Right now the garden is just plain mud, apparently poor drainage, and in the summer it is literally just dust. This doesn't make the task any easier of course.

Given the area, I want to avoid plants requiring high maintenance and water every day. We'd like to eliminate the sod that was planted years ago, we bought the place in May, and it was never kept up (we don't live in England!. Instead we are thinking of either using ground cover or various grasses that can withstand being trampled (I know Filippi) or as I've seen recently, pebbles with 1 or 2 areas in the middle probably to "fill up" the space with a raised area possibly and having a border of some sort around it.

I'm having a terrible time finding books on mediterranean garden design or landscaping. Any ideas?

SHABDR

I've planted a varied hedge with mainly evergreen plants (a couple are deciduous). This was to hide as much as possible the brise-vue which are horrible and add some volume/color.

We would like to prevent people from looking into the garden - particularly during the winter months (no leaves on the vigne vierge that protects us during the summer months).

Given the small size of the garden, would it be too overwhelming to create a raised area in the middle?

For evergreen hedging and screening there is nothing better in my opinion than Myoporum Pictim. Shiny glossy leaves, small white flowers and grows easily and rapidly. The Spanish call it 'Transparente'