[Lesleyk]

I'm looking for advice and helpful suggestions!  I have lived in this amazing place for six years now, a tiny cottage on the west coast of Scotland, about 20 metres from the sea!  I have been making a garden here for the same length of time, with varying degrees of success - many failures and some lovely surprises. For example, I have a great vegetable plot.  There is absolutely no shelter from the westerly/south westerly winds but with a combination of wind protection (fencing, trellis, hard landscaping, hedging) and choosing my plants carefully (paying attention to what grows here already) I have managed to build a pretty wee garden beside the sea.  However, I would love to grow climbers, particularly honeysuckle.  Many folk around here grow the hardier versions of honeysuckle and I have been advised they are good coastal plants, but all my attempts have been freeze-dried by the winter gales!  My plan is to try and clothe fencing and trellis with climbing plants to (a) make them look prettier and (b) add to the wind protection, but I need advice on how to protect the climbers themselves while they are growing.  I had thought about growing them in plastic tubes (don't laugh, desperation can result in extreme ideas) and winding the tubes around the trellis or fence.  Another idea would be to wrap fleece around the plant as it is growing.  But, am I missing the obvious (apart from not doing it at all)?  Help!

[mumofstig]

It may be worth rigging up some fine netting around the young plants,especially on the side the wind comes from which would help reduce the force of the wind.
 I don't think fleece would be strong enough to do the job.

[Lesleyk]

A local nurseryman suggested I grow another variety of honeysuckle alongside the one I really want, preferably an evergreen one that would (in theory) keep its leaves in winter and help protect the leafless stems of the other plant.  The two, he suggested, would look after each other, but I can't help thinking the evergreen plant would become sacrificial, as the leaves would surely be blown off in the winter winds.  A thought .....

[Goosegirl]

Hello LesleyK. I live on flat farm land about a mile from the sea and it can be a real trial to garden with any degree of success - you should see the salt deposits on my windows! You have been bob-on by looking at what grows successfully in your area. What I have found is that you need to establish your boundaries so they provide some protection, which you seem to have done, so what I suggest is: maybe try a real hardy "good grower" plant that will provide some protection for whatever honeysuckle you want so it can also use it as a support. My thoughts are Escallonia, varieties of Euonymus which, if grown against trellis or other supports, will grow upwards to form a screen. Other ones are Eleagnus ebbingei "Coastal Gold", Griselina Littoralis, Fuschia riccartonii, and Rosa rugosa which comes in pink or white scented flowers.   

[Lesleyk]

Thanks goose girl - I like your thinking.  Rosa rugosa might be the answer as I have managed to get some going quite well already, although it suffers above a certain height.  I lost an entire Escallonia hedge to the drying, salt-laden winds (admittedly before I had put in more protection in the form of fencing and trellis - both of which are covered in two layers of shade/wind protection netting to complete the protection picture!).  There is quite a lot of Fuchsia growing as wild hedges around here - the small-flowered varieties which I think include riccartonii. Another amazingly good grower is the larger-leaved Hebe (I think it's just the basic kind, not a particularly posh variety) - I have managed to establish a fast growing hedge from this Hebe and the cuttings take so easily I am now using it as a secondary form of protection around the garden.  I know that both Grisellinia, despite its coastal credentials, and Eleagnus have suffered here before but, perhaps with more protection around them?  The main problem is always going to be finding something suitably thuggish to accompany the honeysuckle, that grows at the same rate so the protection is continuous. 

[Lesleyk]

A thought: nobody mentions growing ivy in exposed, coastal area - is this because it doesn't do well?  It strikes me that it would be the perfect protective accompaniment for other climbers, which could twine through them.  What do you think?

[Goosegirl]

Ivy could be a good idea as it would grow tall enough and support the honeysuckle, and you could trim them both back as and when needed. It can be a bit thuggish to the sides and can take over when it gets going. To my mind, you need some sort of protection for even the most hardy of sea-side plants in order for them to get going, then they can do their own thing. I'm sorry you lost your Escallonia hedge - what a shame - was it properly established? I've seen the fuschia you mentioned right on the coast, but didn't know of a hebe that would survive - can you take a pic of it as I could try getting one. Would love to see pics of your garden and exposure!

[Lesleyk]

The Hebe is a very common variety, aka Hedge Veronica, Hebe speciosa or Hebe x franciscans.  I have found it listed as a wild flower on some websites.  I don't think I've ever seen it in a garden centre - my hedge was started from cuttings donated by a neighbour and has grown a good 60 cm in three years. It is an evergreen shrub growing up to 2m. The flowers are on purple spikes (occasionally pink or white). Leaves are oval, glossy and dark green - about 6.5cm x 3cm when mature.  It seems to grow everywhere around here and a lot of houses right beside the sea have it so it must be extremely tolerant.  A couple of photos to help you.......

Also attaching a couple of pics of the garden (veg plot and patio/deck) - looking quite sorry for itself at this time of the year but you get the idea - and you can see how close we are to the sea with no protection!

[Goosegirl]

Hi and thanks for the pics. That hedge looks good! Is that the sea I can see on the last pic just behind the fence? Crumbs!  Ok - I will try and post pics of my garden for you on here. I don't do it often, so forget how I did it before - should write it down, but will try doing it shortly. If I remember rightly from a book I bought years ago about coastal gardening, don't erect a solid barrier as the wind goes over the top then creates a big buffeting swirl on the other side of it. Better to have something that filters the wind. Supposedly, protection of a foot high will create seven foot of protection on the other side, but maybe the person who wrote that didn't live right by the sea! 

