Category: Techniques
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Erosion Control
Monoxia obesula came back again last spring and by the summer all the huge old Atriplex halumis bushes were a mess of grey-white dried up leaves, accumulating in dirty-looking heaps around the foot of the plants after each rain. A very ugly sight and a big fire hazard as well. So we had all the…
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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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Baumbad Watering Rings
When we planted several trees in the winter of 2023/2024 I invested in some Baumbad watering “rings” for summer to make watering the trees easier. Baumbad also offers large stand-up watering bags but I figured flat rings on the ground around the trees’ trunks would work better for us here. I was more or less…
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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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Shading the Vegetable Garden 2025
This summer as well I’ve been shading the vegetable garden to minimize water evaporation and to avoid sunburned tomatoes. Beginning of August I decided to finally try professional shade netting instead of the white frost protection fleece that is neither long-lived nor inexpensive. I invested about €50 in 10 meters of dark green HDPE shade…