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Tag: Beach Plants

  • The Low-Impact Garden: Fiona Brockhoff’s Nature-Based Garden on the Mornington Peninsula

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    In just two weeks, Gardenista: The Low-Impact Garden lands in bookstores! We are so appreciative of all the interest the book has already generated. As a thank-you, our publisher is offering a 20-percent discount when you pre-order our book from their site (use code: GARDENISTA20) before October 14. 

    And if you need further enticement, here’s another sneak peek from the book: a tour of an inspired residential garden in Australia that takes its cues from the coastal national park right next door.

    Fiona Brockhoff grew to love the Mornington Peninsula’s wild ocean landscape as a child on vacation. When the renowned landscape designer built her family home here, the style was a nod to 1950s beach shacks—powered by solar panels and rainwater. Her garden is rooted in ecological resilience.

    Fiona’s love of native plants stems from long acquaintance, aided by her love of bush walking (or hiking) and camping. The house, named Karkalla after an indigenous coastal plant, and which she shares with her partner and extended family, sits on a strip of land that has the ocean on one side and Port Phillip Bay on the other. “It’s quite a harsh environment—it’s very windy and the soil is sandy,” explains Fiona. “The decisions we made were not just about the layout of the garden and the hard landscape elements. A lot of the plants that I chose were those I’d seen when I’d been walking in the Mornington Peninsula National Park, adjacent to our property.”

    The provenance of materials is as local as the plants: “The gravel comes from a nearby quarry, and a lot of the timbers are from a jetty that was renovated when we were building the garden.” Walls of regional limestone anchor the house and garden and are the continuing work of stonemason David Swann, Fiona’s partner, whom she met on the build.

    Fiona focuses on “appropriate planting” rather than lecturing people on the rights and wrongs of natives versus non-natives. When a client asks for bamboo and miniature maples to go in a Japanese-style garden, she asks them to go back a step and think about what it is about a Japanese garden that attracts them. Is it the simplicity and the restricted number of plants and elements in that kind of garden? If so, she suggests creating that feeling using local, indigenous plants.

    City people on the Mornington Peninsula can bring with them a Melbourne mentality, thinking that constant vigilance is required in watering and general fussing over plants. Fiona tells clients that unless they are growing vegetables, this is not necessary. “It’s more about allowing those plants to be themselves. They don’t require a lot of maintenance because they’re mainly indigenous, or they’re a good ecological fit. Yes, there’s some pruning, and the gravel needs a bit of raking, but on the whole, it’s about working with nature.”

    Photography by Caitlin Atkinson.

    Above: Sea box (Alyxia buxifolia, foreground) is found in native coastal scrub, but Fiona shapes it like ordinary boxwood. Behind the table is a clipped Melaleuca lanceolata, which in the wild would grow into a large tree. Says Fiona: “We’ve pruned boxwood, roses, and lavender. Why weren’t we pruning Australian plants?” The main barrier is perception, she suggests. “People say to me, ‘Is that really a native garden? But—it’s so beautiful.’”

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  • Coastal Garden in the Hamptons: Hollander Design’s Tips for a Deer-Resistant Beachside Landscape

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    It’s not every day that a client asks their landscape designer to come look at a barge they’re thinking of buying, but that was exactly the call the team at Hollander Design Landscape Architects received a few years back. The property in question was a house that had been built on a torpedo barge in the 1950s and docked on a harbor in the Hamptons ever since. The bulkhead was in need of a total rebuild—and the landscape would need restoration afterwards. Hollander Design was up for the challenge.

    The clients ended up buying the house, and after a marine construction contractor rebuilt the bulkhead, walks, and the docks, Hollander Design returned to conduct major revegetation efforts. The clients were looking for a low-maintenance landscape, as they wanted the home to be a retreat from their busy, working lives. They desired a beautiful landscape, but they didn’t want a garden that would compete with the breathtaking setting. The trick would be to create the illusion that the barge and bulkhead were knitted into the marsh around them.

    “Everything that’s around the house is very wet and boggy, but their property happens to be a high, dry spot because it’s up on that bulkhead,” explains landscape designer Melissa Reavis, the director of Hollander Design’s residential studio. “So we chose plants that were appropriate to that area but completely different from the immediate area that it sits in.” Think beach grass instead of the nearby rushes, plus, beach plums and northern bayberry that are found in nearby dunes.

