Special Publications: June 30, 2022

home & leisure | ?? home & leisure | 41
Romantic but functional
A Mediterranean garden is a romantic garden, yet it is
also a functional, social space. Within it, shady courtyards
provide relief from the heat, and a place where families
and friends can gather formally to dine, or informally to
gossip or sip a coffee.
Although the Mediterranean garden is synonymous
with Spain, Italy, southern France and Greece, it always
presents as having developed organically from the land
immediately around it: dry hills with rocky outcrops,
aromatic herb fields, wild alliums and almonds, and
gnarled olives. In autumn and winter, native cyclamen
grows from between cracks, and in spring the land bursts
into life with flowering bulbs – tulips, muscari and
anemone. Lavender bushes provide heady perfume but are
also used in soap and to provide medicinal oil.
A single potted
citrus spells
Mediterranean heat.
Organic
Although the Mediterranean garden has evolved
from its own wild spaces, it is also carefully tended.
Functional, food-bearing plants such as bay, citrus, quince,
pomegranate, loquat and Medlar occupy nooks or pots,
and are watered deeply over summer. Clipped hedges
provide shelter from hot winds, and shade is provided by
crumbling walls refreshed with a lick of white-wash, or
rustic arbours threaded through with colourful climbing
plants such as Bougainvillea and grape.
Infrastructure
Heat creates a need for water – delivered naturally in the
form of lapping azure-blue ocean, or created with a small,
cool pond, or a central well decked out with a battered
pail. Discarded vessels from an earlier age, such as retired
terracotta oil pots, wine barrels, an outdoor stone oven,
or a wooden animal trough, are commonly found in a
Mediterranean garden, as well as generations of worn
furniture, encrusted with layers of thick oil paint.
Vintage oil jars and a colourful, shady pergola are hallmarks of the Mediterranean garden.
Paths
A Mediterranean garden has its origins in a simple peasant
economy, which is why recycled and natural materials form
the basis of its paths. Crazy paving is made from broken
brick, pieces of concrete, or flat rocks, randomly laid, with
the cracks between filled with aromatic herbs such as
thyme, oregano and chamomile. Broken seashells or gravel
chip will also suffice, and where cost is not an issue, and
more formality is desired, pea gravel can be substituted.
Formal edging is not required, as low-growing plants will
soften the look. Plants which are ideal for this purpose
include prostrate rockrose (Cistus salviifolius ‘Prostratus’),
low-growing catmint (Nepeta remosa ‘Walkers Low’), and
Prostrate sage (Salvia officinalis).
Socialising
It’s simply not a Mediterranean garden without a place
to socialise. Incorporate your deck into your garden
by planting around it, or create a level, hard surface
from pebbles, grit or crazy paving. Go Greek by giving
vintage wooden chairs a lick of colourful oil-based paint
(the less perfect the job, the better), and provide a small
wooden table that has been given the same treatment.
Bright, and mismatched colours are perfect for painting
furniture, so don’t be afraid to head straight to your
recycling centre for tins of leftover paint. To get the
French Mediterranean look, choose wrought iron chairs
and table (or a small, glass-surfaced table will do the
trick). Position your furniture under a shady tree.
Maximise your outdoor living
As outdoor living specialists, Zones aim to enhance the things you love to do outside. Whether it’s
cooking or dining outside with friends and family, playing backyard cricket with the kids, reading a
book in the sun, or pottering around the garden, we can design and build a landscape to suit.
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