GardenWeb managers have FINALLY started taking some action. They've just cleaned up a few blatant and subtle advertisements -- one of the most discouraging parts of this specific forum.

Now it's a matter of actually getting some members back in here to chat it up.

How do you deal with limited rainfall in your garden?

Joe

So...I've adapted my choice of plants to the climate. Probably the best advice ever. Choose the right plants for the right climate and the right conditions. Forget my english garden with its roses and lavender and foxgloves and mint and morning glories. Forget everything the UK and USA sites say about sun-loving plants. They are wrong. They are writing for northern climes. Most plants curl up and die in our summer heat. Herbs like heat? No they don't. Rosemary (without deep roots into real soil) dies. Coriander germinates happily, takes a sniff around, fails to thrive, and dies at about 1.5". Mint dies. Flat-leaved parsley dies. Californian poppies (escholzia) die. Lavender dies. Sunflowers die.

And to be honest - who wants to be carrying sickly plants night after night into the inside air conditioning, when you're only just coping with the heat yourself? Gardening should be at least 50% enjoyable!

OK, what succeeds? Asparagus sprengerii. Yucca. Basil (not small-leaved). Some geranium and pelargonium varieties (not all but lemon-scented ger. and ivy-leaved ger. ok). Petunias - glorious, bless them. Datura. Succulents of most types, but keep out of direct sun in high summer.
And grow autumn through to spring stuff. Cyclamen, freesias, glorious amaryllis. Just don't expect them to survive after March.

I repeat, answer to water shortage is the right plants for the right conditions. You CAN try to keep stuff alive but it's uneconomical of time and water, unethical, and very disheartening watching them shrivel and die anyway. More plant recommendations from practical experience would be good.
OK, if there's more postings that would be great. I'll keep on lurking and see what happens.
Thanks again for taking the trouble to post.
JG

Established rosemary and lavender thrive without water. Looks a bit sad during the summer rest, but as soon as rain returns they come back to their good old selves. Coriander and parsley, though, should only be grown from autumn to spring. Summer heat makes them run into flower too quickly. Even roses (established) do better and stay healthier when they're granted a dry period in summer where the leaves may shrivel and fall off. As soon as rain hits them, they start growing again. Californian poppies have even escaped from my garden and grows freely in a dry slope. Annuals like Linum grandiflorum and Lathyrus odorata have also adapted well to this climate and self-seed everywhere. Sow a few seed now, and just let them run wild! Nasturtiums are wonderful winter growers, too, but keep them away from frost.

Most succulents require full sun here to flower well. But some need more shade and even water to survive the summer. For sun and drought I would recommend: Crassula ovata, Cotyledon orbiculata, Kalanchoe beharensis, K. fedschenkoi, K. tomentosa, K. tubiflora, Aeoniums, most Aloes and Agaves, Echeverias, Graptopetalum, Beaucarnea... There are many more to choose from. Just try out any you may find!

Well established Bougainvilleas will survive reasonably well without water. And what about oleanders? They are so easy-going and free-flowering.

In fact, there's a vast array of plants that do well in this climate without water. Just look at what's growing in the worlds deserts and semi-deserts, or areas with a similar climate to the Med. I have also learned that a good layer of mulch helps keeping the soil more humid and cool, definitely an advantage for most plants. Keep gardening!

Also, it is important to remember that not all Mediterranean climate zones are equal as to amount of cold in winter, amount of winter rainfall, length of dry season, and amount of summer heat and winds. I'm located in coastal northern California, where we are a Mediterranean climate rainfall pattern, but have next to no summer heat, and have much reduced drying out of soils and plants because we get so much summer fog and overcast which keeps things cooler and less dry.

Trying to grow things in high summer heat with poor water quality is not a foreign concept in parts of southern California, and tried but true methods often rely on choosing desert or high heat adapted plants, and providing moderated shading in summer for plants that can't take full hot sun with such high heat.

I'd suggest that things like American southwest desert species of Agaves, Leucophyllum species, Teucriums, Phlomis, Cistus, and things native to the Mediterranean Basin that are adapted to limestone soils would be the natural approach to take where it is both hot, dry and basic soil ph. A lot of plants from Mexico and South Africa as well as Australia would do well under such conditions.

Where I garden in Berkeley, it is even balmier than the Algarve in Portugal, and we often have more in common with tropical Cloudforest habitats than other Mediterranean zone climates, due to our foggy summers and cold offshore ocean currents. I grow many of the same succulents that Orchis mentions, but some of the more frost tender Kalanchoe species are both prone to rotting and occasional freezing in our wetter/colder winters here near San Francisco. Some of the more tender Aeoniums such as A. canariensis can grow fantastically well here, but an occasional cold winter's frost can also do major damage.

