Meditteranean Garden

what is THE Mediterranean GARDEN?

The Mediterranean Garden is a garden created taking inspiration from the environment of the Mediterranean coasts, mainly the French, Spanish and Italian coastal areas.

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Mediterranean Garden - Gardens, types and styles

The Mediterranean garden is the home of colors and scents. The wise use of flowers and aromatic plants makes the Mediterranean garden unique and exclusive. The plant species inserted must meet specific robustness, low water, and maintenance requirements. These gardens’ positive impact on the economic balance and management costs becomes an added value, especially for medium to large green areas. The Mediterranean garden can also be coastal and deal with the typical problems of seafront gardens daily.

The sea wind, the saltiness, and the accumulation of salts in the ground require careful and selective vegetable choices regarding resistance and survival in these environments. The coast is a frontier where the marine and terrestrial worlds collide. The plants in these places are adapted to this situation and give life to the Mediterranean scrub with their shapes and colors. Mediterranean gardens are complete in the coastal areas of southern Italy and the islands, significantly increasing these areas’ landscape and environmental value.

Best Landscape Design specializes in designing and constructing gardens and coastal gardens. It gives a unique flavor that fully represents the landscape value of the places without forgetting the tastes and aspirations of the customer. Mediterranean gardens surround us; it is our birthplace and our home. We grew up immersed in their colors, so designing and building them takes us back to the cultural roots of our island. Rely on Best LandscapeDesign to rebuild this world around you. You can contact us directly and request the technical and illustrative material necessary to appreciate Mediterranean gardens’ naturalness fully.

Different types of people live in the world. Some want to live in an urban environment, surrounded by streets, cars, and buildings, and there are those who, on the other hand, love life in contact with nature and dream of being able to live in a quiet house surrounded by a beautiful and flourishing garden. The latter can be made in different styles. Among the many, we consider the Mediterranean garden in this context. But what exactly is meant by “Mediterranean Garden”?

The answer is straightforward: it is a garden created taking inspiration from the environment of the Mediterranean coasts, mainly the French, Spanish and Italian coastal areas. It presents its characteristic elements, essential for a garden defined as the Mediterranean. However, it must be borne in mind that this is not a familiar environment because, in reality, each of the coastal areas mentioned has its peculiar characteristics. This occurs thanks to the vastness of the Mediterranean basin and the consequent variation in the climate, from more to less rainy, depending on the area. It determines the presence of numerous different microclimates that make the landscapes unique.

Characteristics of Mediterranean Garden

Despite the variability of the details, a self-respecting Mediterranean garden must have essential characteristic elements to define it as such. First, there must be a specific relationship between lights and shadows. The shade, in particular, must occupy large spaces; the first quality that a garden must possess is having a welcoming aspect of hosting large tables for outdoor dining or offering areas where you can spend pleasant afternoons (especially in the summer). Such spaces can be created by planting trees with thick and lush foliage. A vital role is played by colors, which must be particularly vivid.

The garden must contain a large green lawn with a uniform and well-kept appearance, adorned by the presence of bushes, shrubs, and rustic plants. It is preferable not to mix too many colors but to create a harmonious and well-structured chromatic effect by choosing a few different species of flowers distributed in large expanses by color. The Mediterranean garden must also welcome visitors through pleasant scents, which will be guaranteed by the presence of aromatic herbs and citrus plants. Primarily the latter will provide the entire environment with intoxicating fragrances that will occupy every area.

Another essential element is the presence, in the meanders of the garden, of a vegetable garden where you can sow crops: it is an authentic tradition of the Mediterranean regions, which finds its origins in the medieval period when plants were grown for culinary and curative. Finally, water is perhaps the fundamental component for an environment of this type. It can be provided by placing one or more fountains in the central area of ​​the garden, from which small streams are lined with ornaments of various kinds, such as terracotta pots, roses, and other flowers typical of the Mediterranean region, can start. A structure of this type helps to make the park look elegant.

Starting from the aforementioned essential elements, everyone can create a unique Mediterranean garden, specializing in the specific details of a particular area and giving space to their creativity.

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How to decorate the garden in a Mediterranean style

How to design a DIY Mediterranean garden

For the design of a Mediterranean-style garden, it is first of all necessary to know that the plants, in this type of landscape, must grow naturally: it is essential that they develop freely in the area they occupy, without running into obstacles or hindrances, to provide the environment with a fluid and harmonious appearance. You must therefore be very careful to place them in such a way as not to hinder the daily activities at your home. Another fundamental choice is the type of soil.

