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A Coastal Garden

Articles: A Coastal Garden

Spring in the author’s serene, Japanese-inspired Point Reyes garden. Photo: Julie Monson

Gardening on California’s coast has its own challenges, surprises, and rewards—which I learned firsthand when we moved to Point Reyes from Southern California almost 20 years ago. Our property on the northeast slope of Inverness Ridge, with splendid views of Tomales Bay, had winter shade from huge bay and Douglas fir trees at the edge of our cleared site. Undaunted by a brand new home surrounded by nothing but dirt and rocks, I began to design our garden.

To design and create this garden, I had to adjust to wet, rainy winters (45 inches of rain), cool, foggy summers, and six months without rain. First, I had to learn a different palette of plant material than I used in Claremont, in Southern California. Coastal California, I learned, with its cool summers and wet winters, requires plants that thrive without the warm sun found 20 miles inland from the coast. For example, in Gilroy, the warmest day of the year is in July. In Point Reyes, the warmest day is in September.

On the coast, we can grow tomatoes and roses in...

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