Some all purpose plants that I could recommend as survivors in high heat might include Aloe saponaria and Aloe ferox, Bulbine frutescens, Agave bracteosa(in partial shade), Agave parryi, Artemesia species, Arctotis cultivars, Brachychiton populneum, Brahea armata, Caesalpinia mexicana, Centauria gymnocarpa, Centranthus ruber, Ceratostigma plumbaginoides(in partial shade), Convolvulus sabatius, Correa species, Cotinus coggygria, Cussonia paniculata, Dasylirion, Echeveria agavoides(in bright shade), Epilobium californicum, Eriogonum species, Erythrina x bidwillii, Euphorbia species, Muhlenbergia species, Hechtia, Hesperaloe parviflora, Lavandula species, xMangave 'Macho Mocha', Parkinsonia aculeata,Pennisetum species, Phlomis species, Romneya californica, Salvia greggii, Santolina, Scilla peruviana, Senecio mandraliscae, Stachys species, Tagetes lemmonii, Tecoma stans, Tulbaghia violacea, Verbena bonariensis, Verbascum species, Watsonia species, Yucca species just to name some more common plants that are well adapted to high heat here, but also many of which do well in milder Mediterranean climate gardens like mine also.

I can remember a trip through Crete and Santorini in mid May, and then on the Malaga and Marbella and on into the Algarve in mid summer and seeing a wealth of interesting native plants/plant communities that could make a beautiful garden anywhere with a Mediterranean climate. I was particularly attracted to plants I wasn't familiar with such as Euphorbia dendroides turning fall foliage colored red and orange on Crete hillsides in late May, as well as towering flowering stalks of things such as Ferula communis in full bloom, amongst over a half dozen species of various Phlomis, other Euphorbia species, Teucriums and rare to me Pancratium maritimum in full bloom along the dune sands, with many of these I also saw again in Portugal.

If nothing else, looking at what does well for you in your own surroundings is always a good start to form the backbones of a low care Mediterranean climate garden.

I am here. I am new.
I am feeling very lonely on this forum!

I am a great armchair gardener, but now have a 2000m2 garden in greece to try to tame, no budget, and only a 3 year rental agreement!

I really need a forum like this - where have you all gone? is there another forum that I should look at?

The plants that grow wild here (Spetses, Saronic Islands) are mainly: Pine, cistus (pink gray leaved, and white green leaved), Pistacia lentiscus, Phlomis, agave americana, some sort of heather, thyme (still in flower in June), Broom, ballotta, bupleurum spiniosum, capers, some sort of valerian (about a foot tall, in flower now), a pink convovulus, coronilla, dorycnium, euphorbia acanthothamnos, globularia alypum, helichrysum, medicago arborea, santolina.
In the shade, acanthus mollis, cyclamen.
In winter, spring everything is softened with grasses, asphodeles, daisys, anenomies, tiny iris, tiny poppies.

Invaders include, Burmuda oxalis, which is running rampant, as is somthing a bit like black briony, which is strangling all the pine forests, and pink poppies.

Gardens are mostly Citrus, bouganvilleas, Oleander, Pelargonium, most people have vegtable gardens, but also try to keep roses dalias etc going - a criminal waste of water in my mind, especially on an island that does not have water, it is shipped in!

At my new house, I have a tank for the shipped water, wich also collects rainwater from the roof and terraces. I am then lucky enough to have a shallow groundwater tank, don't know how much this produces yet, but have heard that it gets very salty in the summer. I can use this free ground water for the garden.

In the garden there are 12 citrus trees, 5 pomegranites and 14 olive trees and about 6 mature pine trees, 2 big bourganvillias, one of which the owner has just hacked to the ground. I have also seen Mastic bush, mrytle, locust, something that might be mimosa. I have not seen it in winter, so don't know what bulbs etc are there. At the moment all the land between the trees is baked hard.

I don't intend to introduce anything that needs water after it's first year, or anything that will invade the surrounding countryside.

As the garden is so big, I would like to try to grow some things from bulk seed, such as gaura, antirrhinum majus, Achillea millefolium, Geranium sanguineum, Salvias etc.
But I don't know if I can just sow them straight into the ground, or need to raise the babies more carefully and then transplant. I don't know the timing of planting etc.

Also I really want some lavendars, rosemany, cistus, phlomis, oleander, honeysucle, etc.
But I don't know how/when to take cuttings, and I need fairly fast results, because I only have a short contract.

I will also grow some vegtables, near to the oranges, which have to be watered anyway.

I plan to leave the olive grove faily wild, but would love to find a greek native wild flower mix, does anyone know if one exists?

I'd love to find a forum where I can find some answers.

Thanks, Anna