I think that I am a battler rather than an acccepter by nature. I do accept that I will never enjoy swimming or do it again, despite making myself learn at the age of 43, but I now know that I actually don’t like it- even though I probably did know that before! In other respects, I am a battler by tendency. So, when in response to my last blog, I got a comment from a reader in Italy, I felt her pain. She was talking about gardening in Italy, and finding the August dead period depressing. This dead period is exactly what happens in the Mediterranean garden, and in any garden, like mine in the last 2-3 years, which are winter-wet and summer-dry.
But I got a smart, and good, smack over the fingers from the website called summer-dry.com, which I stumbled over fortuitously. In clear and crisp tones, Summer-Dry urges us to get wise, be sensible, live in the real world and ‘garden where we are’. So, if where we are is summer-dry, then get with it, and discover a world of plants who thrive in cool/cold wet winters and hot-dry summers. And the object of the site is to switch us onto that. Absolutely gorgeous photographs taken by the Californian photographer, Saxon Holt, pepper the site and there is masses of useful information and many wise words. As part of the summer-dry project, a book has been written entitled ‘Plants and Landscapes for Summer-Dry climates (of the San Francisco Bay region)’ by Nora Harlow and published by EBMUD, East Bay Municipal Utility District. It is really expensive outside of the US, but you never know, I might find it somewhere.
The best part is the idea of changing the aesthetic. So many of us have toiled, or toil, to make gardens that remind us of our prevailing aesthetic of garden beauty. If we can move to an acceptance of change in the aesthetic, we can garden more successfully where we are, reduce our frustration and be kinder to the planet. We can learn to live with the August bald patch, knowing that weeks later, the garden will be refreshed and rejuvenated. Nothing grows when temperatures are more than 30C and nothing grows without moisture. So, summer-dry gardening is impatient with the term ‘drought tolerant’ as being, well, inaccurate. Summer-dry does what it says on the tin, it is dry in the summer and those plants will hang on till the conditions change. So, it is the ability to hang on, rather than be tolerant of drought, that is what we are after.
I like the cut of their gib, as we say. I am following their site and learning from their words- altogether great. If anyone reads this blog who could help me get a copy of the book, I would be ever so grateful, please get in touch.
Meantime, back in Tostat, I am looking out at the area of garden that I planted up last Spring and kept going through the summer with a spot of judicious watering, and I have a feeling of confidence about it. I had chosen the planting carefully for it’s ability to hang on without summer water, and I think next summer, it will be in good shape. New growth has been happening in a serious way for almost all the plants- most of which I had grown from seed, and so I may be on the way with it. Of course, nothing is guaranteed, we could get a killer winter for example, so I have taken cuttings of the Salvias, ‘Phyllis’ Fancy’, ‘Amistad’ and ‘Anthony Parker’. The latter is still flowering and still outside in a pot, though I will bring it into the covered, but open, barn at the end of the week when colder nights are forecast.
I can feel a swing coming on- planting up seed indoors, taking cuttings, tidying up pots, ripping out old friends (plants) who have become too friendly…a swing towards next year, and another set of seasons in the garden. Come on….
jardinecofriendly 