Category: Plants
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Valeriana locusta & cornucopia
Growing vegetables during the Mediterranean winter is as easy as sowing/planting in October/November and harvesting from January on. Last fall I sowed sugar snap peas, cima di rapa, wild chicory, salsify, purple cauliflower, radiccio, lattughino, lamb’s lettuce and fedia etc. Valeriana locusta, aka Lamb’s lettuce, is one of the easiest and most satisfying lettuce crops…
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Cordyline australis
Overall not really a success story. I planted this garden center plant in the spring of 2023 in a pot on the very sunny and hot terrace. In the summer Egyptian locusts chomped on the leaves and the plant itself was rather underwhelming with the tips of its leaves constantly brown. Too much water? Not…
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Planting Season Autumn 2025
It is amazing how much empty space there is in this garden at the end of summer… And even though I know that by April it will all be more than full with poppies and such, there are still a lot of spots left to fill with “forever” plants. This year I began planting quite…
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My Garden Center Pet Peeve
After cutting back all the gigantic old Atriplex halimus shrubs eaten up by Monoxia obesula we needed to plant other shrubs to provide soil cover on our steep slope and to replace the Atriplex over time. Replacement plants needed to fulfill some very specific requirements: The gardener as well as the garden center people had…
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Muehlenbeckia complexa/axillaris
I’ve fallen quite in love with this dainty-looking, but vigorous ground-cover. I’m not quite sure whether I have Muehlenbeckia axillaris or complexa – or both – in my garden. Regular French garden centers sell it cheaply but almost always without naming the species. Given the shape of the flowers and fruit and the growth habit,…
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Aizoacea & Mesembryanthemum
The Aizoaceae family is endemic to South Africa and has brought forth a multitude of mostly low-growing, spreading plants with fleshy leaves and bright flowers that work well as ground cover on dry soils in full sun. Several of its members are know as “ice plant” or “mesembryanthemum”. Interestingly, even “New Zealand Spinach” that grows…