    In addition to its unique barge setting, the property experiences intense deer pressure (a challenge that many gardeners can relate to). Furthermore, the site is exposed to sea salt and increasingly frequent storm surges. “We were left with a pretty limited palette,” says Reavis, but she focussed on what she calls “bulletproof plants for a coastal environment” to create a garden that is almost as magical as its setting. Here, her formula for getting it right.

    Photography by Neil Landino, courtesy of Hollander Design Landscape Architects.

    The soil comes first.

    Above: From overheard, you can see how the barge is tucked in behind the rebuilt bulkhead.

    After the bulkhead rebuild, Hollander Design needed to replace a lot of the soil, which Reavis explains had been backfilled with whatever was on hand back in the 1950s. The new soil is mostly clean-draining sand, so that nutrients won’t leach into the water. “Everything that was replanted in that area is planted almost into direct sand and we don’t add any additional nutrient loads to the soil, to ensure that we weren’t affecting water quality around it,” Reavis explains.

    Design for minimal maintenance.

    Above: Instead of a lawn, the main open area of the property is one over-sized perennial bed. The gravel path is used to bring kayaks and paddleboards down to the dock.
    Above: Instead of a lawn, the main open area of the property is one over-sized perennial bed. The gravel path is used to bring kayaks and paddleboards down to the dock.

    To fulfill the owners desire for a low-maintenance landscape, Reavis eschewed turf lawn and instead planted native and climate-adapted perennials. Hollander Design’s maintenance team does a hard cutback in May to keep the plants from outgrowing their homes, which also ensures a long bloom, but otherwise the maintenance is minimal—and free of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers.

    Mimic the nearby aesthetic.

    Above: The American beachgrass planted on the bulkhead mimics the look of the native rushes in the surrounding wetlands, so your eye sees an almost uninterrupted swath of textured green.
    Above: The American beachgrass planted on the bulkhead mimics the look of the native rushes in the surrounding wetlands, so your eye sees an almost uninterrupted swath of textured green.

    “You feel completely enveloped by the harbor here,” says Reavis. “The landscape’s job here is just to make it feel as knitted into this magical world as possible.” To complement the landscape, Reavis pulled in not only native plants, but also climate-adapted ones that feel like they’re in the same world as the natural landscape beyond. “They’re all flowing grasses and flowing perennials, and so nothing feels out of place with the more native natural habitat,” says Reavis.

    Mints for the win.

    Russian sage
    Above: Russian sage ‘Denim n Lace’ is reliably deer- and rabbit-resistant.

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  • Alexandria Donati and Jonathan Chesley’s Rockaway Beach Garden

    Alexandria Donati and Jonathan Chesley’s Rockaway Beach Garden

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    New Yorkers who discover Rockaway Beach, the sandy peninsula at the end of the A train, tend to fall in love. Alexandria Donati and Jonathan Chesley, the husband and wife duo behind Ktisma Studio, were among those who appreciated the charms of the beach-meets-urban setting. The couple first visited Rockaway Beach more than a decade ago when their friends began buying up houses on a block where 1920s bungalows had survived development. In 2017, Donati and Chesley finally got a chance to buy their own bungalow in the community, and perhaps equally important to Donati, who is a landscape architect, the tiny yard that came along with it.

    Over time Rockaway’s original wooden boardwalks have been replaced with concrete, and Donati and Chesley’s yard was no exception. “When we moved in there was an old privet shrub growing on a fence line, a pile of debris, and a lot of concrete,” says Donati. So, the first order of business was to remove concrete to make way for planting beds and to replace and repair fences. (Donati had already been on a years-long campaign to convince friends to rip up their concrete. “I told them I would help them plant it if they just jack-hammered it out,” she says.)

    Since buying the property, Donati has experimented with the planting and carved out distinct gardens within the petite lot. In front, the west-facing garden has a warm palette inspired by the sunsets; there’s a rambling berry patch along the side of the house; and the back garden, which is all about scent, even includes an area rug-sized stretch of lawn. Pots of herbs and flowers are scattered everywhere. 

    No irrigation here—Donati hand-waters her bungalow garden because she prefers to encourage stronger roots. “I definitely stress the garden out, but I do it on purpose,” she says. “I feel like gardens get over-irrigated, in general.”
    Above: No irrigation here—Donati hand-waters her bungalow garden because she prefers to encourage stronger roots. “I definitely stress the garden out, but I do it on purpose,” she says. “I feel like gardens get over-irrigated, in general.”

