Summer Dormancy

The Seasons in a Mediterranean Garden

Gardening in the Mediterranean, especially in this low-altitude garden, I’ve gotten used to two periods of dormancy. There is of course winter – although, being prime planting season, winter tends to be a busy time when you’re still establishing a garden by planting trees and shrubs. However, nothing much will visibly grow or flower and even vegetables, planted in the fall, will not really “take off” until temperatures warm up some.

Spring will be bright and beautiful, beginning in February/March, and by May/June it feels like paradise on earth. Everything grows, everything blooms.

Towards the end of June or in July at the latest, summer dormancy will set in. Some plants will disappear completely until next spring. Some will become scorched or generally pitiful-looking until the rains come back in September/October. Some may even look completely dead. Regardless of what garden centers or catalogues promise, there will be very few plants actually flowering through the hottest summer months. What would be a “perpetual” summer bloomer in other regions will mostly stop flowering in July and reappear in September – maybe. Besides a very few thunderstorms there will be little or no rain in the summer but it will be hot with temperatures that can go up to 40 ℃ during a heatwave.

In September the rains will normally begin again and in October they are definitely back. Things begin to look greener, flowers reappear and everything breathes a huge sigh of relief.

Managing Expectations

If you don’t have a very small or shaded balcony or garden with easy access to water, expect summer to be a dead gardening season. Brown and yellow become the basic colors instead of the pervasive green of spring. The garden is dry and crunches underfoot.

Summer is a time of survival for most plants in the Mediterranean. They are trying to stay alive, not to impress.

Summer is also a time to lay low for gardeners, as it is much too hot to work outside beyond nine or ten o’clock in the morning and often stays hot well into the night. You can tend to your summer vegetables or do some cutting or trimming on not-so-hot days but summer is not the time for heavy gardening work, let alone planting anything. If you get new plants in the summer, keep them in pots in the shade until the fall.

Summer dormancy teaches trust. If plants were well chosen and treated appropriately (and the gardening gods are with us), they will survive and come back.

Managing Water

The Mediterranean region is not famous for an endless freshwater supply. Smart water management becomes key and that means watering just enough to keep things alive, not necessarily thriving.

I water non-food plants strictly depending on their needs. As the garden is too big to do them all at once, I divided it into smaller “parcels” and write down when and how much water I give each plant. Younger or more demanding plants get watered deeply every 2-3 weeks. Older or less demanding plants every 4-6 weeks and all really well-established plants never get any additional water.
Note: some Mediterranean plants may even die if watered needlessly during the summer (i.e. lavender, euphorbia, goniolimon…)

Smart watering also means letting those plants die that clearly can’t survive, even with watering once a week. It may break your heart but during water restrictions you may break the law if you water anything that’s not a vegetable or a new tree or shrub planted less than two years ago.

If possible I usually give water in the evening to give soil and plants more time to soak it up. When it stays very hot in the evenings I get up and water as early as possible in the morning. Mulch and shading helps to minimize evaporation.

More tips on smart water management