Category: Potager
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Smyrnium olusatrum
It was worth a try. I noticed this bright green plant growing in big swathes in the shade of a hedge along the Canal du Midi in 2023. Since I was then still in the phase of throwing plants at the garden to see what stuck I decided to try them out in a similar…
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Mediterranean Fruit – the Orchard 2025
It’s been a year since the last orchard “status report” 2024. Time for an update: Pyrus / Pear Tree “Clapp’s Favorite” I covered the ground around the tree with horse manure and green waste in October. In April the tree looked very good and bloomed profusely. In May it suffered from a heavy attack of Dysaphis pyri…
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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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Tagetes patula / erecta
I used to find the tidy orange marigold borders in Swiss gardens incredibly stuffy. I also did not like the scent of marigolds, so I would have never have planted them. But I’ve tried them here as companion plants in the veggie garden and if nothing else they do make a splendid show of color…
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Ficus Carica – Fig Trees
Figs are the quintessential Mediterranean fruit tree and when we moved here in 2022 I was so happy about the miniature grove of fig trees at the very back of the garden! But in that summer and fall we didn’t see a single fig. Having no experience at all with fig trees and lots of…
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Spilling the Beans…
It took three summers to determine which kind of beans or peas will really work for us in this mediterranean garden. What works for me: Asparagus Beans / Vigna unguiculata sesquipedalis A definite keeper! From early July through late September I can harvest handfuls of long green, tasty and tender beans. They are also popular…