    Donati has been strategic about using plants to both conceal and reveal views from their small yard. Espaliered fruit trees, for example, soften the border between neighboring yards and an elderberry hides an unattractive deck. String lights and a shade sail that they hang in the summer help to enhance the feeling of enclosure, while matchstick blinds add privacy (and shade) to the front porch. “There’s a giant apartment building that says ‘luxury condos’ nearby, but that’s New York City life,” says Donati. “Even in a Brooklyn brownstone, you could have the nicest house and garden, but you can’t change what surrounds you.”

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  • Silver Sands Motel: How Melissa Reavis of Hollander Design Redesigned its Landscape

    Silver Sands Motel: How Melissa Reavis of Hollander Design Redesigned its Landscape

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    The Silver Sands Motel in Greenport, NY, opened in 1957 as a laidback motel that felt more like a beach home away from home than a fussy hotel. When the property changed hands a few years back, the new owners were keen to keep the family-oriented spirit of this beloved destination alive. “They wanted to honor what Silver Sands had been and try to retain that sense of nostalgia, while still creating a modern, comfortable destination for new travelers,” says Melissa Reavis, a landscape designer at Hollander Design, the landscape design firm tasked with updating the surrounding property.

    Sitting at the end of a wooded road, Silver Sands is sited on the Peconic Bay along 1,400 feet of sandy beach. Having worked on many residential properties throughout the East End and the North Fork, Reavis and her team were well aware of the challenges of the coastal wetland location. “Out in Long Island there’s extreme deer pressure,” she says. “And this site had dense clay soil, a high water table, and salt winds.”

    The Hollander Design team developed a new master plan that kept much of the original landscape’s spirit, but wove in more garden beds, planted predominantly with a native plant palette that supports local birds and pollinators. “We tried to help highlight that unique ecosystem that surrounds Silver Sands,” says Reavis. “And because we were so careful about what we brought in and that were reflective of the natural environment, the property is still fully maintained without the use of any chemicals, and minimal irrigation and intervention.”

    Here are 10 lessons everyday gardeners can take away from this inspiring project:

    Photography by John Musnicki, courtesy of Hollander Design.

    1. Start with a site inventory.

    Above: In the research and planning stage, Reavis made sure to check out what plants were thriving on the property—and just beyond.

    “We started out just by taking stock of what was there and what actually was surviving,” says Reavis. “In such a tough environment, you have to really go in with no ego and say, ‘What is already doing well?’ because that’s going to help ensure that whatever we plant can also survive.” Gardeners could do the same on their own property (and even on nearby yards and parks). 

    2. Assess the water table.

    A melange of grasses.
    Above: A melange of grasses.

    While gardeners often get their soil tested to learn its composition, Reavis says they’re often unaware of where they sit on the groundwater table. “As long as you know water isn’t within the first 24 inches of soil, then you have a dry site,” says Reavis. “At Silver Sands if we dug even 12 inches down, the holes would start to fill with water.” To determine where your land sits in relation to the water table, simply dig a hole. Because of the high water table, Reavis was inspired to plant rushes, which are accustomed to wet roots, in the perennial beds. “They’re a really beautiful native type of grass that I had never planted in a garden environment before, so it’s actually helped expand my own palette,” she adds.

    3. Save the trees.

    None of the mature oak and pine trees were cut down.
    Above: None of the mature oak and pine trees were cut down.

    With the exception of some dwarf spruces in the courtyard, Hollander Design left all the mature trees on the site. “I didn’t have to cut down a tree, which is almost unheard of for new construction,” says Reavis. “You walk onto that space and it feels like it’s been there forever because the trees are still there.” If you’re building new or renovating, work with your landscaper to preserve as many trees as you can.

    4. Strengthen an indoor-outdoor connection.

    Planters right outside some guest room doors.
    Above: Planters right outside some guest room doors.

    The hotel owners knew that the flow from the interior to exterior was key, so they shared the interior design plans with Hollander Design from the very start. “The room’s colors dictated some of the garden palette, especially within the private gardens,” says Reavis. “For instance, we would take some of the peaches that we were finding in the interiors and we would select an ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum because we knew it would come up in that same peach.”

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  • Alex Bates: An Interview with the Cofounder of Bloomist and Avid Gardener

    Alex Bates: An Interview with the Cofounder of Bloomist and Avid Gardener

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    Hardest gardening lesson you’ve learned:

    Not being realistic about gardening in wetland conditions and thinking plants will survive if I plant them high enough. But even some of the hardiest can’t stand up to salt-water floods. I have had to let go of my love for boxwood hedges, which were wiped out in Hurricane Sandy. I try to focus on native shrubs and hardy plants. My vegetable beds are very high now as well.

    Unpopular gardening opinion:

    Above: The Rosa multiflora on her property provides food and shelter for the birds.

