Why coastal gardens are harder for pollinators

A bee needs a great deal of energy. In an exposed seaside garden, simply flying from one flower to the next burns through more of it than it does inland, while salt spray scorches tender leaves and buds, and free-draining soil dries out by early summer. Butterflies, with their large wings, are even more easily blown off course, and will simply sit tight in a stiff breeze rather than risk a battering.

That is not to say the coast is a pollinator desert. Bumblebees, solitary bees, hoverflies and butterflies all live along our shores. They are simply choosier about where they stop. The good news is that coastal gardens usually enjoy mild winters, fewer hard frosts, long growing seasons and superb light. Get a few fundamentals right and a seaside border can hum from late February to November.

Build shelter before you plant anything

Shelter is the single most useful thing you can give a coastal garden, and it pays to think about it first rather than squeezing plants in around an existing gale. The aim is not to block wind altogether but to filter and slow it.

• Plant a mixed hedge of tough, salt-tolerant natives such as hawthorn, blackthorn, wild privet and field maple. Sea buckthorn is excellent on exposed sites if you have room — it suckers freely and will happily colonise a boundary for you.
• Choose permeable boundaries. Slatted screens, hazel hurdles and hit-and-miss fencing let some air through. Solid panels simply force the wind over the top, creating damaging turbulence on the sheltered side.
• Use walls and buildings as allies. Brick and stone soak up warmth during the day and release it after dark, so a sunny south- or west-facing wall is prime pollinator real estate.
• Plant in tiers. Tall shrubs at the back, mid-height perennials in the middle, low cushions and creeping thymes at the front. Each layer shelters the next, and the whole border becomes a calm suntrap.

Choose tough, nectar-rich plants

Look for grey or silver foliage, waxy or hairy leaves and deep roots — all signs a plant can shrug off salt and drought. Plant generously in blocks of one species rather than as singletons dotted about; a bee can then work a single patch without wasting energy flying between stragglers.

• Spring: sea thrift, sea campion, aubrieta, wallflowers, rosemary and flowering currant.
• Early summer: alliums, hardy geraniums, catmint, chives, thyme and cistus.
• High summer: lavender, eryngium (sea holly), scabious, echium, verbena, hebe, marjoram and oregano.
• Late summer and autumn: sedum, asters, Japanese anemones, fuchsia, and ivy left to flower.

Ivy is one of the finest late-season nectar sources there is, just as many other plants are finishing. Where you have a choice, always favour single-flowered varieties over doubles — the extra petals usually come at the expense of pollen and nectar.

Water, mud and minerals

Pollinators need water as much as plants do. A shallow dish of pebbles topped up with fresh water gives bees and hoverflies somewhere safe to land and drink. Refill it regularly, particularly after a salt-laden gale or a spell of hot weather, when evaporation leaves the water concentrated and undrinkable.

Butterflies do things differently. They get much of what they need from damp soil, mud and even animal droppings, feeding on the minerals dissolved there. Leaving a small patch of bare, moist ground — or a shallow tray of soil kept damp — gives them a place to gather. A bucket left to collect rainwater under a downpipe does the job perfectly well.

Leave a little wildness for overwintering

A tidy garden is a poor garden for insects. Many solitary bees and hoverflies spend the winter as eggs, larvae or adults tucked into hollow stems, dead seed heads and leaf litter, so resist the urge to cut everything back in autumn. Hold off until late spring, and leave the stems a little longer than you might otherwise.

• Leave a patch of long grass uncut, and let nettles stand in a corner — they are the larval food plant for several of our best-known butterflies.
• Build a small log pile or leave a stack of stones in a quiet, sunny spot.
• Keep a patch of bare, sandy soil undisturbed. Many solitary bees nest in the ground and cannot cope with mulch or dense planting.
• Let fallen leaves settle under hedges and shrubs rather than sweeping them all away.

Keep it going, and keep it clean

Aim for something in flower in every month of the year, however modest — a single rosemary in January is worth more than you might imagine. Deadhead spent blooms to keep the nectar coming, but leave seed heads standing through winter for birds and sheltering insects.

Containers are a real asset by the sea, where they can be moved out of the worst of the wind and given better drainage than heavy clay or thin chalky soil allows. Fill them with thyme, lavender, marjoram and trailing verbena, and you have a nectar station on the doorstep.

Above all, avoid pesticides. Even a small, sheltered, chemical-free plot with a few tough plants, a dish of water and a scruffy corner will outperform a manicured garden many times its size. The bees will find it — they are better at this than we are.