Guides · Dover Hedges

Salt-tolerant hedges for coastal Dover gardens

If your garden faces south-west and looks out over the Channel, salt is a constant. Prevailing south-westerlies pick up spray from the sea and lift it onto the cliff top. From November to February that reaches peak concentration, and it burns anything non-tolerant. This guide is the salt-tolerant shortlist we plant along the exposed coast between Capel-le-Ferne and Kingsdown.

What salt burn actually does

Chloride ions on the leaf surface interfere with photosynthesis and osmotic balance. You see it as a leaf edge that goes brown and crispy, then progressively inward until whole leaves drop. On evergreens with a heavy salt event in mid-winter you can lose the entire outer face of a hedge in a fortnight. Non-tolerant species like standard beech, hornbeam and camellia do not recover well; they take years to fill back in.

The tolerant shortlist

Griselinia littoralis

The New Zealand species that has quietly become the standard for exposed coastal hedges in the south-east. Bright apple-green leathery leaves, evergreen, tolerates hard cutting, tolerates chalk pH provided the drainage is good. Grows about 30 cm a year once settled. Susceptible to hard frost inland (below about minus 8), but coastal microclimate protects it here. Our default first pick for a St Margaret's or Capel front-boundary hedge.

Elaeagnus x ebbingei

Tougher than Griselinia, willing to take real neglect, and one of the few evergreens with fragrant autumn flowers (small, cream, well hidden). Silvery underleaf catches the light attractively. Chalk-tolerant, salt-tolerant, drought-tolerant once established. Slightly untidy growth habit, so wants cutting twice a year to look formal. Excellent windbreak; grows about 45 to 60 cm a year.

Escallonia (E. macrantha and hybrids)

Glossy dark evergreen leaves, small pink or red summer flowers, tolerates salt and chalk. Popular on the seafront gardens at Deal and traditional in coastal Kent generally. Watch for escallonia leaf spot in humid summers; keep air circulation open.

Olearia macrodonta and O. haastii

The daisy bushes. Grey-green holly-like leaves, white daisy flowers in summer, tolerates full exposure. Not always available in whip form, so more of a specimen shrub than a hedge in most nurseries, but planted as a semi-formal informal boundary they work well.

Tamarisk (Tamarix ramosissima)

Feathery pink-flowered deciduous shrub, remarkable salt tolerance, tolerates chalk. More of a feature or informal windbreak than a formal hedge. Traditional along the Kent coast.

Hebe (esp. H. salicifolia and larger hybrids)

Evergreen, salt-tolerant, chalk-tolerant, comes in a huge range of sizes. Not a formal cuttable hedge species, but useful as a low informal boundary or as gaps within a mixed coastal hedge.

The two-line hedge

The most reliable approach on a clifftop plot is a two-line hedge. Outer line: salt-tolerant windbreak (Griselinia, Elaeagnus, tamarisk). Inner line, one to two metres inboard: your formal hedge (yew, beech, hornbeam) that would burn on its own but survives happily in the shelter of the outer line. That takes more space than a single hedge, but if you want the formality of yew or beech at the coast it is the only reliable way to get it.

Species we would not use on the coast

• Standard beech — edges scorch each winter
• Hornbeam — less bad than beech, still not a coastal-front species
• Box — tolerates salt reasonably, but the blight and caterpillar problem overrides that
• Camellia — both ericaceous (fails on chalk) and salt-sensitive
• Cherry laurel — burns badly in a hard salt winter

Our approach

On a coastal plot we walk the exposure with the client, note the angle of the prevailing wind, look at the salt-burn history on any existing planting, and specify accordingly. Establishment is with drip irrigation for summers one and two, mulched with 5 cm of composted bark, and pruned lightly in year one to encourage bushiness. From year three on the hedges look after themselves in normal weather.

← All guides