beach and gardens

Black Sand Cove, at the foot of an extinct volcano on the dry side of Nevis, and washed by sea winds, might seem like an odd place to think about gardening. When the award-winning British garden designer Julie Toll first visited us in 2003, our yard was a scrubland of bleached rough grass and thorny acacia, with a shallow soil of hard-baked clay.  But Julie wasn't put off at all.  But by using native plants like agaves, aloes, grasses, and frangipanis, Julie created a beautiful garden that echoes the contours of the Nevisian landscape.  Purple grasses winding down the slope resemble the flowing lava of the volcano, and desert plants mimic the wilder coastal landscape beyond.  Local plants meet the needs of island birds, which flourish amid the mahogany trees and palms. Caribbean Milkweed draws visits by the migratory Monarch butterfly, while green and purple hummingbirds zip along to feed on flowering aloes and Violet Ruellia.

The October 2011 edition of the British magazine Homes and Gardens featured an article about our garden.  Click here for a full pdf of the article.

The above photo of Black Sand Beach was taken by guest Bill Tuck.