Category: Plants
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Pears “Clapp’s Favorite”
The rather small old pear tree (half trunk), which had not been pruned for ages, produced only two pears after my first heavy pruning in early 2023. In the spring of 2024 it had developed masses of steeply vertical water shoots, of which I removed about half (the narrowest, most incorrectly and most vertically growing).…
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Mediterranean Iris
Live and learn… I had always thought of Iris as a delicate and overbred plant for experienced gardeners. But when I came here I found out that Iris is one of the most robust, hardy, drought and heat resistant flowers there are. Iris varieties grow wild everywhere around here, from small Iris lutescens in the…
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Eleagnus ebbingei (submacrophylla)
Heavenly Scent & Drought Resistance in One. The side of the garden towards the neighbors is largely planted with Eleagnus x Ebbingei, now known as Eleagnus submacrophylla or “Chalef” in Garden-French. This shrub was totally unknown to me and when I first saw it in the summer, it didn’t impress me much. But then came…
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Portulaca grandiflora
Portulaca: One of those simple and seemingly “stuffy” plants that I had always ignored – until I needed to find some pretty summer ground cover for two large pots on the terrace. These plants are everywhere and they are so inexpensive that they are practically thrown in with your purchase at the garden center. They…
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Melons: Cucumis melo and Citrullus lanata
Mediterranean climate should be good for melons one should think. Alas it is for some but not for others. I had ordered several types of “Dry Farming” melon seeds at Seedshunters.com and tried to grow them in 2023 and 2024. Most did not work out, neither in the old vegetable garden, where they shriveled up…
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Summer Green: Tetragonia tetragonioides
In my Mediterranean garden spinach grows very well over winter and into spring but the summer is way too hot for it. Tetragonia tetragonioides or New Zealand spinach is the perfect “summer spinach”. It is a plant from the Aizoaceae or “ice plant” family (mesembryanthemum, delosperma & Co.). Unlike others of this family it is…