Wind-tolerant planting behind a 1.8m sea wall, built to survive winter gales.
Location
Galway
Size
10m × 18m
Year
2024
Timeline
3 weeks design, 4 weeks build
The finished garden, with the escallonia shelter belt on the seaward side.
Thrift and sea holly thrive in the salt spray inside the shelter belt.Free-draining raised beds stop the heavy clay from waterlogging in winter.
The brief & the site
A south-west facing garden 30m from the Atlantic. Salt-laden winds had killed three previous attempts at planting. The owners wanted colour and shelter, not a bare gravel yard.
Key decisions & why
1
I started with shelter, not flowers. A double-layer hedge of escallonia and griselinia takes the worst of the wind so everything behind it can be softer.
2
Inside the shelter belt I planted thrift, sea holly and Erigeron, all happy in salt spray, with grasses to move in the wind.
3
Raised beds are filled with free-draining mix because the native soil was heavy clay, which waterlogs in winter and kills coastal plants.
