Seaside Gardening

Gardening is one of the great pastimes of those who live on the seashore, where a garden can be anything from an artful arrangement of flowerpots on a wooden deck to a landscaped estate with a private beach. The ocean breezes, bright sunlight, salt air, sand, and dramatic storms that make the seashore evocative and invigorating are a gift to the gardener, but also present a challenge.Seaside Gardening shows how experienced gardeners have created beautiful gardens in a range of shoreline environments, including small fenced-in lots in crowded summer communities, sandy ocean dunes, rocky shore lines, and the wetlands on bays and estuaries. A well-illustrated section devoted to design shows gardens that frame views; colorful borders that combine perennials, annuals, and grasses; patio and deck gardens; ponds and pools; and diverse treatments of paths and trellises. The chapter on the practical aspects of seaside gardening is full of useful information for both first-time and experienced gardeners. An extensive plant list offers a broad selection of species appropriate for seaside conditions, from traditional garden varieties of flowering plants, vines, groundcovers, shrubs, and trees that will thrive by the ocean, to newly popular ornamental grasses and native plants.While Seaside Gardening will be particularly useful and inspiring to gardeners on the Eastern seaboard from Canada to Virginia, it offers valuable ideas and information to anyone who has a garden on or near the ocean. Especially noteworthy are the more than 120 magnificent color photographs of some of the most imaginative seaside gardens in Long Island and central Maine, regions where gardening by the sea has been a special avocation for more than a hundred years. Read more