Start With the Site You Actually Have

A coastal courtyard is a place of contradictions. You get reflected light off pale walls, warmth stored in brick and stone, and a frost-free microclimate that lets you grow things a few miles inland would kill. You also get salt-laden wind, sharp drainage, and a growing season that can be cut short by a single gale in late May. Before you buy a single plant, spend a fortnight watching how the space behaves: where the sun sits at noon, where water pools after rain, which corner the wind funnels through. Most courtyards have one sheltered pocket and one exposed edge, and almost everything you plant should go in the first.

Measure properly, too. In a space of four by six metres, a shrub that reaches two metres wide will swallow a third of your usable ground. Choose plants by their eventual spread, not the size of the pot you carried home.

Build the Windbreak Before Anything Else

Wind is the single biggest limiting factor on the coast, and it does its damage invisibly — drying leaves, snapping stems, scouring buds. The answer is not a solid wall, which simply pushes turbulence over the top and dumps it on your planting. You want a semi-permeable barrier that filters wind to roughly half its speed.

• Living screens: Escallonia, Griselinia littoralis, Olearia and Elaeagnus all cope with salt spray. Plant them 60–90cm inside the boundary so roots have room and the wall itself becomes the second line of defence.
• Slatted or woven fencing: Horizontal slatted panels or willow hurdles let about half the air through. Fix them to posts set in concrete, because coastal gales will test every fixing.
• Temporary netting: A 50% windbreak net on a simple frame is a cheap way to protect tender crops through the worst months, and it can come down in June.

Height matters less than you think. A screen of 1.8 metres will shelter a zone roughly ten times its height — plenty for a courtyard — provided it is fixed properly and does not rattle itself loose.

Choose Surfaces and Containers That Age Well

Salt, sand and damp rot cheap materials fast. In a small courtyard, where every surface is visible, it pays to buy once.

• Paving: Natural stone, clay pavers, or good-quality concrete slabs with a slightly rough finish. Smooth surfaces become treacherous when wet, so avoid polished porcelain outdoors.
• Gravel: 20mm washed gravel over a weed-suppressing membrane is cheap, drains freely and muffles the sound of the wind. It is also forgiving of the slight levels you will inevitably have.
• Containers: Frost-proof terracotta, glazed stoneware, or timber planters lined with butyl. Avoid thin plastic, which goes brittle in UV light after two seasons. Raise every pot onto feet so water drains and air circulates beneath.
• Compost: John Innes No. 3 mixed with a third of grit or horticultural sand. Coastal plants hate sitting wet, and heavy garden soil in a pot becomes a brick by August.

Plant in Layers, Not Rows

Small spaces work best when they are read vertically. Divide your planting into four bands and fill each one — this gives you far more interest per square metre than a flat border ever could.

• Canopy: One small tree or large shrub, ideally in a pot so you can move it out of the worst wind. Pittosporum tenuifolium, Arbutus unedo or a fan-trained fig against a south wall all work well.
• Mid-layer: Grasses and sub-shrubs that move and catch light — Stipa tenuissima, Euphorbia characias, Perovskia, lavender. Movement is a gift in a courtyard, because it makes a static space feel alive.
• Ground layer: Thymes, hardy geraniums, Armeria maritima and Erigeron to knit the surface together and suppress weeds.
• Vertical layer: A climber or two on tensioned wire — Clematis viticella varieties flower late and hard, and can be cut back each spring without ceremony.

Grow Something to Eat

Coastal courtyards are surprisingly good for edibles, provided you pick tough varieties and use the shelter you have built. A south-facing wall is worth four weeks of extra season.

• Herbs: Rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano and bay all thrive on salt air and sharp drainage. They look good enough to plant in the ornamental scheme.
• Leaf crops: Chard, kale, rocket and perpetual spinach crop through autumn and winter with a little wind protection.
• Soft fruit: A gooseberry or blackcurrant bush in a 45cm pot will give you a bowlful most summers. Strawberries in a stack of troughs suit a warm wall.
• Tomatoes and chillies: Best grown against the sunniest wall, in grow bags or large pots, and brought under cover at the first sign of a cold night.

A Simple Year of Care

Courtyard gardening on the coast is mostly about timing and mulching. In late winter, cut back grasses and tidy climbers before growth starts. In spring, top-dress pots with fresh compost and slow-release feed, and check every tie and fixing while the plants are still small. Through summer, water containers in the evening rather than the morning, so less is lost to evaporation and wind. Give everything a deep soak twice a week rather than a daily sprinkle — it encourages roots downwards.

Autumn is for planting, when the soil is still warm and the winter rains will do the watering for you. Before the first gales, move vulnerable pots into the lee of the wall, firm down anything that has rocked loose, and mulch bare ground with gravel or bark. Do that, and a courtyard no bigger than a dining table can give you scent, colour and a decent crop of herbs from March to November.