    I have embraced the invasive species that the birds help spread. Planting on a barrier island with climate change evident in the rising waters and frequent, bigger storms presents many challenges, to say the least. The season starts with yellow flag irises surrounding the house to the multiflora rose explosion in May and finally capped off with a profusion of purple loosestrife in July to August.

    Gardening or design trend that needs to go:

    A gardening practice that has to cease is the use of toxic pesticides that are killing us with cancer-causing chemicals seeping into our water and killing the pollinators, birds—destroying the food chain. It’s unbelievable that the US has not banned Roundup yet. There are so many old-school, inexpensive, non-chemical options readily available.

    Old wives’ tale gardening trick that actually works:

    Always plant lavender by your doors to ward off evil spirits (this has been a pretty happy little house for 30 years so who’s going to say it doesn’t work?) Coffee grinds to keep critters away.

    Favorite gardening hack:

    Growing marigolds with tomatoes to helps enrich the soil and deter pests; cardboard to suppress weeds when laying in new gardens.

    Favorite way to bring the outdoors in.

    Above: Found natural treasures on Alex’s fireplace mantel.

    Cuttings from whatever is blooming outside. love the drama of the long arching canes of multiflora roses, so dramatic in our little cottage, or the tall stems of drying fennel and grasses, mixed with bits of nature, fallen birds nests or antlers shed from our local deer. Then there are the rocks, they are everywhere; collected from beach walks and travels, it’s a problem.

    Every garden needs a…

    A bit of white to contrast against the shades of layered greens, from variegated leaves to sweet autumn clematis, hydrangea ‘Limelight’. And a little bit of chocolate for contrast—I love the stark contrast against greens—chocolate cosmos, black cornflowers, hollyhocks ‘Blackknight’, coral bells.

    Lots of flowers planted amongst the vegetables for the pollinators—particularly African blue basil—they love the blue flowers when it goes to seed and it smells so great when you brush up against it.

    Favorite hardscaping material:

    Above: River rocks line a planting border.

    River rocks. Living with wetland conditions, we wanted a way to elevate our beds in a rambling, natural manner.

    Tool you can’t live without:

    Lindsey Taylor introduced me to my favorite Japanese hori hori knife a few years ago—so many uses. Sneerboer Narrow Perennial Spade is a recent purchase and a game-changer.

    Go-to gardening outfit:

    Vintage French work top I bought from Marston House years ago at a garden show pop-up, great pockets and faded fatigues. Gardenheir clogs on dry days and BOGS boots for the wet weather.

    Favorite nursery, plant shop, or seed company:

    Seeds from Grace Alexander Flowers, special unexpected plants from Issima, topiaries from the charming Ken Selody of Atlock Farm. Also love Planting Justice for their mission and offerings.

    On your wishlist:

    A trip to Daylesford in the Cotswolds and a spin through a few of the storied English gardens

    Not-to-be-missed public garden/park/botanical garden:

    Jardin du Plantes in Paris. And the transporting experience of Tokyo’s Nezu Museum garden + teahouse. I always welcome green refuge on busy work trips.

    The REAL reason you garden:

    It keeps me sane and nurtures my soul; providing much needed quiet and reflective time away from screens with my hands in the dirt.

    Thanks so much, Alex! Follow her on Instagram @mybloomist.

    See also:

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  • Sea Ranch Lodge Landscape Designed by Terremoto to Blend In

    Sea Ranch Lodge Landscape Designed by Terremoto to Blend In

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    To a certain sector of the design world, Sea Ranch is a legend—but many people have never heard of it. A planned community two hours north of San Francisco, Sea Ranch is a prime example of 1960s West Coast modernism. Its minimalist cedar-clad buildings sit on a seemingly untouched stretch of the Sonoma Coast, thanks to the original master plan by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin. 

    Halprin and the developers imagined Sea Ranch “living lightly on the land” and wrote strict rules about the landscaping to enforce this vision. Over time, though, the property surrounding the shared public buildings, including the Sea Ranch Lodge, lost its definition and become a hodgepodge of plants with confusing pathways.

    When the Sea Ranch changed hands in 2018, the new owners hired Seattle architecture firm Mithun and interior designer Charles de Lisle to update the communal buildings, and California landscape architecture firm Terremoto to redesign the landscape surrounding them. While the building refresh received accolades in the design media, the landscape went mostly unmentioned. “People said, ‘It looks like it’s always been there,’” says David Godshall, a partner at Terremoto, “I say that’s hard!” In fact, the Terremoto team went to extraordinary lengths to make the new plantings meld seamlessly into the surrounding land. “The wildness is what makes Sea Ranch so wonderful,” says Story Wiggins, the lead designer on the project. “Our goal was to embed the buildings further into what is this existing epic landscape.”

