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Mediterranean Gardening

            

 

What is Mediterranean Gardening?  It is gardening in one of the many regions which share a Mediterranean climate--that is a climate marked by a  mild and wet winter,  short spring,  prolonged  hot and dry summer, and a lengthy  autumn.  There are five recognized Mediterranean climate zones. 

  • South Africa's Cape region

  • Central and southern coastal California

  • Central Chile

  • Southern and Southwestern Australia 

  • Areas bordering the Mediterranean

In addition gardeners in parts of New Zealand and along the  coasts of England, Ireland, and Scotland face similar climatic conditions.

 

Gardening in Greece has many advantages: mild winters, lots of sunshine, and an active garden all year round.  But along with the pluses there are some minuses, such as: no rain for at least five months during the hottest part of the year, incessant weeds, and the need to have a continuous floral display somewhere in the garden throughout the year.  

In order to accomplish this the garden has to be heavily planted up with:

  • drought resistant plants.

  • bulbs to extend the flowering season before and after the summer.

  • vines, shrubs and trees to offer shade to plants less able to cope with the strong sun.

  • ground covers to reduce the temperature of the soil, maintain moisture in the soil, and to control the spread of weeds.

Achieving a successful mixed planting has proved to be more difficult than expected.  Only through years of trial and error have I begun to understand which plants thrive under the local conditions and which do not.

Looking up this information in books is one way to get started but much of the information is misleading.   Some common misconceptions include:

  • the final height and spread of perennials.  Because the growing season where I live is so long--from March to late October, most perennials reach heights and spreads far surpassing those listed in the reference books.  Many of these same perennials need to be cut back once or twice during the growing season to keep them tidy and to encourage them to keep flowering.
  • reliance on  gray leaved plants to be the backbone of  the garden. These plants can take the punishment that the scorching sun dishes out, but most, such as Santolina chamaecyparissus, have lackluster floral displays or have finished flowering by the time the heat sets in. In order to have an interesting floral display in the summer they must be complemented by perennials which add color to the borders.
  • certain plants  have the nasty habit of acting as magnets to aphid infestations such as Asclepias tuberosa and Viburnum tinus.

I am fortunate that I have a well equipped greenhouse and every year I am able to grow  promising new plants from seed.  Much of my garden is filled with these introductions and from time to time I will write brief descriptions of them in this section.  If you would like to take a look at some of the evergray plants  raised in my garden, click here.      

To see what is in bloom this month visit Month by Month Gardening

Favorite gardening links 

 

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Visit my bibliography to find relevant books on Mediterranean Gardening.  

This page was last updated on 01/10/10

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