Gardening within sight and sound of the sea is one of the great pleasures of the British coast, but it asks a great deal of your plants. A border that faces the prevailing wind can be stripped of leaves overnight, and the soil behind it is often thin, sandy and quick to drain. The good news is that a surprising number of shrubs are built for exactly these conditions — you simply have to choose them deliberately and plant them well.

What makes a coastal border so demanding

Three pressures combine on an exposed seafront. The first is salt-laden wind, which draws moisture out of leaves and leaves a sticky deposit on buds and foliage; the damage usually shows as browned, scorched margins on the windward side of a plant. The second is persistent wind, which increases transpiration and can rock young roots loose before they have anchored. The third is poor sandy soil, which drains fast, holds few nutrients and dries out within days of rain.

Plants that cope well usually share certain features: small, leathery or rolled leaves, a grey or silvery felted surface, or a dense, twiggy habit that lets wind pass through rather than tearing at it. Look for these characteristics when you are choosing, and you will rarely go far wrong.

Reliable shrubs for exposed front-line borders

The following have all proved themselves in windswept coastal gardens around the UK. Use them as the backbone of a border and you will have structure that survives the worst of a winter gale.

• Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) — the classic front-line plant, with narrow silver leaves and orange berries on female plants. It suckers, so give it room, and plant a male nearby for fruit.
• Olearia × haastii — a dense, rounded evergreen daisy bush that flowers in late summer and shrugs off salt spray better than almost anything.
• Brachyglottis 'Sunshine' — grey, felted foliage and yellow daisies in summer. Superb on dry, sandy ground.
• Escallonia — glossy evergreen leaves and pink or white flowers from midsummer. It makes a fine informal hedge and regrows readily after wind scorch.
• Griselinia littoralis — thick, apple-green leaves and a neat upright habit. Excellent in mild coastal districts; it dislikes hard inland frost.
• Rosa rugosa — tough, thorny and happy in pure sand, with fragrant flowers and large hips. It suckers into a thicket, which is ideal for the windward edge.
• Euonymus japonicus — upright, evergreen and remarkably tolerant of salt and drought; several variegated forms are available.
• Hebe (Veronica) — whipcord and grey-leaved types such as H. topiaria and H. albicans are outstanding on exposed sites.
• Tamarix ramosissima — feathery, deciduous and fast-growing, useful as a windbreak where you need height quickly.
• Cistus, lavender and rosemary — silver-leaved, drought-proof and aromatic, though cistus is short-lived and best replaced every few years.

Plant a shelter belt, not just a border

The single most useful thing you can do on an exposed site is to build a layered border. Put the toughest evergreens — sea buckthorn, olearia, griselinia, escallonia — at the front, facing the prevailing wind. Behind them, plant slightly less tolerant shrubs such as pittosporum, choisya or hydrangea. A permeable barrier of this kind filters wind rather than blocking it, which reduces turbulence and lets you grow a far wider range of plants in the sheltered pocket behind.

For the first two seasons, a temporary screen of windbreak netting at about fifty per cent porosity, fixed on the windward side, will make an enormous difference. Fix it firmly and remove it once the shrubs have knitted together.

Spacing, soil and the first two summers

Autumn planting suits light coastal soils best, while the ground is still warm and roots can establish before winter. Dig a hole wider than the rootball, fork in plenty of garden compost or composted bark, and set the shrub so the rootball sits level with the surrounding soil. Water thoroughly even if rain is forecast.

Space shrubs according to their final spread, plus about 30cm of breathing room. For a shelter belt, plant closer — roughly 60–90cm apart — so it fills quickly. Avoid overcrowding in the border itself: good airflow through the plants is your best defence against fungal problems in a damp, salty atmosphere. Stake only if necessary, and use short stakes that allow the stem to flex, removing them after two seasons.

Water deeply once a week through the first two summers. Wind dries plants out even when the weather feels cool, and sandy soil holds very little moisture. A 5–7cm mulch of composted bark or gravel will conserve water, suppress weeds and stop wind-blown sand from splashing onto the leaves.

Ongoing care on a salty site

Feed lightly in spring with a general-purpose fertiliser, and avoid late-season nitrogen, which encourages soft growth that salt and frost will punish. Nitrogen-fixing shrubs such as sea buckthorn need nothing at all.

Prune in late spring, once hard frosts have passed. Autumn pruning leaves wounds and tender regrowth exposed to salt burn, and cutting escallonia or olearia in spring costs you that year's flowers — trim them immediately after flowering instead. After a gale, rinse foliage with a hose in the early morning so the leaves dry before evening. A light rinse every few weeks in winter will keep evergreens looking green rather than bronzed.

If you spot browning at the leaf tips and margins on the windward side, that is salt burn rather than disease. Tidy the worst of it, rinse the plant, and consider whether a neighbouring gap needs filling with something tougher.