[Goosegirl]

Phew - I'm going to need advice on using photobucket or similar, but here are the pix of my garden via a different way. One is a view of our veg and hen / geese / sheep area from our bathroom window looking towards the Lake District. The sea is just off to the left. The other one is of our side garden and, if you look very carefully at the tip of the left-hand delphinium, that white blob is a cottage right on the shore. As you can see, it is totally flat because it is reclaimed mossland. If I'd had some spare money a few years ago, there was a little cottage right on the shore not far from us with a verandah and, though it needed a lot of money spending on it, would have been a gorgeous retreat for friends to go beachcombing, etc. Would love to know how you go on with your plans. 

[Lesleyk]

Totally agree with the advice not to put in a solid barrier between the wind and what is to be protected, which is why our protection is in the form of netting-clad fencing and trellis so there is space for the wind to howl through.  Actually, I think I've pretty much dealt with the protection side of things - as far as you can in an area like this.  You are right about the position of the sea - at high tide it is about 20 feet from the back of the house!  If we have a  major storm - as we did about 18 months ago - everything goes, including any fencing and other protection we may have built - but that only happens occasionally.  I think for my honeysuckle, which I bought as plugs and which is now growing happily away in the shelter of the greenhouse,  I will look at getting some fast-growing ivy to put with it and see if I can get protection in that way.  One day I will have the garden of my dreams ......  will keep you posted about progress and thanks for your interest.  Your place looks so much more lush and green than mine!

[Goosegirl]

Hi Lesleyk - I think you've got it all sorted and been very knowledgeable and practical in what you have done. My garden is more lush because it is alluvial silt, akin to clay, so very moisture-retaining (a bit too much sometimes); however, I guess yours is more sandy and well-draining? You will have access to seaweed which is invaluable for the soil. I'm pretty sure any ivy (small-leaves ones best?) will do the job, though you may need to tie in the honeysuckle to it as ivy stems tend to stick all the way along their length, but you could use a tool to release a bit of stem and attach it that way. I wouldn't put their stems behind the ivy because it could strangle them. Were you not deluged by the storms over Christmas and afterwards? A couple of houses right on the shore here had waves overtopping their roofs!  Anyway, keep in touch - we could always share trials of plants for hanging baskets! 

[Lesleyk]

Thanks for all the advice and encouragement - I think I will try the ivy thing and see what happens.  You will know this already, but I find the best "bedding" and hanging basket plants are geraniums (pelargoniums) and begonias.  I was surprised to discover this as they seem so, well, Mediterranean.  I overwinter my gerans in the greenhouse and take cuttings, so I have loads and loads and I fill pots, planters and hanging baskets with them in the summer.  They are so tolerant and long-lasting, they have become my favourite summer bloom.  The begonias do the best in baskets, and I tend to mix in a few trailing lobelia, but I have given up on Petunias as if the wind doesn't get them, the slugs and snails will!  The other "bedding" plant that seems to thrive around here is Mesembryanthemum, which I have fun growing from seed (got a few started already).  They love being in pots on the deck and I love the mad colours.  I've really enjoyed your posts and will definitely keep in touch as it seems we are battling with similar conditions, although you are right we tend to have sandy/gravelly soil around here which is great for drainage, if not for retaining moisture.  Having said that, most of my garden has been made with pile after pile of local topsoil delivered by the pick-up load as there was nothing here when we arrived except stones, rocks and the sea! 

[diospyros]

No-one has mentioned Sea Buckthorn yet which could be a possibility.  I'm also wracking my brains trying to think what the daisy flowered bush is that grows on the Isle of Man.  Has evergreen leaves with serrated edges, and possibly begins with O?  And what about Tamarisk?  That seems to grow in very exposed places in Cornwall, OK that'a  lot further south than you but if you can grow Fuchsia hedges... sorry none of these are climbers which is what you asked for!

A friend of mine had a cottage on the far south west tip of Ireland - basically there were two houses between her and Brazil.  She built up her garden gradually until it was like an oasis and if I can get hold of her I'll ask what plants she grew.  I think she just tried everything until something took hold!

Ooh I just thought of something  else, looking out the window at my deciduous Eleagnus (species unknown) and thinking it looked like it might like the seaside.  Grow things from seed.  That way they know what they are in for from the start and you can pick the ones which show the best aptitude!  I could send you some seeds off this if you want.

[Goosegirl]

Sea buckthorn and tamarisk are both good choices for windbreaks. Tamarisk has many varieties, but the common ones are: tetranda flowers in spring and pentandra in summer (a.k.a. Salt cedar). Both like full sun and well-drained soils and don't mind salty conditions. Whether you could grow honeysuckle up them, I don't know because their branches are quite slender and it might spoil their looks, so these could be used in big pots as an extra windbreak. The daisy-flowered bush diospyros was trying to think of is Olearia haastii - an upright evergreen shrub which also loves full sun and resists strong salt-laden winds - another possibility - mmmm - again not sure. The RHS and Burncoose have websites with specific plants for coastal areas so have a look there. Methinks your honeysuckle will have to be in a big moveable pot which you can try in different places, or just put it with one of these, or try them all. If you have several honeysuckle plants coming on, it's worth a go and you might just find the right place - good luck. Oh - just had a thought - I had a rambling rose called "Sander's White" - rather vigourous but had the most beautiful scented flowers that made me think of a very expensive soap and, when the summer air had some humidity in it, the perfume was outstanding! If you trained that up against one of your fences, not only might it help your fence to stay put in high winds, it would definitely support your honeysuckle.