Beachside Planting
My clients wanted a garden on the beach, literally. Right on the beach. As you might imagine there are some unique challenges to gardening right at the beach. The site is rather windy and the soils somewhat saline. With a little preparation and careful plant selection we were able to proceed without undue complexity.
Access to the site was challenging and all the materials had to be hand carried from the street above down several flights of stairs, including more than five cubic yards of gravel and seven cubic yards of compost.
Here is a view of the garden from the beach. It is a unique property
The flagstone pathway is also a rainwater management system, with several subterranean gravel basins that capture, filter and slow all the rainwater from the property before it reaches the lagoon.
The plantings are a mixture of mostly drought tolerant material including a few California natives. The big masses of red/orange are Anigozanthos 'Tequila Sunrise'. These plantings were installed in the fall of 2010 and are now being watered once a week.
This Lotus 'Amazon Sunset' is a great plant for cascading over the edges of containers the red orange is enhanced by the late afternoon light.
