces with stunning views over the Meditteranean sea.

The author profiles 150 plants that thrive in coastal gardens and explains the techniques for dealing with drought, sun, wind and salt, shingle and sandy soil, and much more.

  Derek Jarman's Garden  (Hardcover)

by Derek Jarman (Author), Howard Sooley (Photographer)

Derek Jarman created his own garden in the flat, bleak expanse of shingle that faces the nuclear power station in Dungeness, Kent. A passionate gardener from childhood, he combined his painter's eye, his horticultural expertise and his ecological convictions to produce a landscape which mixed the flint, shells and driftwood of Dungeness; sculptures made from stones; the area's indigenous plants; and shrubs and flowers introduced by Jarman himself. This book, the last he ever wrote, is his own record of how this garden evolved, from its beginnings in 1985 to the day of his death in 1994.

100 Best Plants for the Coastal Garden: The Botanical Bones of Great Gardening

Although this book is written for the North-West Coast of the United States, their is a wealth of information that can be transferred to most coastal situations.

Seaside Gardening (Wisley)

by F W Shepherd

Gardening within reach of onshore winds, often of gale force and carrying salt and sand, imposes special challenges on the amateur gardener. In this revised edition of his handbook, originally called "Gardening by the Sea", the author suggests ways of coping with these conditions, how to adapt and protect gardens as necessary and recommends planting schemes for various types of seaside gardens.