Elemental Coast

A contemporary coastal garden on the sea front near Margate, Kent.

Immediately beside the North Kent coast, with an unbroken horizon out to sea, this garden takes its character from the place around it. The design draws on the vernacular of the coast in many forms: the materials and geometry of local sea defences, the character of coastal architecture, the plants that naturally prosper here, and fragments of the site’s own history, including a First World War bomb shelter.

These references are not treated as motifs, but as material for invention. They are studied, abstracted and reinterpreted into the structure, surfaces, planting and atmosphere of the garden, allowing something highly specific to emerge from the particular conditions of the site. The result is intended to feel inseparable from its setting — not a garden placed beside the sea, but one whose creative language could only have come from this stretch of coast.

Margate, Kent - Private coastal garden - At Implementation Phase

Concept sketch of a James Innes Design garden layout of a triangular site completed in pastel colours near Margate on the north Kent coast.
The rendered masterplan of a James Innes Design garden showing a triangular plot with atmospheric planting, seating areas, and lawn. near Margate on the north Kent coast.
A planting mood board of a James Innes Design coastal garden showing blue flowers, textural grasses, and white coastal shrubs near Margate on the north Kent coast.
A curving beach and coastline of the North Kent coast with a wild sea meadow of grasses in the foreground and a town in the background near Margate on the north Kent coast.
A materials mood board by James Innes Design showing coastal cobbles, pebbles, and sand near Margate on the north Kent coast.
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