Two Very Different Gardens

Two Very Different Gardens

Our Lemnian Garden – Exposed to Extremes

 Mediterranean Gardening

It was a dream of mine to have a Med. Garden, and I’ve blogged quite a lot about before about how my husband and I ‘retired’ and took up the project to renovate his grandfather’s old summer holiday house, and also about the garden I developed there.

I had already learnt something about Mediterranean gardening before coming to Greece. I’d already found Mediterranean plants useful Adelaide before I moved to Melbourne, and then with global warming arriving fast even the garden of our small unit in Melbourne started drying up. However, while there are many books about ‘Dream Med. Gardens’, in France and in Italy many are made by British expats, with money, around large houses. I needed something about a less grand garden.

So I read books like Trevor Nottle’s book, Gardening in the Sun and Jacqueline Tyrwhitt’s book Making a Garden on a Greek Hillside. I was much helped by joining the Med. Garden Society, and by reading Heidi Gildemeister book about Mediterranean Gardens, including ‘home gardens’. But what helped most was using local knowledge, and filling the garden with plants found in the garden or along the roadsides, and with plants given me by neighbours. These formed the basis of my Greek garden in Lemnos.

 

Gardening for ten years

The garden block is 1200 square meters (300 used by house and outbuildings) and when we arrived there was a collapsing 100yr old family house in one corner and two ruined outbuildings and a flat area of weeds. But there was a well, and plenty of stones to build walls. Now that it is developed we find we have a very useful garden. Takis makes marmalade from the bitter oranges and I make a lemon and fig jam, plus when we harvest in late summer the buckets of peppers and tomatoes and onions I turn into sauce - very useful to feed our many guests.

Here are some of the plants that were

There

Olive, grapes, almond trees, bitter orange, fig

Found

Euphorbia, hemlock, daffodil lilies, oleander

Given

Honeysuckle, rosemary, bay, Iris, cannas, pampas grass, jasmine, basil, pittosporum, Virginia creeper, lilac, pelargonium, grapes, day lily

Bought

Pomegranate, pine, box, rose, bougainvillea, citrus, agapanthus, bottlebrush, lantana, gaura, wisteria, yucca, fan palm, agave,

We are not often in Lemnos in winter to experience the extremes of wind and cold!

 

Difficulties

Losing plants because of severe heat in summer and frosts and snow in winter

Working with Anestis my garden helper using sign language!

Not being there full time and so not able to be there to sow seeds or to care for the newly planted.

Our Emerald Garden – Shady and Damp

Mild Climate Gardening

Our home state in Australia is known for its lush meadows and damp forests. The farms produce dairy products and vegetables. We lived in the main town of Melbourne, but found that we needed more space for our leisure pursuits, Takis for his carpentry and me for my gardening enthusiasms.  We also needed more room to entertain our six children and friends when back in Australia so we looked for, and found, a home in the nearby village of Emerald.

Though droughts have affected this forested area on the whole it was a return to gardening, as I’d known it, in England and pre-global-warming days in the Adelaide Hills.

Emerald is an area where there are towering trees and gardens are filled with azaleas, camellias, and rhododendrons. In the place we bought we found a garden that was already planted with many of these shrubs.

 

Gardening for four years

The garden block is half and acre. We found much that we could work on already in place. There was a large water tank that collects water from the roofs, and that we use partly for water in the house and to water the garden in summer. The previous owners had many gates and fences to keep their dogs and I’ve removed some, and created lawns and flowerbeds.

I created an herb garden and we also grow vegetables here though less Mediterranean vegetables as there are not enough hours of sunshine in this garden. However we can grow berries and various kinds of greens for salad and horta.

Emerald - no frosts but very changeable weather patterns.

While I have found some plants I’ve moved to the garden from the roadsides, I’ve mainly filled this garden with plants I brought with me from other gardens, from the garden in Melbourne and from our previous holiday home.

 

Here are some of the plants that were

There

Camellias, azaleas, rhododendrons, a tulip tree, agapanthus, bougainvillea, cistus, erigeron, honeysuckle, plumbago, tree ferns

Found and given

Acanthus, crocosmia, flax, nasturtium, salvias, sedum, glory vine,

Brought with me

Chrysanthemums, pelargonium, geranium, rosemary, roses, lavender, liriope, box, wisteria,

Bought

Citrus, daffodil, narcissus, bay, basil, oregano, parsley, thyme, iris, jasmine, flowering cherries, flowering pears, apple trees,

 

Difficulties

The ground is very fertile and not only do plants grow well so do the weeds. I have to be careful that things I plant do not take over.

Stonework is very expensive so I’ve had to find other materials to make paths and edge flowerbeds.

And, as above, not being here full time means limiting some plantings that I cannot oversee in the early days.