Approaches to Coastal Gardening On and Off the West Coast of the British Isles.
~ Or How Even Lighthouse Keepers Can Have Spectacular Gardens ~

©Ben Rushbrooke, April 2004

Parts of the Western Approaches of Britain are among the windiest inhabited places on Earth, but gardening here is by no means impossible.  Though not as easy as in areas with more temperate climates and fertile soils, a good variety of garden styles and a great variety of plants may be used.  The following two pages are intended to help you think about what you want from your garden and what you can get from it.

It should be made clear from the off that the majority of the Authors knowledge and experience concerns gardening in the West of Scotland, and he also has a strong partiality to plants from the Southern Hemisphere (discussed elsewhere in the site), especially those of New Zealand.  These biases are not however entirely without foundation as the West of Scotland contains both the wettest and windiest areas of the UK and New Zealand has many hundreds of interesting plants which evolved in areas which are just as wet and windy, and in many cases much more so!  The author is also opposed to struggling to grow plants ill-adapted to their situation.

Another thought before we begin, a formal garden style is hard to carry off in the majority of coastal situations, often much time is spent just to make the thing look presentable, only to see it sticking out like a sore thumb against the often dramatic and rugged surrounding landscape.  There can be little that is more informal and changeable than the sea and it's shore.  Such concerns are generally lessened with the scale of the garden, the smaller the portion of the landscape a garden fills the less it affects it. This is not always true, to keep with the seaside theme, consider a fairly uniform stretch of shore, say wild bush or rough pasture land now place a small lighthouse within this landscape, this addition draws the attention of the view as it is precisely that, some thing that is added, it sticks out from the whole and evolution has given us eyes particularly sensitive to differences.  Do not forget that the West Coast of Britain has perhaps some of the greatest views in the world and the Chinese concept of the 'Borrowed Landscape' features prominently in many of the best gardens either through framing or by seemingly running into the landscape.  Alternatively if you have the money and can get the planning permission, you can take a Borownian approach and make your own

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coupling the rugged coastal landscape with a formal gardening style is not easy but it is possible, as in the excellent Walled Garden at Inverewe where the bottom wall is only a few feet from Loch Ewe.

 

 

 

The first step is to consider the kind of garden you desire and what you can have.  Several factors must be consider in this:

  • Personal preference, most important to you, but not necessarily practical, immaculate lawns and fine topiary gardens are unlikely to succeed on Unst at the top of the Shetland Islands and a cactus garden outdoors in wet Argyll will soon turn to mush.  All of the following points should help you to find the happiest compromise between what you want and what your site will allow.
  • Impact on ones surroundings, not just as touched upon in the above paragraph but also consider the implications your little corner of paradise may have on your neighbours.  Battles over out-sized x Cupresscyparis leylandii hedges have been much in the press recently.  Many communities, especially in tourist villages have 'Standards' for gardens, that all must follow a certain theme, or have lawns or hedges kept below a certain height. This may be viewed as the Big Brother method of garden design, if you value your individuality consider this before you move.
  • Current fashions and trends, this is important to some and not at all to others and some positively relish flying in the face of change, a word of caution though what looks very good today can look very un-cool in ten years time, consider this in planning the longevity of your garden.  Part of the joy of a garden is the redevelopment of areas once you become bored with them or they have gone past their best.  Dwarf conifer and heather gardens have now passed from grace and seem very unlikely to return, as have island beds and with the seemingly inexorable trend towards a more wild and informal structure of gardens as a whole, the herbaceous border will become less common and the matrix system of mixing perennials and grasses will become more widely used.  Remember though that predictions only exist to be disproved and thankfully much in terms of garden fashions remains timeless.
  • The use of the garden, the all important 'Usergroups', is it to be a public garden?  If so certain safety and access concessions must be made such as even paths capable of taking heavy foot traffic.  Do you have or plan on having kids, if so they will want a grassy area to kick balls into the flower beds from.  If you cook you may want to have an area with  herbs near to the kitchen door as many herbs do very well by the sea.  These are just a few of hundreds of potential uses, try composing a list of how you would like your the garden to be used and what you would like to get out of it.
  • Practicality of access to the site for your intentions, remember building something at the top of a hill involves carting everything up there to it.  Before you put a pond in make sure you can get water to it and that the water has somewhere to go when it overflows.
  • What the soil like.  The 'edafic' conditions, how deep is the soil, how good is the drainage, when does it flood, where does water collect or does it dry out for long periods.  What is the pH (a fairly approximate idea will do here), the texture of the soil, is it a predominately sandy, loamy, clay or a peat based soil, this will effect greatly what you can and can't grow and the amount of effort it will be to dig.
  • Aspect, the prevailing direction of the slope of your garden or the slopes in different areas of your garden.  The directions from which it is exposed to the sun are important considerations, a south facing slope will dry-out quicker as it feels the effect of the sun for much of the day, a west facing one will not see the sun till the afternoon and so forth.
  • The overriding concern in a coastal garden is the degree and direction of exposure to the wind.  Know the direction and usual maximum magnitude of the prevailing wind, the seasonal variations and how constant the wind is.  In very exposed sites many plants will be unable to grow due to the damaging effects of the wind.  This aspect is especially important for West Coast Gardeners as the prevailing westerlies are salt-laden and constantly strong throughout the winter months.  Salt in a wind greatly increases the potential to damage to plants, so know the direction in which the most and worst salt-winds come from and protect this quarter well.  Through careful initial placement much of the damaging effect of the salt wind can be avoided by using the landscape.  Both the world renowned Inverewe and the new and far smaller garden of Kerrachar near Kylesku in Sutherland were built around an inland facing aspect where the more exposed ocean-facing side is left undeveloped until more shelter can be established.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember that there are cons as well as pros to shutting off the view to the west to keep the wind out, such as missing sunsets.  And if you have a view from your garden why not make the most of it.