Coastal Gardening

Although ocean shores can be calming and peaceful, there are also harsh and unforgiving conditions that can provide challenging obstacles to gardening. Other than dry grasses and resilient ice plants, which can survive in thirsty malnourished soil, gardens need to be hardy enough to withstand coastal conditions, including salt deposits and fungal problems." Plants, like gardeners, just adapt to their surroundings, allowing them to grow with--as opposed to against--the tide," says James.

Another longtime gardener is Michael Bernsohn, who has been gardening along the coast for mroe than 35 years. Bernsohn says the ocean creates a cool greenhouse effect that helps to reduce extreme weather variations. "Instead of [plants] starting and stopping with intense heat, intense cold, intense wet and intense dry," says Bernsohn,"[plants] grow almost uninterrupted. They get much more lush here because the coolness enables them to just keep growing, provided they're adaptable to the coolness."

Citrus fruits aren't the only delicious treats grown by the seaside. Raspberries grow wild, artichokes grow high, lettuce grows year-round, and coastal micro-climates are ideal for many warm-season crops like cucumbers or zinnias. " Our palette is limited," says Bernsohn. "We can't grow watermelons, cantalopes or okra, and that's a great loss. But here, with what we can grow, it's so successful with such little effort that it's really a special place for us." According to Bernsohn, while seaside gardeners can't grow some of the larger hybrid tomatoes along the coast, smaller heirloom types do pretty well. "And with any luck, they might still have a few left on the vine come Christmastime," says James.

Just beyond a wall of trees in this coastal garden is the ocean. A barricade of plants protects the garden from damaging winds, which also helps preserve the soil. Not many plants can grow in just sand; most need something a lot heavier and healthier to thrive.

Bernsohn suggests that soil enriched with coastal organic matter like cuttings and dried grasses is perfect for feeding a veggie or flower garden. But for plants to live for decades, Bernsohn mixes one part local sand with two parts compost to ensure that the taproots get accustomed to growing in sandy conditions. The richer soil retains more nutrients and moisture to create a much stronger foundation for growing greenery. "Roses grow slower but bigger, flowers have vibrant color and fragrance, and trees tower high in this ever-changing landscape," says James.

According to Chevalier, a garden's age is very important. "Without age many of the trees wouldn't have the size that they have," says Chevalier. "And there wouldn't be the lushness there is with age." But despite her garden's beauty, 95-year-old Chevalier says there are still a few things she'd change about her landscape. "I'd make the hill less steep so I could gallop up and down it."