The Dune Garden

At a glance

Who would use this garden?
For the wind-tossed, the sun-kissed, for barefoot pirates and lovers who treasure the dune as their garden.
Where is the garden set?
It exists within a larger imagined dune landscape with no boundaries, just a gentle insertion of garden intensity into a coastal world.

The Garden

The Dune Garden is a ritual sanctuary inspired by the wild, resilient beauty of Fire Island, New York, and its legacy as a queer refuge. Spartan and elemental, it invites quiet gestures of use: walking a thin sand path, rinsing under an outdoor shower, and resting on a reclaimed split-chestnut bench in the lee of a dune.  

The garden is an act of consideration, of the dune, by presence and return, in our ritual of freedom under the sun. A bench, a shower, water gathers, orchids appear and creeping willow follows. What begins as utility becomes habitat. Burnet rose colonises the slope behind the bench, held by a dune stabilisation fence.  

Bespoke Features crafted by Brandon Thatchers Film Services Ltd. 

Plants

The planting responds to the site’s contrasts: soft grasses, primroses, and wild roses meet bristly thistles and the needled forms of pine, beneath which a mosaic of sea heath spreads. Blending personal memory with ecological intent, the garden showcases sand-grown planting, minimal water use, and considered intervention in the landscape. 

Key plants include: Epipactis palustris (marsh helleborine), Rosa spinosissima (Scotch rose), Festuca mairei (Atlas fescue), Oenothera tetragona ‘Glaber’ and Pinus sylvestris.