More about mediterranean gardens

Perhaps you want to experiment by developing a mediterranean theme in a small corner of your garden. This can be achieved by the addition of pot plants, and perhaps a wrought iron pot plant stand. If this works for you, then you might want to expand the size of your mediterranean garden section. Nothing succeeds like success!!

Another type of mediterranean garden

Mediterranean gardens can be large, small, formal or informal. My last blog showed an illustration of a not-so-large informal mediterranean. The above picture demonstrates a large, formal garden. Note the use of pillars to hold potted plants, and the use of formal hedges.

More mediterranean theme ideas

Mediterranean gardens can be as informal as in this picture. The most important thing is to select plants that fit the climate. Mediterranean climates fit within the range of warm to hot summers and cool to cold winters. If your garden is dry in summer, consider varieties of Echium and Lavender. Both produce blue, mauve and/or purple flowers and thrive in dry conditions once established.

Create a theme from existing gardens

This is my outdoor 'room' at the back of my house. This area could be adapted to any theme at all.
Here are some ideas for a mediterranean look.

All that is needed for my outdoor area to make it look really mediterranean is large terra cotta pots and colorful flowers, or a statue.

Watch on this site for more mediterranean ideas.

Redesign is constant.

Redesigning the garden happens constantly at my place.  A plant that was in the front garden and not doing well was transplanted into a medium size pot. Now after a couple of years getting established in the pot, it is being transplanted back to the garden.

To improve the garden soil prior to the transplant, we will dig out where the plant is to go and replace that soil with better soil from the vege garden where we had excellent crops of tomatoes this year. That way we make some space in the vege garden to add fresh compost, ready for the next season's crop of veges and improve the soil in the front garden bed.

Beautiful Virginia Creeper

Our Virginia Creeper is turning deeper shades of red now that the Melbourne nights are getting cooler. Hopefully next year the creeper will fill the gaps on the metal grid and hide the back fence.

Colorful Virginia Creeper

The Virginia Creeper in our back garden is turning a  vivid shade of red now that Autumn is upon us. This vigorous grower did well this year with Melbourne's huge rainfall in February (167mm in our rain gauge). I expect the creeper will fill the gaps on the wire mesh in the next couple of growing seasons.

Great crop of tomatoes
Our tomato plants on the right side of the photo yielded 17 kg of large tomatoes this year, again probably due to the great rainfall and the fact that this year is the first time we fed our tomatoes with Potash. Most other people we talk to had a very poor yield from their tomatoes this year, and they had a similar amount of rain on their gardens, so it seems that Potash increases the amount of fruit.

Tips to get rid of garden pests

Mealy bugs on gardenia
I recently discovered white bugs and areas of white cottony looking masses on leaf junctions of my potted gardenia. I tried spraying rubbing alcohol (purchased at the supermarket for $8.50 approx) on the pests and it seems to have significantly reduced their presence. Another spray should do the trick. Rubbing alcohol apparently does not harm the foliage because it evaporates quickly, but has its effect on the bugs.

Tough Thryptomene

At last my computer gliches are solved, and I am back to blogging!!
Speaking of garden themes, they can be changed and intermingled, with different themes in each garden 'room'. My basic garden theme is Mediterranean, reflecting a somewhat Mediterranean lifestyle complete with vege garden. I try to develop color themes in the front garden, using pink, white and blue flowering plants as the mainstays, with other colors scattered around with the use of annuals, bulbs etc. just to add interest.

Thryptomene
After trial and error finding drought resistant, heat resistant, tough plants that survive, Thryptomene is the toughest plant I know. My two plants have lasted for 16 years so far and don't look like succumbing to heat exhaustion yet.

I am thinking about planting a smallish crepe myrtle bush, as they are generally hardy and produce abundant flowers in a range of colors from white through to pinks and mauves.

What my garden is to me.

My garden is just like a room of my house. Large plants such as trees and shrubs represent the main pieces of furniture. All the larger trees in my garden were already there when we moved into the house, so I had to arrange smaller plants around them. It was similar to deciding how to arrange furniture around a fireplace that was already there.

Inside the house we arranged incidentals like a coffee table and placed decorative items on the walls so that the decor says who we are and what we like. In my 'garden room' I arranged smaller plants such as flowering bulbs, annuals, and ground covers to reflect my personality and place my creative stamp on the outside appearance of the house.

The garden itself is divided into 'rooms'. We have an average size house block which is not really large, but garden 'rooms' give an impression of more space. Each area leads into another different kind of area.

I sit under the pergola to eat lunch and enjoy my pot plants; there is a 'lawn room' in the back yard, surrounded by shrubs and flowering plants; we have a 'kitchen room' where we grow vegetables, and there's a 'train room' where my husband runs his Gauge 1 railway.

The front yard is the 'front room' and it has taken the most work to beautify because of large gum trees that take most of the nutrients. But we are succeeding by trial and error to find plants that are tough, drought and heat resistant, and beautiful.

The front 'lawn' is the most frustrating area; I would appreciate any recommendations as to plants that replace lawn, require little nutrition, withstand drought and heat, will withstand light-to-moderate daily traffic and look good. It's a big ask, I know, and it makes choosing new floor coverings for inside the house look easy. Any suggestions?