There are also gardens equipped with artificial flooring, but the lawn of vivid green color is always preferable in the Mediterranean style. In most cases, the types of property with which satisfactory results are obtained are essentially two:

Cynodon dactylon;
Stenotaphrum secundatum.
These two kinds of turf are preferred because maintenance is straightforward since they require little water and are resistant to damp conditions. As for the creation of shady areas, it is always preferable to structure a natural cover, using (as mentioned above) one or more trees with large foliage, such as palms, lime trees, figs, or citrus trees, all surrounded by succulents or hedges, thus creating even small, more hidden areas.

The fountain to be positioned in the center of the garden must be characterized by water features, the roar of which must reproduce a sweet and harmonious sound. The structure must allow irrigation of the area through the streams. The choice of ornaments used to surround the waterways ranges over numerous kinds of plants: in addition to roses, begonias, geraniums and, by placing walls along the borders, flourishing creepers can be used.

 

Plants that cannot be missing in a Mediterranean garden

To maintain the characteristic of being “natural,” plants present in a Mediterranean garden must grow almost entirely independently; therefore, the top quality they must possess is that of being very resistant, without requiring special maintenance. Generally, plants with small, evergreen leaves and bushy structures meet this type of request.

Among those practically essential for a guard of this style, there is undoubtedly the lavender, which reaches heights up to 1 meter. It has all the characteristics above and has an intense aroma, and is made up of thick tufts characterized by speedy growth. It features violet-colored flowers and makes a significant contribution to the overall luster of the garden with its silvery green-colored leaves.

More impressive than the previous one, reaching about 5 meters in height and with a bushy structure, is the juniper, which is also evergreen with the characteristic needle-like leaves. In addition to its ornamental function, the plant produces particular types of berries that are edible for humans.

Another characteristic plant of the Mediterranean scrub is the myrtle, which reaches up to 2 meters in height. It is also evergreen and bushy; it is a shrub with a semi-woody stem, with oval and shiny leaves and flowers whose colors vary from pink to white. Even myrtle, like juniper, produces edible berries, and like lavender, it is characterized by a particularly intense scent.

Up to 3 meters high, Rosemary is made up of peculiar glands called oleiferae, which produce a very intense aroma. It is a plant suitable for the Mediterranean garden, both for this quality and its structure that satisfies all the necessary characteristics.

Finally, to create spots of color in the landscape, a particularly suitable shrub plant is heather, whose leaves have a variable color between green and rusty yellow. With the peculiar spike shape, the flowers are endowed with a bright color white or red—some tips for large outdoor plants to use for your garden.

 

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How to decorate the garden in a Mediterranean style | Mediterranean garden ideas, Mediterranean garden, Garden
Il tipico giardino mediterraneo

Environment and necessary components

Before creating a Mediterranean garden, it is essential to carry out some fundamental assessments. First of all, you need to worry about how much space you have to set up a well-curated project. It is then necessary to evaluate the potential of the soil and establish whether it is suitable for the growth of certain plants, not so many shrubs, which have no particular needs and can grow in any soil, but of other types of plants, such as citrus fruits.

It is also helpful to observe sun exposure and climatic conditions. Regarding the latter in particular, the most suitable areas for a Mediterranean garden are those characterized by a hot and arid climate, which practically constitutes the typical climate of the Mediterranean coasts. The plants that grow in these areas (which are the same type as those placed in our garden) are very resistant to such conditions and require an almost low water intake. This consideration shows how a Mediterranean garden can be cost-effective when water costs. In any case, again, thanks to the gift of not being delicate, typical plants can adapt to living even in environments with different climates.

    Simple ideas for your Mediterranean garden

    Once the foundations of the Mediterranean garden have been built, all that remains is to give vent to one’s imagination to create a particular and unique project. All you need is a pinch of creativity and ingenuity to design environments in line with your personality that, at the same time, coexist in perfect harmony with the rest of the park without creating excessive contrast. Here are some excellent ideas to enrich your garden.

    Very simple to make and famous for being suitable for decorating any lawn is the flowerbed. It is advisable to reproduce it proportional to the surrounding environment and provide it with a well-defined shape. The contours can be made with stones close together, and inside it place flowers and plants of your choice, inspired by a particular theme: for example, the choice could fall on small cacti, reproducing the steppe environments.

    Another easy idea can be creating an environment with a classic touch in some corners of the park, introducing themed ceramic decorations, such as statues and small ornaments with an artistic flavor in Greek or Latin style. A garden is a place where it is pleasant to stay at any time of the day and often even during the colder seasons, so you could think of adding a small outdoor fireplace next to which you can spend the most peaceful evenings to enjoy the starry sky and the noises of the nature.

    These proposals are just some of the possible additions to the Mediterranean garden. Still, the choice essentially depends on the person who will have to live there, so let your imagination run wild!

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