Tag: trees
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Beyond Pinus Pinea: Trees for the Mediterranean
We’ve had horrendous wildfires last summer where 17’000 hectares (42’000 acres) of pine forests burned up within a few days. Then, this winter, we’ve had endless rain with widespread flooding and finally, last week, a windstorm with gusts of up to 160 km/h over several hours. Seeing the violence of the fires and seeing all…
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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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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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Trees for a Dry Mediterranean Garden
When we re-did our garden layout in the winter of 2023/2024, the goal was to turn the wide open vegetable and flower garden, where everything burned up in the summer, into a “park garden” with lots of shade trees. I researched a lot and made up a nice little shortlist of more or less drought-tolerant…
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Oh My Darling Clementine…
I was hankering after a citrus tree and I needed to have something vertical on the terrace… so I planted a clementine tree in a large pot. At the moment I’m not sure whether that was really a good idea or more a bit of plant abuse. I planted this “Clemenules” (Citrus reticulata, Clementina fina)…
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Morus albus – Mulberry
Small fruit like blackberries, raspberries, strawberries etc. are difficult in this Mediterranean garden at 50masl. It is simply too hot and dry and even mulched and in half-shade it’s almost impossible to keep them watered enough for them to truly thrive. One small fruit will do famously though: mulberries. Though originally native to China and…