Garden Landscaping Design Ideas in Practice

The Shore Garden, East Mersea

This garden landscaping and design project was created as a showpiece to advertise the Garden landscaping services we used to offer in Essex (United Kingdom) and show them in practice. The landscaping design ideas for this garden came from observation at the nearby shore. Through a gently undulating form and informal style of planting this garden design is intended to reflect the nearby shoreline with its shingle banks, saltmarsh and drifts of seablight.

Above, the garden design is shown in December, still looking good after its first season of growth. Note the soft ornamental grasses billowing in the wind.

The plants used in this show garden design were nearly all raised from seed for the purpose, but for a much more immediate effect we use two or three year old plants, with more mature specimen planting. This ensures that the client's garden landcape attains an immediate 'well-furnished' look.

This garden design is all about evoking a flavour of the beautiful shore at East Mersea. We have used shelly mounds planted with broom and horned poppy to suggest the shingle banks above the tideline.

The flat areas between in out landscaping design are carpeted with low-growing and aromatic subjects merely suggestive of the diverse botany of the saltings. A meandering path bordered by windswept grasses unifies the plantings as well as allowing the visitor to enjoy the garden layout.

Our "natural gardens" approach is to allow the garden landscape to evolve and mature. Sculptural pieces which are in keeping with the setting and aims of this landscaping design project will also be introduced. In this initial brief we have sought inspiration from the local estuary landscape, but further garden ideas may take their inspiration from other natural environments according to clients' wishes. Please note that the synthetic mulch material used in this show garden acts as a weed suppressor and would not necessarily be utilized in future projects except at clients' request.

Plants used in the Shore Garden landscaping include:

('C' after entry means best raised from cuttings; 'S' from seed)

Sedum in variety, e.g. Sedum spathulifolia Capa Blanca, S. spathulifolia 'Purpurea', S. acre 'Aureum', S. hispanicum, S. sexangulari C
Sempervivum in variety (House Leeks) C
Lavender C/S
Aubretia C
Anemone pulsatilla/Pulsatilla vulgaris S
Rosa rugosa (to 4') S/C
Grasses in variety, e.g. Festuca glauca, Pennisetum. S
Mentha C
Thymus in variety
Oregano S?
Dianthus (particularly wild species) S
Genista )
Cytisus ) S Very easy from seed - quick swathe of shoulder-high planting
Rosemary C
Tamarix (To 8', feathery, fast growing) C... S?
Horned Poppy (grows wild on coast) S (sow in situ)

Notes:
The list above contains a mixture of native and introduced plants.  

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