Garden Pictures Chat Corner

Recently, I googled my old home, the Vorderpfalz, drought currently. I was shocked when I saw the large red drought area in the region of the upper 25cm or so, where one’s green shoots grow. Vegetable cultivation is also carried out extensively in the region.

Where I live, Perth, there is about 700-750ml of rain per year, mostly between May/June and September/October. Because of our dryness, which apparently is nothing compared to the Vorderpfalz (I looked at our drought maps), we are only allowed to water twice a week for 10 minutes (sprinkler) before 9am or after 6pm, with wells 3 times a week for 10 minutes and from June until the end of August not at all. Watering by hand is allowed.

Fines are imposed, sometimes the dear neighbors help out. The plants get used to the little water, but no one has the ambition to cultivate a golf course lawn. No one has a robotic mower, either you do it yourself or someone comes every two weeks with a commercial lawn mower, then it looks top. We have removed all the grass, either replaced it with plants or artificial turf. As I said, no one here is interested in lawns, pain in the ar... Also, you have to pour tons of stuff on it, we practically live on a sand dune without anything valuable in it.

Except for the native plants, everything that blooms and thrives around the Mediterranean grows very well here. I am an amateur gardener and my soil is not sand.

- Rowan (looks great and is edible!)

Wow, I would never have thought that. Until now, I was firmly convinced that it was poisonous. Thanks for this input!

Where I live, Perth, there is about 700-750ml of rain per year, mostly between May/June and September/October. Due to our dryness, which apparently is nothing compared to the Vorderpfalz (I looked at our drought maps), we are only allowed to water with sprinklers 2 times a week for 10 minutes before 9am or after 6pm, with wells 3 times a week for 10 minutes, and from June until the end of August not at all. Watering by hand is allowed.

I hope it’s mm and not ml. Otherwise, that would really only be a drop in the bucket. ;)

if it is mm it is a bit less than with us. We usually have about 1000 mm. The small town I mentioned this morning has just under 500 mm. For ml where does the water come from? I think there will still be changes in the gardens with us. Plants, technology, requirements, etc. Urban development will also change quite a bit. I’ll throw vertical greening into the room.

can you show us some pictures of your garden

Wow, I never would have thought that. Until now, I was firmly convinced that it is poisonous. Thanks for this input!

That is generally also misleading. Most berries contain a lot of bitter substances, a few varieties are suitable for consumption, but not all.

Next year. For this year it's probably too late. We have a huge slope to green, and I want to have many fruit bushes on it. We originally wanted to leave it as it is, but when we tried to tame the greenery, we did what all the neighbors did: put black foil over it. Thistles grew there, as thick as trees.

In our embankment, we have planted a lot of edible things:
- Zipperle (wild plum) - makes wonderful jam and sweet puree (also without added sugar); also great for snacking
- Serviceberry
- Sea buckthorn (extremely thorny...)
- Aronia
- Raspberries
- Rowanberry (looks great and is edible!)
- Barberry
- Hazel
- Blackthorn (grow like crazy, with thorns - and the fruits are great for processing)
- Elderberry
- Medlar

All these things can be eaten or processed immediately if you like – and the birds as well as other little creatures are happy about the great buffet. I can highly recommend the Zipperle – it comes in yellow and red. They bloom early in the year (a beautiful white sea of blossoms) and are then immediately swarmed by the first bees.

Thank you for the wonderful list! I will definitely take some of these! My grandma always liked to drink blackthorn as liqueur. Rowanberry is really beautiful. I would be a bit worried about the birds. I remember from my parents’ house that many birds come to get them – and we have two cats. ;) I had never heard of Zipperle before, but it sounds exactly like what we're looking for!

In general, I’m looking for plants for the slope that grow quickly, because we want to see as little of the black foil as possible in the long run. I was thinking of Euonymus, which comes with two-colored leaves. Does it grow wide quickly? And are there any ground covers that become dense faster?