A courtyard garden a few streets back from the sea is a wonderful thing: warm walls, reflected light, and the sound of gulls overhead. It is also one of the toughest spots to plant. Wind funnels between buildings, salt spray settles on leaves, and free-draining soil dries out faster than you expect. The good news is that a small, enclosed space is the easiest kind of garden to shelter, and once the wind is tamed a surprisingly rich planting palette opens up.

Start with the wind, not the plants

Before you buy a single pot, spend a week watching how the wind moves through the space. Note which corner takes the brunt of the prevailing south-westerlies, where gusts accelerate through gaps between walls, and where the air goes still. In most coastal courtyards there is one corner that feels a full two or three degrees warmer than the rest, and that is where you should sit.

Salt spray rarely travels more than a few hundred metres inland, but drying wind reaches everywhere. Plants that tolerate wind are not necessarily salt-tolerant, and vice versa. Assume you need both, and choose accordingly.

Screens, walls and the shelter they create

A solid barrier seems the obvious answer and is usually the wrong one. A fully solid fence or wall forces wind up and over, then drops it on the other side as damaging turbulence. A permeable screen — roughly half solid, half open — filters and slows the wind instead.

Hazel and willow hurdles, slatted timber panels, louvred screens and trellis with a dense climber all work well. Aim for around 1.8 to 2 metres in height, and screen the two windward sides in an L-shape, leaving the sheltered corner for a bench. If a boundary wall is all you have, soften the top with a trellis or a row of tall grasses to break the airflow.

• Fix screens to posts set in concrete, not to flimsy brackets.
• Leave a 5cm gap at the base so wind can pass through rather than lift the panel.
• Use the sheltered side of a screen for the plants that need the most cosseting.

Pots that stand up to salt and wind

Containers give you total control over soil, which matters enormously in a coastal courtyard. Choose wide, low pots rather than tall, narrow ones; they are far less likely to blow over. Glazed stoneware, fibreclay and good frost-proof terracotta all perform well. Thin, cheap terracotta will craze, crack and shed flakes within a season or two.

For compost, a soil-based mix holds moisture and nutrients far better than a lightweight peat-free multipurpose. Blend it with 20 to 30 per cent horticultural grit so it drains freely but does not dry out overnight. Stand every pot on feet to keep the drainage holes clear, and top-dress with a 2cm layer of gravel. That gravel does three jobs: it stops wind lifting compost, slows evaporation, and keeps salt off the surface.

Group pots tightly. Clustering creates its own microclimate, with shared shade, shared humidity and mutual shelter.

Plants that earn their place in a coastal courtyard

Hardy ornamental grasses are the backbone of a seaside courtyard. Stipa tenuissima, Festuca glauca and Carex comans all shrug off wind, look good for months, and move in the breeze rather than shredding. They also cover a lot of ground for very little money.

• Sea thrift (Armeria maritima) — native, neat cushions of pink flowers in early summer.
• Rosemary, thyme and lavender — aromatic, drought-tolerant and happy in gritty compost.
• Sea holly (Eryngium) and sea kale (Crambe maritima) — architectural, salt-proof and long-lived.
• Verbena bonariensis — airy stems that bend rather than break.
• Euphorbia characias — bold evergreen structure with lime-green spring flowers.
• Hebe, Olearia and Pittosporum — reliable evergreens in milder coastal districts.

Repeat a handful of species rather than collecting dozens. In a small space, repetition reads as calm and deliberate; a plant per square metre reads as chaos.

Layout, levels and light

Raise the tallest planting on the windward side and keep the sheltered corner low and open. Lift a few pots onto plinths or a low wall so foliage sits at eye level, and use a bench with storage underneath for tools and cushions. Vertical planting on a sunny wall — a simple trellis with a tough climber — gains you growing space without losing a centimetre of floor.

Pale gravel or a light-coloured paving reflects light into the courtyard and makes a narrow space feel wider. Terracotta, warm grey and buff tones sit far more comfortably by the sea than anything glossy and dark.

Keeping it looking good through the year

Water generously but less often, ideally in the early morning, and always check pots after a windy day — wind dries compost faster than sun does. After a storm, rinse foliage with a watering can of fresh water to wash off salt deposits.

Leave grasses standing through winter for structure and seed heads, then cut them back hard in late February or early March. Deadhead lavender and verbena through summer to keep flowers coming, refresh the gravel top-dressing each spring, and top up compost in permanent pots every second year. Do that, and a courtyard that once felt like a wind tunnel becomes the most sheltered, sunniest seat in the house.