    Here’s how Terremoto achieved their subtle redesign.

    Photography by Caitlin Atkinson, courtesy of Terremoto.

    1. Read the fine print of the surrounding land.

    A photo of the nearby coast that the Terremoto team took as part of their research.
    Above: A photo of the nearby coast that the Terremoto team took as part of their research.

    Before any sketches were drawn or plants chosen, the Terremoto team familiarized themselves with the Sea Ranch property and the surrounding area. “We would go on hikes to see what we really loved and what felt good,” says Wiggins. “We were trying to mimic what’s there in a very basic way, and not getting too fancy with it.” Terremoto didn’t just make a list of the plants they saw in nature, they noted the patterns in which they grew and even studied the way that rocks were scattered in the earth. Wiggins suggests that any home gardener could do the same by going to a piece of preserved wilderness near their own home and taking notes and photos.

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  • Fort Tilden at the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens: A Natural Haven

    Fort Tilden at the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens: A Natural Haven

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    Looking out the window of a descending airplane can give the impression (in the United States at least) that the approaching airport has been carved out of abundant wilderness, a preview of the topography characteristic to the region. Tall conifers surround Seattle, Washington, while Ashville, North Carolina is nestled into densely wooded mountains. Arriving in New York, however, is always a surprising reminder that the five borough city is a vast wetland made up of islands, creeks, and sandy beaches. And unless you take a long subway ride to Coney Island or Jones Beach, you may never make the connection between what you see from the air and your experience on the ground.

    In New York City, there are brownfield sites that have been consciously re-landscaped into parks, such as Freshkills Park, a former landfill area on Staten Island. Others have quietly settled back into obscurity, their usefulness expended. Fort Tilden on the Rockaway peninsula in Queens is one of the latter—lightly maintained and gently steered by interested parties. It’s a haven for rare birds and supports a thriving ecosystem in a landscape that is far from pristine.

    Photography by Valery Rizzo for Gardenista.

    Above: Fort Tilden is located on Rockaway peninsula, in the southeast corner of New York City.

    Fort Tilden is part of a network of parks spread around Jamaica Bay and Rockaway. They are maintained by the National Park Service, with litter-clearing drives and park improvement organized by the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy (JBRPC). Rockaway and Jamaica have a high-density population, yet the undeveloped salt marsh islands that make up the urban estuary of Jamaica Bay cover 18,000 acres, with the Atlantic-facing barrier peninsula of Rockaway stretching across 12 miles.

    Expect to find re-planted dunes, a maritime forest, salt marshes, freshwater ponds, as well as an un-signposted network of semi-derelict buildings. In amongst this, a slowly disintegrating military base decommissioned in the 1970s lends some Cold War atmosphere. For residents of Queens and the outer reaches of Brooklyn, Fort Tilden is easy to get to; for those closer to the center of town, NYC Ferry runs from Wall Street to Rockaway, a very scenic journey of just under an hour.

    Above: A coastal garden could be as simple as this. Seaside goldenrod and American beachgrass.

    Dunes are increasingly valued for the job that they have been carrying out for millennia as a natural (as opposed to industrial or military) coastal defense network. Seaside goldenrod withstands salty winds and has a strong root system, reaching at least 14 inches in depth at maturity, that stabilizes sand—with the help of American beachgrass. Like prairie plants further into the interior of this continent, these grasslands are also highly effective at storing carbon underground.

    Above: A welcoming party of Virginia creeper, grasses, and invasive meadowsweet lurk around the chainlink fences of Fort Tilden.

    Invasive plants such as Asian bittersweet and multiflora rose are a fact of life in America’s public spaces. Clearing these smothering plants as part of a group effort can feel cathartic; at Fort Tilden and Jamaica Bay, volunteers add beneficial natives to plants that are already there, while tackling invasives during the summer months. A further kind of clearance is that of trash, much of which comes in from the ocean, having been swept out via tidal rivers. Members of the JBRPC pick up about 10 tons of trash from these beaches and waterways per year. Another key actor is the American Littoral Society, which organizes dune grass plantings up and down the East Coast. It is an effective organizer, reeling in corporations, private groups, and school groups “to protect life, limb and property” from the effect of storms.

    Above: Leftover concrete forms random areas for easy navigation through the dunes of Fort Tilden.

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