Yes hi I just recently moved to the coast. I need guidance on what plants best grow around the beach area with the heat. What type of soil should I use? thanks, kindest regards Barbie.

Hi Barbie,

Can you provide a bit more information? You said you recently moved to the coast but you didn't specify which country/coast ... United States, Europe, Australia. I'm assuming you are in the U.S.A. but if you can give a general idea of the state that would help in giving suggestions for plants that would do well in your area. For instance, those who live in the dry coastal area of California can grow different plants than those of us who live along the moist/humid coast of Florida.

I'm sure we can offer plant suggestions once we know your climate and growing zone.

to ATP!

What kind of plants do you like/want? How much space? Do you have sunny spots? Shady spots?

Irises are always good and there are many that do well in different climates and situations.

Oh my, pease excuse my earlier post ... your profile shows clearly that you live in Biloxi, Mississippi! Sometimes I need a "slap myself in the head" emoticon!

Here's a list I found of Perennials for Ms. gardens: http://msucares.com/lawn/garde...

There are so many beautiful plants you can grow on the Gulf coast!
Fern-Leaf Yarrow (Achillea filipendulina)
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Butterfly Ginger (Hedychium coronarium)
Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis)
Daylilies: Daylilies (Hemerocallis)
Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida)
Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
Bee Balm (Monarda didyma)
Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria)

Barbie. I lived in Pascagoula for 25 years and am now in Starkville. Other than truly low-temperature sensitive, tropical plants, you can grow pretty much anything. I had Bird of Paradise, White Butterfly Ginger, Canna, Palms, Banana, and Plumeria. If the temperature got down in the lower 30's, I had to cover and put something like outdoor Christmas lights for the Plumeria and if it got really cold, I had to bring them inside. All these plants can take full sun but do just fine with partial shade.

I don't know what sort of soil you have. It can be anything from great, with lots of organic matter, to poor, with lots of sand.

Welcome to ATP, Barbie! I hope you enjoy gardening in Mississippi!
Mostly flowers or mostly vegetables?

>> What type of soil should I use?

I think that we all grow in whatever soil we have - except that we spend the rest of our lives improving it.

If you're so close to the beach that you have sandy soil, compost will help it hold water and nutrients. Mulch will help it hold water and keep soil cooler in summer and warmer in the fall.

If you have clayey soil, compost will help it breath and drain better. LOTS of compost will help more. Not everyone agrees, but I think that it is SO hard to get ENOUGH compost into clay that you also benefit from adding "gritty stuff" to the clay: sand, coarse sand, grit, bark fibers, bark shreds and bark chunks.

Very often it helps to pile up a deeper layer of whatever topsoil you have, into raised beds or even just raised mounds or rows, if that doesn't make watering too hard. Scrape the topsoil off any walkways and add that to the beds. Add lots of compost to the raised beds.

RBs are a way to grow more plants in less space, and protect the soil structure from compaction.

If you buy truckloads or bags of topsoil or "garden soil", add them to raised beds. Store-bought soil is so expensive that it is well worth building raised beds to get the most advantage form what you've paid for. And double-beware what kind of soil you get. I know that the pile I looked at in the "dirt-yard" looked MUCH less clayey then the soil they delivered!

And you might pay $35 per cubic yard for compost. That can range anywhere in quality from "cheap sawdust" to a fully-composted, aged, rich, pure manure product that a veteran gardener would sniff appreciatively for its "bouquet".

I wonder which regional forum that would be?

Mid-South Gardening forum
http://garden.org/forums/view/...

or

Mid Atlantic Gardening forum
http://garden.org/forums/view/...
"We're thinking of the Midatlantic area as including Maryland, Delaware, DC, Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and parts of New York as people wish. "