Assuming you are English ...
Bulbs, bulbs and more bulbs. At least to start off with. I first got my hands on our garden in Southern Italy 3 years ago and it was totally lacking in flowers - had only a few shrubs and cactus plants. The first year, I whacked about 50 daffs and freesias in. Every year I add another 20 or 30 bulbs and now have a mixed bunch of muscari, tulips, daffs, hyacinths and freesias. With the exception of the tulips (I think where we are is a little too hot for them) they have done really well and more importantly have multiplied like mad. My freesias this year were stupendous (they have about another week of flowering to go) and on my last visit, I filled 5 vases' worth of daffs and freesias. The important thing is that the majority of bulbs need no care - just stick them in and ignore them. Spring is the best season for my garden - we turn the irrigation off when it starts raining and only now this week have put it back on. For summer, you need to look for hardy plants that can survive longer periods of neglect. Summer bulbs are less successful. My gladioli got burned by a week of intense heat when we weren't there. Lillies do OK and are good for containers. I have summer flowering freesias on order, too. Dahlias need water - the tuber I planted last year amounted to nothing and I've put them in where we have water this year. Ditto Callas and Cannas. They are to be avoided as need lots of water. We have a few beds where we have no irrigation and I recommend Alyssum for here. I put in 2 plants and these have multiplied enough that I have them dotted around the garden now. Although technically an annual, the mild winter temp means they stay evergreen all year around with flowers, and survive the summer heat without any water. So I recomment you stick a couple of plants in or just sow some seed - it germinates quickly. I have also put in a Galium Oderatum plant (ordered from Claire Austin in the UK) - this is a spreader and does OK without water. For a climber, consider Clematis. I sowed an annual clematis (not the evergreen, shrub type) that drops seed when it dies each autumn and the new seedlings pop up every year and multiply. This is in a zone where there is no water either. Geraniums will survive just about anywhere and do fine in vases where there is no water. Other than the bulbs, I put in geraniums and now stick cuttings in whereever there are dry zones without water - they usually take and do really well. Consider herbs like lavender, thyme and rosemary. Make sure they are well watered to start with. Don't plant too late either or they will get burned. Now is a good time to put them in. Santolina does well too in our garden (cotton lavender). As for trees, we have lemon, figs, oranges, plums etc. The plum and fig trees are in zones without water so I recommend those. I recommend taking a look at Claire Austin's Hardy Plants website. I've ordered a few plants from there to take to Italy that can cope with drought and heat. She has recommendations for plants for drought and heat and I've found it a useful resource. Hope this helps! |
