The Coastal Garden takes 48 extraordinary private gardens strung along the world's most iconic shorelines and examines how great garden design is shaped — and sharpened — by the particular demands of the coast.
About This Book
Coastal gardens sit at an extreme intersection of beauty and adversity: salt air, wind exposure, rocky terrain, and shifting sands demand a design intelligence distinct from any inland garden. The Coastal Garden surveys 48 private gardens across four distinct coastal contexts — cliff-top planting, resilience-focused landscapes, ocean view framing, and beachside gardens — drawn from locations as varied as California, Sweden, Britain, and Australia. Organised by environment type rather than geography, the book illuminates principles of climate-responsive planting and site-specific landscape design. An introduction by plantsman and designer Nigel Dunnett frames the ecological and creative stakes, while writer Sorrel Everton provides both chapter texts and individual garden features. This is a book for landscape architects, garden designers, and serious enthusiasts who understand that working with a coastal site means working with nature on its own terms.
Key Features
- 264 pages of large-scale colour photography, descriptive planting captions, and contextual garden texts
- Introduction by Nigel Dunnett; chapter and garden texts by Sorrel Everton
- 48 featured gardens including designs by Paul Bangay, Louis Benech, Bernard Trainor, Ulf Nordfjell, Raymond Jungles, Phillip Johnson, Isabel Duprat, Daniel Hinkley, and others
- Photography by Heidi Bertish, Richard Bloom, Jason Ingram, Marianne Majerus, Clive Nichols, and Claire Takacs
- Published by Phaidon, ISBN 9781837290925
What You'll Discover
- How four distinct coastal environments — rocky cliffs, resilient planting zones, view-framing landscapes, and beachside gardens — each demand a fundamentally different design approach
- The planting strategies and design details that allow gardens to thrive under salt exposure, wind, and unstable terrain across diverse global climates
- How designers including Bernard Trainor, Ulf Nordfjell, and Paul Bangay have tailored their approaches to the specific character and constraints of their coastal sites
- The ecological and aesthetic arguments for designing coastal gardens in genuine harmony with their natural surroundings, as framed by Nigel Dunnett's introductory essay
About the Author
This volume is produced by the Phaidon Editors, with an introduction by Nigel Dunnett, an internationally recognised plantsman and designer known for his work in naturalistic and ecological planting. All garden and chapter texts are written by Sorrel Everton, a writer and editor specialising in garden design.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 264
- Dimensions: 270 × 205 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781837290925
- Publisher: Phaidon
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Landscape architects, garden designers, and serious garden enthusiasts drawn to site-responsive design, coastal planting strategies, and the relationship between landscape and the natural environment.