Salt and wind scorch

What you see

Leaf margins and tips turn brown and crisp, consistently worse on the side of the plant facing the sea or the prevailing wind. New shoots die back on the exposed side while the sheltered side grows normally, giving trees a permanently one-sided, flagged shape.

Conditions

Salt-laden onshore wind, strongest after winter storms and during hot dry summer blows. Sandy soils that hold little water make it worse because the plant cannot replace what the wind takes.

Treatment

Rinse foliage with fresh water after a salt-laden storm if practical. Cut out dead tips once new growth shows where the living wood ends. Mulch and water well to help recovery.

Prevention

Plant a windbreak of genuinely salt-tolerant species on the exposed side - tamarisk, escallonia, euonymus, pittosporum, olive, rosemary. Shelter tender plants for their first two years. Water deeply in dry windy spells.

Months: November, December, January, February, March, June, July, August

Plants

Hydrangea, Rose, Fig, Orange, Lemon, Tangerine, Maple, Green bean, Lettuce, Basil

Remedies

Mulch, Seaweed extract

The thing people get wrong

Coastal gardeners spend years treating this as a fungal or nutrient problem because the browning looks like a disease. The tell is geography, not biology: the damage has a direction. If every affected leaf faces the same way, no spray will ever help - you need a windbreak. Getting shelter established first is what makes everything else in a coastal garden possible.