Category: Plants
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Zucchini
Zucchini work reasonable well here, although I haven’t had anything like the bumper crops we had in Switzerland. Which is partly a good thing, because we can’t get quite as sick of them as we did there. In this Mediterranean garden, Zucchini plants always grow big but most fruit grow unevenly – big on one…
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Ceratostigma plumbaginoides
Unsung hero of the dry garden. Ceratostigma plumbaginoides – the “blue-flowered leadwort” – is a native from Western China. It grows and grows, unfettered by heat or drought, and blooms from June through September in a very beautiful bright blue over somber green leaves. The leaves may also turn red in the fall. I had…
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Dorycnium
These two mediterranean plants belong to the Lotus genus. They need light, poor, and well-drained soil, are very drought tolerance (code de secheresse 4-5, according to Filippi) and tolerate frost down to -12℃ if planted correctly. Both are supposed to have a limited lifespan but to reseed themselves easily. So far they haven’t done so…
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Teucrium – Germander
Teucrium, also known as “germander”, is a large plant genus with about 250 species of flowering perennials and shrubs worldwide. Most of them are native to the Mediterranean region and thus are pretty heat- and drought-tolerant while also being frost hardy to -10℃ or more. They are simple to cultivate, have no great demands besides…
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Lychnis coronaria
The friendly and well-behaved sister of Silene latifolia, Lychnis coronaria is found in the wild anywhere between Italy and the Himalayas. It grows on rocky slopes and in dappled woods and copses and in our Mediterranean garden it tolerates sun, heat and drought quite well. Along with the three bright pink plants I put in…
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Soil Retention and Stabilization
Our garden is located on the middle level of a terraced hillside and on its Northern edge bordered by a steep and almost straight slope of about 6-8 meters height. From what we can see, the hill seems to be made mostly of clay with a few firmer rocks in it. We do hope that…