Well hello there, dear gardeners around the world! How thrilled I was to get home from holidays and discover this forum has been set up! Very pleased to make your acquaintance and looking forward to exchanging info and plant enthusiasm with you all.
I have been gardening in southern Portugal for three years now, and it has proven to be one of THE hardest places to get a wide range of plants, especially native species, so I am especially pleased to see there is a lively topic about plant suppliers already in action.
As it says in the signature, I am managing the transition of a "conventional" garden (lawns and thirsty exotics, BLECH!) into communities of native plant species at a touristic resort. The project will reduce water spend, improve biodiversity and bring sustainable land management techniques into play, and to my mind is an entirely sensible approach to gardening on thin, poor soil exposed to coastal winds, fierce sun and other challenging growing conditions. We are experimenting with various back-to-basics planting techniques - small plants to establish from the roots up; creating watering basins around young plants for infrequent but deep watering by hand, with a hose; and lots of mulching.
Some of the garden will remain exotic and, since we are "extensifying" the management in the majority of areas, we can afford to intensify in the purely ornamental zones, allowing for more flamboyant and spectacular species. I am looking forward to more experimentation with the hugely varied range of plants that these climate zones support.
So, thanks for reading and look forward to getting to know you and your gardens better!
