Author: languedoc-garden.com
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Cosmos bipinnatus
Some plants just seem to give you “the finger”… When I think about how I coddled and cuddled my little cosmos seedlings last spring and summer, padding them with mulch, hovering over them with the watering can – and still the tiny little spindly things just wanted to die throughout the summer before finally putting out…
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Garden on Fire
After last year’s calm, this summer season has again been rife with wildfires, both big and close to housing areas. In early September we’ve had our own scare in the neighborhood. I was just coming back from a walk shortly before noon, when I saw thick clouds of gray-brown smoke coming from our neighborhood. I…
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Water Management in a Mediterranean Garden
Water management is a constant topic for gardeners and even more so in Mediterranean regions where rainfall may be scarce and/or erratic and water usage heavily restricted. This year, after two years of drought, we have had a relatively wet and cool spring. Between the beginning of October and until the 6th of July we’ve…
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Lonicera
Lonicera or honeysuckle is a very diverse species, including wonderfully scented vines (periclymenum, japonica, tatarica, xylosteum…) or shrubs (fragrantissima, purpusii, syringantha…), fruit-bearing shrubs (caerulea/kamtchatica…) as well as evergreen hedging shrubs and groundcovers (nitida, pileata, crassifolia…). Lonicera japonica I love the scented Lonicera vines and was more than happy to discover that the massive hedge of…
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Alcea Rosea
Alcea rosea (Hollyhocks in English or Rose trémière in French) are another example for plants that – in my experience – grow best if left alone to do their thing. They like to sow themselves where they please and need nothing besides maybe some support against the wind in their quest for the sky. Not…
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Anisodontea
Anisodontea or Cape Mallow is another plant I would never have thought of planting myself but which I have grown rather fond of. My mother gave it to me 2021. It had been grown from a cutting as an indoor plant in cold Ulm, Germany. When we came here I planted it in the garden,…