If you look up garden ruins or follies in the dictionary, you will be told that they are ‘costly ornamental buildings with no practical purpose.’
23.08.2023 - 09:49 / houseandgarden.co.uk
The British have a bit of an obsession with the Mediterranean. It's tantalisingly close, yet sufficiently different that the moment the EasyJet tyres hit the tarmac, we feel transformed and instantly a bit more glamorous.
Many of us have stockpiled vignettes of sunny summer holidays in the Med, tucked away to see us through the gloomy British winter. Lunches in the dappled shade of a vine, fields of sunflowers below a big blue sky, hazy, dusty tracks through parched olive groves and that syrupy light that makes everyone look their best. So why wouldn’t we want to create a little slice of this at home?
The good news is, it’s not as difficult as it sounds, plus if done right, it’s a really sustainable way to garden. The bad news is, it’s not for everyone. There is one essential ingredient for a Mediterranean garden, and that is sun. So if your garden has a south / south-west aspect read on. If you’ve got a north / north-east facing plot, or a courtyard surrounded by tall buildings, maybe book a flight to Spain (or see my article on how to plant a shade garden).
Part of the new walled garden at Knepp
Mediterranean planting has many virtues, not least that it’s very low maintenance – as Olivier Fillipi, the celebrated Mediterranean plantsman says, they are gardens “without a gardener. No one is there to weed or water, no gardener comes to mow, or treat or fertilise.” As in their natural habitat, the plants we associate with the Mediterranean like free-draining, poor quality soil and not too much attention. So, ideally you'll need a sheltered, south-facing spot with free-draining soil (i.e. not heavy clay). The usual cast of plants that feature in a Mediterranean garden are also those that are undemanding in terms of water; they
If you look up garden ruins or follies in the dictionary, you will be told that they are ‘costly ornamental buildings with no practical purpose.’
Traditionally, greenhouses can be quite energy and water intensive, running on fossil fuels which are detrimental to the environment. This is why more and more UK homeowners and gardening enthusiasts are designing their greenhouses with sustainability in mind. In this article, we’ll talk you through the different areas where you can consider improving the sustainability of your greenhouse and how these could benefit you – so that you can garden with a green conscience as well as a green thumb.
Hailing from South Africa, agapanthus can be evergreen or deciduous; the deciduous varieties are the most hardy in this country. The evergreen varieties grow in the southern Cape in milder areas, so will need frost protection in the UK – or they can be grown in pots and brought inside.
Helianthus annus ‘Sonja’
As far removed from an English cottage garden as you can travel, the passion flower (Passiflora) is one of the most theatrical and exotic of plants. The weird and wonderful blooms are embellished with many showy parts that together remind you of peering into a kaleidoscope as a child: in the centre, the anthers, stigmas, and ovary protrude over the filament rays, which are marked with circles of incredible colour.
A lot of new gardening and plant books have landed on my mat this spring, and I need to up my book reviewing game! I like to do them justice, and spend some time reading them before I write a review, so that does create a bit of a backlog. Right at the time when the garden is demanding my attention. Anyway, the book that has found itself at the top of the list is one that really encompasses the gardening zeitgeist – The Community Gardening Handbook, by Ben Raskin. I looked him up, and he has impeccable credentials. He’s currently Head of Horticulture for the Soil Association; prior experiences include working for Garden Organic, running a walled garden and being a Horticultural Advisor for the Community Farm near Bristol.
Plastic bottles are everywhere these days, even floating around in the oceans. Fortunately for the environment, recycling facilities are improving (here in the UK at least) but a lot of plastic bottles still end up in landfill, where they just don’t break down. If you would like to give your plastic bottles a new lease of life once they’re empty, and save money too, then try recycling them into something useful for the garden.
Most vegetable gardeners lucky enough to have the use of a greenhouse use it for raising seeds early in the year, extending the season into the autumn, and of course growing tomatoes and cucumbers in the height of the summer. If you’d like to find something a little more exciting when you open the greenhouse door, these unusual crops will appreciate the extra heat.
There’s nothing quite as British as a nice cup of tea, and sitting down for a good cuppa can certainly brighten up your day. A tea bush is unlikely to thrive in most UK gardens (although there are a couple of tea plantations) because of the climate, but there are plenty of herbs that are easy to grow and make a refreshing brew. They’ll even grow well in containers – so they make ideal plants for a windowbox or a patio. Having them close at hand means you can harvest leaves as and when you need them.
Allotments are going to be all the rage this year. The National Trust recently announced that they’re making available enough spare land for up to 1000 allotments, via the Landshare scheme. British Waterways and British Rail are in on the act, too, looking for land along canals and railway lines that could be used to grow vegetables.
If you’ve got a small garden then you might find it difficult to find space for a conventional compost heap. A possible solution is a worm compost bin, which takes up far less space because an army of worms does most of the composting work.
In a typical year, I do my garden planning before Christmas. But last year wasn’t normal, and normality (whatever that means) has yet to return. I thought I’d thought about it, but it turns out – not so much.