Coastal Gardening Society

Gardening by the sea is challenging. Not only must we contend with wind and salt, we often have a microclimate which gives us cooler summers than inland areas. The silver lining to these gardening 'clouds' is that winter is more likely to be mild as the sea takes longer to cool down than the land. This gives tender exotic plants a greater chance of surviving the winter.

The temperature difference between my mother in law's garden forty miles inland and mine, can be as much as 10C although hers faces South and mine West. Though summer temperatures in August in my garden will reach 30C sometimes, it is not unusual for the side return from back door to garden to fry at 40C late afternoon even in June.

Gardening here is trial and error. Many plants which are supposed to love full sun seem not to be as fond of it, as my pile of gardening books suggest. This summer, I've given my houseplants a staycation au jardin and the Kentia palm and banana ended up with sunburn though I parked them in dappled shade.

I could not find a gardening club or horticultural society with venerable members to advise me, in my town. I Googled and there doesn't appear to be any group dedicated to the tribulations of seaside gardening outside of California AFAIK. 

 This blog is my attempt to start one of my own. If you thought that Coastal Gardening Society was a band which is too hip to play festivals you're wrong. This really is about coastal gardening. I am hoping to get it up and running with meetings and garden visits by March 2012. It won't be stuffy, it will be open to anyone over 18 (we may meet in pubs sometimes) and I'm hoping to kick off in Kent and East Sussex and see how it goes.