Sean Browne, horticulture manager at Bandon Co-op gives his top tips for getting the best of out of your holiday home garden.
BE realistic! If you love gardening, and you plan on spending a lot of time in your holiday home specifically and in the garden, then the sky is the limit! But for everyone else, it comes down to practicality – what’s going to need little maintenance but still thrive.
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A brilliant choice for coastal gardens is Lomandra White Sands, otherwise known as ‘the unkillable grass.’ It’s an easy and fast growing plant that requires little maintenance and crucially is drought resistant. You can’t go wrong with this and it works just as well in pots as it does in beds.
Other notable perennials for coastal gardens are Phlomis Russeliana or Turkish Sage, which has a long season of interest, retaining seed heads throughout winter.
Achillea or yarrow have numerous cultivars which are long flowering, great for biodiversity and suitable for coastal conditions. Both sit well next to flowing grasses, to help introduce some movement.
Erigeron karvinskianus is a very popular, long-flowering perennial that seeds freely and can pop up in cracks on walls, it requires minimal effort and tolerates salt air. Stipa ponytails are also great. They need little maintenance except for a trim every now and then and create great texture.
These look fantastic in coastal areas as they’ll move elegantly with the breeze.Other hardy and still interesting specimens include Salvias – tough, easy to grow and long flowering; and bedding geraniums which provide great ground cover.
Think in terms of mass planting. Whatever you chose, group them together, and intersperse with shots of colour. Accentuate with purple or white Agapanthus which are also drought resistant and you’ll create high impact with little effort.
Avoid anything fragile that requires minding and watering such as petunias and lupins which won’t work well in coastal areas. Mulching flower beds will cut down on weeding considerably. Automated irrigation is worth considering.
Sprinklers will help during prolonged hot spells, and porous pipes are a super option, particularly for hedging. You don’t have to rely on planting to create interest – ornamental statues, or a stone feature, in the right place, can create a ‘wow’ factor.
Whitebeam is a low maintenance tree variety that can stand exposure and is a good choice for holiday homes. Given the increasing occurrence of extreme weather events, Sean advises regular maintenance of all trees on a property. To reduce maintenance further, consider cutting down on lawns in favour of gravel or paving, which will provide areas for outdoor seating and dining.
However robotic lawnmowers, which can be accessed remotely will do all your work for you and Sean recommends the brand Segway which is well suited to the rise and dips of West Cork gardens.
