A few years ago, I was spending some days in the Peloponnese, and found a very exciting book named : "Making a garden on a Greek hillside". One of the reasons I kept on reading Mrs Tyrwhitt's book again and again (and happily acquired it through her current publisher) is that our garden in the Peloponnese has many similarities with the one described in detail by Mrs Tyrwhitt. They both face a 6-month drought during summer, a hillside facing south, a thin topsoil with rocky sub-soil underneath.
The next step was planning a visit to this little Heaven. The occasion came during my last stay in Athens, last May 2012. After a few phone calls, I spent the whole morning with Mrs Sally Razelou, the founding member and first MGS* President, who now is the custodian of the garden and who has tremendously improved and extended it since she came to live in this estate in 1992. A very very nice moment, spent sharing her experiment and her constant advice about setting up a garden scheme and gardening with lack of water.
I wish I had such gardening lessons when I was studying in Versailles !
I would like to express my gratitude to Mrs Razelou for this visit. Not only because drought-tolerant plants are gorgeous, but also, even in Paris or London, because we now have to employ waterwise methods to help gardens thrive all-year-long, in a long-term approach of sustainable gardening.
More to read : see my botanical blog
http://jardinscosmopolites.blogspot.fr/2012/06/mediterranean-oasis-close-to-athens.htmlHave a great evening
Gabriel, a landscape designer passionate about sustainable gardening