Mediterranean garden

Whether you define "Mediterranean garden" as the relaxed home gardens of the Mediterranean region, or the showy, intricate Italian Renaissance garden, the grace and style of this design can compliment any home.

Traditional Mediterranean style

Traditional Mediterranean gardens are formal and well-manicured and the care taken in their design is highlighted. These gardens are often set on hillsides and include stone stairways, winding paths, statuary, and patterned flowerbeds.

The Mediterranean garden is typically landscaped into seperate "rooms," each room with its own focal point. The borders of the garden's rooms are marked with plants and the entryways may be framed with palms or statues. Almost any low-growing, non-spreading plant can be trained as a border plant, from casually growing rosemary to neatly trimmed mock orange (pittosporum tobira) hedges. Architectural plants such as stately butia and phoenix canariensis palms, sword-leafed New Zealand flax (phormium tenax) or desert agave or century plant(Agave deserti) can be used to flank the entrance of the garden or of rooms within it.

Spiky plants such as yuccas, cordylines, agaves, aloes and phormiums abound in this garden style—just be careful not to put them too close to paths or entryways. Knot gardens are also popular, but keep in mind these require constant clipping and trimming to keep their shape.

Pots and urns (usually of terra cotta)—either large individual ones or groupings of medium and small ones—decorate patios. Walls, usually of white stucco, reflect the sunlight and become a warm backdrop for climbing vines and flowers like bougainvillea with its brilliant red, pinks, and orange blossoms, the fast-growing trumpet vine (Campsis radicans), or the always-popular and very Mediterranean grapevine.

Choosing your plants

Your climate this will determine exactly what will grow for you. In the five "Mediterranean"-type climates (The Mediterranean Sea area itself, parts of Australia, South Africa, Chile, and California) plant choice is broader, but cooler climates still have a good selection.

The key is choosing plants with bright, vibrant colors. In warm regions, choices include gardenia, oleanders, hibiscus, agapanthus, bougainvillea, cistus (Cistus salvifolia), cabbage trees, Elegia fenestrata, Italian cypress, eucalyptus, and pittosporums Pittosporum tenuifolium orcrassifoliumand olive.

Even if you live outside of one of these areas, but want to re-create the Mediterranean style, choosing hardier versions of Mediterranean plants or looking for plants that have a "Mediterranean look" can still work. In colder regions, however, delicate plants like gardenia and bougainvillea may not bloom. If you live in a cooler climate, go for hardier plants that still offer a Mediterranean look, such as lavender, grapes (a variety that, in your area, will at least produce leaves, if not ripe grapes), lilacs, acacia, star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), and Mexican orange blossom (Choisya ternata).

For architectural plants and trees include Citrus ‘Eureka’, Mangrove, and Hibiscus tiliaceus.

Plants to define borders or create knot gardens are include Cotton lavender (Santolina chamaecyparissus), Syzygium ‘Tiny Trev’, miniature lilly pilly, and ‘Tuscan Blue’, an upright form of rosemary. African Box (Myrsine africana) or Leyland cyprus (Cupressocyparis leylandii ‘Leighton Green’) can be used to frame planting beds in another room of the garden, but will need to be trimmed regularly to keep them in the shape you want them in.

Vines for walls or decorative shade include horseshoe geranium (Pelargonium zonale), cut-leaf plane tree (Platanus orientalis ‘Digitata’), and Star Jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides).

Planting design

Start your landscaping design by defining the garden's "rooms." A smaller garden may be one room itself and will most likely be more comfortable if not divided up. Then determine the main architectural plants you want to include and decide how to border the rooms and frame their entrances. Architectural plants, statues, or columns with plantings all work well as entryway markers. If you're adding or re-doing structures like pathways or walls, colored stones will give these structures a Mediterranean feel.

After the permanent structures, consider the focal point of each room. A large urn, a statue, fountain, or unusual plant can provides a focal point for each room. Planting in a parterre style—"a drawing on the ground" [See: French Garden]—will also compliment this garden style. Planting beds can either be grown as knot gardens or more casually planted for flowing mounds of color.

Container planting in clay or stone pots and hanging baskets is another mark of the Mediterranean-style garden. And, if you have the space, consider building a gravel garden and adding heat-loving plants to the area. Create a gravel garden at the base of a wall where you'd like to grow grapes and you'll help the vine with the good drainage and heat it needs to flourish.

Decor

In terms of decor, there are commonalties between the Renaissance garden and the casual garden. Both user bright, rich colors that stand out even in a flood of sunshine. Colored pots, urns, and hanging baskets are easy ways to fit in more color. Traditional sculpture forms—such as Greek gods and goddesses and lions' heads—and columns, are a perfect match for this style and often do double duty either as entryway markers or as fountains. Colored stones and shells brighten up the garden, as well.

Whether formal or casual, the Mediterranean garden's vibrant colors, dramatic shapes, and elegant statuary make it a favorite in both warm and cooler climates. Even if you're not sure if you want a garden that's completely Mediterranean in style, just adding a flower-filled urn to your patio can help warm up the atmosphere.