Coastal Gardens

Getting the best out of a few well chosen species is often the best approach in a small space. This means knowing what their needs are. These sun-demanding plants are clearly thriving in their sunny location.

The blueprint for this nikau garden is the carpet of seedlings that amass below nikau in the wild. Some of the best ideas are the least original!

Bringing rare plants such as Tecomanthe into cultivation can create powerfully symbolic garden statements.

New Zealand iceplant and pingao are encouraged to sprawl across the main entrance pathway, inviting visitors to navigate their way through a microcosm of beach to reach the front door.

The humpy scrumple of small-leaved pohuehue and shore bindweed makes a perfectly 'beachy' substitute for a lawn—and requires a lot less work.

While it is not always appropriate to grow trees in the foredunes, these gardeners have nevertheless approached the job sensibly: dedicated irrigation feeds each ngaio; mulch is concentrated around each tree; and their reward is eventual shade, allowing them to have a lawn in an arid environment, thus creating an attractive woodland garden. At this stage further irrigationshould not be required.

Bracken interspersed through knobby clubrush provides both seasonal interest and a nutritious stepping-stone for larger shrubs.

The fringing base is Muehlenbeckia axillaris, the two flowering ratas share the space with taupata and shining spleenwort. The tree-fern trunks used for fencing locate the concept in forest and the species used locate the concept within coastal forest.

Massed grasses are not generally a characteristic of rocky coasts—but used in a hard-edged setting that is sympathetic of a rocky landscape, they can certainly be dramatic. This garden simply uses two species: Chionochloa flavicans (distant) and silver tussock.

Poor Knights lily.

A mat of iceplant and Selliera is forming between woody shrubs such as sand coprosma in this Dunedin roof garden.

Buggar grass