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Exposed Coastal Garden
By Argyll and Bute based garden designer Rachel Bailey. A coastal garden in West Scotland that settles the garden into the wider landscape of the Cowal Peninsula and the Kyle of Bute. Rachel won the ‘planting design under £20K’ category for her garden in the Pro Landscaper UK ‘Small Project, Big Impact’ Awards 2020.
The brief for Rachel Bailey Garden Design was to create an informal garden that is on the lower end of the maintenance scale though with lots of planting to soften hard surfaces and settle the house into the landscape. The design was to make the most of the garden’s location.
A large part of the garden comprised building rubble from the previously demolished extension to the house with a thin (50 mm) layer of topsoil mixed in. This soil was alkaline in pH and was a stark contrast to the rest of the garden, which was acidic and stony, typical of the area. To add to this challenge, the garden is coastal, exposed to south-westerly winds and being on the West Coast of Scotland, the area is subjected to high rainfall. On a positive note, because the site is coastal and on the West coast of Scotland, the climate is relatively mild.
Rachel worked with the 'substrate' as she found it, carefully selecting plants that would thrive in a low fertility, alkaline medium, would be happy in an exposed location, and would enjoy the sharp drainage afforded by the material. Whilst she could not draw upon the exact plant species of the local hills (ie, Erica sp. and the grass Molinia caerula, which both require acidic soil), she looked at their qualities, texture and colouring to influence the planting scheme of the clients garden and to meet their brief.
A pared-down list of plants including a matrix of three grasses, which are seen was repeatedly used throughout the front garden and planted so that one interweaved with another - similar to the plants in the hills.
A matrix of grasses was selected to hold the scheme together, to offer movement and energy to the garden and a foil for flowering plants.
As a result, foliage texture, colour and shape/size (nothing too tall was wanted in the front garden) played an important role in the planting scheme and have more prominence than flowers.
The front and side gardens, which had very different soil, were linked using plants that were similar in colour and/or form, but would thrive in the different soils.
The main plants were repeated throughout the front garden and were anchored with the evergreen shrubs and large boulders sourced from a local quarry, so they matched the local stone.
Together, the low height planting with lots of grasses add movement and cope well with the exposed location.
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Designed by Rachel Bailey