Gardening Along the Coast


Gardening along Florida's coastline is a difficult proposition to say the least. Plants grown here are subject to constant wind, abrasion from blowing sand and exposure to salt spray. Add to this the fact that soils near the coast are very infertile, practically devoid of important soil organic matter, extremely dry and often contain excess salts and you quickly see why this is a hostile environment for many ornamental plants.

Fortunately, there are several ways the homeowner can partially overcome these problems. Proper soil preparation is a good place to start. The inherent low fertility of coastal soils can be compensated for by addition of fertilizers containing nutrients needed by plants. However, fertilizers can quickly leach out of these soils since there is little humus or clay to hold the nutrients. So, the real key is probably the addition of organic matter. Any type of organic matter will be beneficial - from compost to commercial peat. Organic matter will not only aid retention of added fertilizer, but will retain moisture and make coastal soils less droughty. Fertilizers containing minor elements like iron, copper, zinc, etc., often need to be applied to the soil in coastal areas.

Screens of plant materials can be used to reduce wind and sand damage, thus making the site better to growing plants.

So far, we have partially solved some of the problems of gardening on the coast, but the remaining problem - excess salt - is perhaps the toughest to overcome.

Salt adversely affects plants in two ways. Excess salts in the soil greatly reduce the water uptake by plants. Even if the soil has plenty of water, little may be available to plants if too many salts are present. Secondly, salts can be directly toxic to plants. Put some table salt on a wet blade of grass, and you'll see what salt-burn looks like. Salt spray will produce a characteristic scorched or burned appearance on leaves and leaves will eventually drop off the plant. Salt burns not only leaves but also roots if in excess in the soil.

  • For plants susceptible to salt toxicity there are only two ways to solve the problem. Movement of fresh water through the soil is the only method of removing the salt and washing of salt from leaves by rain or irrigation is the only way to prevent burn. There are no "magical chemicals" which will remove salt from the soil or plant foliage. Only leaching with fresh water will really be effective.

But why if you can't irrigate or your water supply is, itself, too salty? Then you have the second alternative - remove sensitive plants and replace them with "salt-tolerant" species.

It would be impossible to list all the salt-tolerant plants we can grow in Florida but a selected few might be helpful. The following plants are reported to be highly tolerant of salt spray.