The Ecospot – 5 edible plants for a coastal garden
We are quite lucky here on the South Coast, as we tend to have pretty warm weather in the summer and milder winters than many other places in the UK. Brighton itself has a bit of a micro climate as it is protected by the South Downs, so often you will find settled weather in the city whilst it is raging just a few miles north. But that all said, if you live near any coast you will have far better success if you use salt and wind tolerant plants in your garden or on your balcony.
So, today we are looking at five great plants which are useful, tasty and coast resistant.
- copyright Stephen Shirley
First up is our absolute favourite edible coastal plant – the truly delicious Marsh Samphire. Go to any restaurant nowadays and you will see this tasty little plant on the menu as a garnish or side vegetable to fish dishes. We love it on its own, lightly cooked with a bit of butter. But it is actually an incredibly easy plant to grow yourself – especially in a coastal garden or in a pot on a seafront balcony. Get a pot grown plant from Victoriana Nurseries.
Sea Buckthorn.
A great plant for creating an almost impenetrable hedge, Sea Buckthorn is often used on new coastal developments. It is heralded as being a bit of a ‘super food’ and made more than a few appearances on recent episodes of MasterChef as the odd ingredient to use. The bright orange berries contain lip tightening amounts of malic acid (like sour sweets) but they can be used to make all sorts of interesting things, like this Sea Buckthorn fizz by John Wright.
Third – Sea Kale.
A member of the cabbage family, the Sea Kale is more than home in salty exposed conditions and thrives with little care. It is also an excellent bee plant and masses will be attracted to the small clusters of white flowers. Young stems can be blanched and eaten and are delicious. Get plants from Crocus.
Our fourth plant is perhaps our favourite plant of all. We use it in almost all of our garden and landscape designs as it is very reasonable, bulks up nicely, is evergreen, smells wonderful and the bees love it. A winner all around – rosemary takes a great deal of beating and it will be more than happy on the coast. Try Jekka’s Herb Farm who grow a whole range of varieties.
Lastly, the good old fuschia. Yep – you can eat the berries of fuschias and there are rafts of recipes online to give you great ideas on how to use them. We think that used in the right place, fuschias can work well and this year we were privileged to be able to name one for Thompson and Morgan. Get the all new Fuschia Pink Elephant (as named by us!) from T&M next Spring.
So, if you live near the sea and are looking for a great edible edition to your garden, why not add a few of the above plants? They will be happy and you will get something interesting for your kitchen
(images via associated links)
