Create a Mediterranean Garden [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Pattie Barron (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1999

Create a Mediterranean Garden full of glorious color and scent, with vivid flowers and foliage, and aromatic herbs - the perfect outdoor living room.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Anness (April 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1859678912
• ISBN-13: 978-1859678916
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 9.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #330,606 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mediterranean vacation in your backyard, February 24, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Create a Mediterranean Garden (Hardcover)

If your idea of gardening is low-maintenance, informal and full of creativity, this is the book for you. I own many gardening books but must say that this is one that has given me lots of great and useful ideas to try out. Last year we adapted a suggestion from the book and painted pieces of broken terracotta pots in vivid colors and patterns. We then used those pieces in our gravel path, mixed with colored glass marbles and beach glass. It looked great - almost better than the original! There are also lots of useful practical tips on planting, propagating and over-wintering, as well as pictures of how a flower bed develops over the course of a season - very hands-on, ideal especially for someone who doesn't feel overly confident with gardening... Very good buy!

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars How to plant a naturalistic mediterranean hillside garden, April 17, 2002

By 

Ann Comoglio "acomoglio" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Create a Mediterranean Garden (Hardcover)

This book is written by Brits, so the perspective is a "how to" from a relatively cold climate, and the advice is a bit skewed. If you live in a mediterranean climate and are new to gardening, I don't think this would be the best advice book (check a regional book). The mediterranean gardens used for inspiration are the wild, hilly areas of France, Spain and Italy--not the quaint domesticated gardens in homes and villas along the sea. On the plus side, there is good information on how to prepare the soil for planting a mediterranean garden, which plants will likely succeed, and how to get the look they've described. I enjoyed the details about how specific plants survive in a drought-tolerant climate. There are "weekend project" ideas (i.e., creating mosaic pots and tables) that may or may not appeal to the reader. This is the kind of book I'd rather get from the library, than purchase, as the information I found helpful was minimal.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Let this book inspire your garden., October 20, 2002

By 

Sharon Wylie (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Create a Mediterranean Garden (Hardcover)

As a beginning gardener with a large garden to plan, I've found this book to be a wonderful inspiration and a good gardening resource. My idea of low-maintenance is NO maintenance, and that's pretty much the idea behind this book (although the soil preparation required can be quite extensive). I return to this book whenever I need to be reminded that a garden can be beautiful without being rigidly planned.

The only weakness is that the plant lists include only true Mediterranean plants, rather than including other plants (for example, plants native to Southern California) that meet the criteria for drought-resistance and low-maintenance.