My Mediterranean style garden

How charming! I bet you are still smiling at the compliment too

 

The light was really nice this afternoon so I took some more pictures. Mid June now and the garden has suffered a battering from the rain including some real downpours but the drainage work has paid off and although some plants, particularly the poppies took a beating a few dry days and it's looking good again. Here is a general view.



And here is the planting from the opposite end. The plant on the right is Verbena bonariensis and it will come more into prominence soon.



And here is a close up of the Allium christophii....I know... again..... but they just keep getting better and better! The euphorbia sets the big alliums off nicely and the two together have almost hidden the earlier flowering grape hyacinths and daffodils.

 

And this is a picture of a really special plant, the Cheddar Pink. It is an English native, probably endemic and only grows naturally in the Somerset gorges I think; hence it's name. A gardener friend of mine gave it to me and it really suits these well drained conditions. She can't get it to grow on her clay so grows it in pots. I've got in planted between sandstone blocks but I guess in Somerset it would be on limestone. It seems to have taken off in these conditions.

 

Cheddar Pink......such a modest and pretty little plant Redwing.

 

Number of times I've clambered up the gorge and I've never found it

 

I did a bit of online research for the Cheddar Pink. It is endemic to the Somerset gorges as I thought and is now very rare there as people have been pulling them up and is now only found in inaccessible places and best seen with binoculars! Apparently a couple of generations ago locals would pick the flowers and sell them in poseys to tourists, contributing to their demise.

 

That'll be why then

Fancy a quick bus ride down Cheddar Gorge

Took it with my old camera so there's no sound

Reckon the folk in front are pointing at the last Cheddar Pinks.

 

A new month and some new interest so some pictures from the first few days of July. First one a general view.



A euphorbia with some more alliums still to come.



This is a prostrate Hebe that I don't know the name of.



And finally sea holly which I took last night in subdued light. It softens it. The blue is just beginning to show and will get stronger.

 

Some more pictures taken yesterday. First one is lavender.



The white flowers are a very small myrtle, flowering for the first time. It will get much bigger and eventually come to dominate.

Scabius and allium.


Verbena bonarinensis.

 

And one more picture showing a corner. I acquired an old cattle trough, painted it black and as you can see, pretty much filled it up.

 

A new addition for my Med garden, bought in a sale, only £10. I'm so pleased.

 

What a beauty!! I'm sure it will absolutely thrive in your med garden and feel right at home

 

I don't know about 'absolutely thrive'. I'll do my best. I intend to repot it into a larger clay pot and place it against a SE facing wall for winter protection. I will take frost precautions with bubble wrap as necessary. I'm not really expecting many olives but would like there to be structural interest and hopefully it will add to the Mediterranean feel of the garden. I like the wispiness of this tree.

 

A new month....a new picture and with some evidence of work. It's still looking summery but I have removed one plant that really didn't fit in. It was a cranesbill geranium (in the front just beside the prostrate rosemary), a rather lush one that I thought was too soft looking for these hard conditions and the look I am trying to create. I'll find a place elsewhere in another part of the garden for it. Alliums have finished and I cut them all down (except for the garlic chives on the left); even the christoffii was looking a bit tired. The sedum at the back is looking particularly good now...it really fits in this garden. The corner on the right was looking a little sparse with the poppies finished so I put a few cosmos there. It looks a little better but that corner will be something to think about for late summer next year.

 

I've grown an olive outside in the ground for more than 10yrs, its never looked back and needed some drastic pruning this last spring.
Had one or two cold winters since it was planted.,

It wont stay wispy, if its happy.