Mediterranean backyard concepts: 12 design and planting suggestions
With laid-back, alfresco dwelling at their coronary heart, Mediterranean backyard concepts are all about spending time exterior with family and friends, absorbing the gorgeous environment, and recreating the texture of sunnier climes.
From the glossy and trendy gardens of Italy’s Amalfi coast, to the pure, rustic enchantment of French farmhouse plots, Mediterranean gardens are brimming with backyard concepts to borrow and recreate in your individual residence backyard.
Mediterranean backyard concepts – the place to start out
Evoking the texture of Mediterranean backyard concepts has quite a bit to do with the selection of planting, however the supplies used for landscaping are additionally essential when enthusiastic about the right way to create a Mediterranean backyard, as is creating alfresco sitting and eating areas.
Many mediterranean gardens incorporate gravel backyard paths and heat toned paving linking terraces and relaxed eating areas shaded by pergola concepts smothered in flowering climbers. Suppose pots crammed with vibrant flowers, brightly coloured mosaics, aromatic, silver leafed vegetation lining pathways, and dappled shade from architectural tropical backyard palms, yuccas, and citrus fruit bushes.
Yow will discover extra inspiration from these Mediterranean backyard concepts.
1. Select low upkeep Mediterranean vegetation
(Picture credit score: Leigh Clapp)
Vegetation for Mediterranean backyard concepts are chosen for ease of care, in addition to for his or her year-long curiosity and drought tolerance, and repeat plantings that create an affect are typical of this fashion.
Evoking the texture of the mediterranean presents the chance to experiment with an array of various vegetation, having fun with their colours and smells.
Enhance a south-facing terrace with fairly flowering vegetation that can bask fortunately within the warmth with out the necessity for fixed watering, leaving you free to sit down again and loosen up – good in case you are questioning the right way to plan a dry backyard.
Gray-green and silver leafed vegetation, corresponding to santolina with its silver, fragrant leaves, mirror the solar’s rays, conserving the plant’s moisture and plenty of drought-tolerant selections kind communities of vegetation.
Good selections for a border embody echinops (globe thistle), salvias – that are splendidly diverse, dianthus (scented pinks), ceanothus, Centranthus ruber (valerian), Cistus x cyprius (gum cistus), island beds of tall, drought-tolerant Euphorbia characias (Mediterranean spurge) with foliage in tones from acid yellow to lime inexperienced, decorative grasses, and the woody-stemmed perennial artemisia. A sprinkling of Erigeron karinskianus (Mexican daises) across the fringe of the terrace will quickly self-seed into the paving cracks, making a sea of dainty blooms that won’t baulk when you step on them.
2. Plan an outside eating and seating space
(Picture credit score: Little Greene)
Al fresco eating is on the core of Mediterranean backyard concepts.
Rustic, picket outside furnishings, or wrought iron backyard eating units are among the many outside eating concepts that will completely set the tone for relaxed gatherings below the shade of a tree or lined terrace space.
Alternatively, versatile seating choices will let you transfer to the best a part of the backyard because the solar tracks alongside the sky.
Encompass the eating space with colourful, aromatic planting to enchantment to the entire senses and create a sensory backyard house.
3. Design a gravel backyard
(Picture credit score: Christopher Lee)
A gravel backyard is a sensible and low upkeep choice to incorporate in a sunny, weed free and well-drained place.
Gravel is on the market in a variety of colours and kinds, that may completely set off the Mediterranean planting, and might be chosen to enrich different onerous surfaces or supplies of the home.
Enable some vegetation to self-seed among the many gravel for a extra pure look. Good plant selections to incorporate in a gravel backyard are herbs, corresponding to ribbons of lavender and thyme, erigeron, stipa, euphorbia and nepeta.
4. Embrace a pergola for peak and shade
(Picture credit score: Leigh Clapp)
Present dappled shade in a sunny backyard or courtyard with lovely pergola concepts.
‘When you have the house, a pergola draped in colourful climbing vegetation, corresponding to jasmine or Ipomoea, is a should,’ advises celeb gardener David Domoney.
Vertical curiosity is essential as a part of the planning for Mediterranean backyard concepts, and pergolas are perfect for including scented climbers and creeping vines below which you’ll place your al fresco eating spot.
Whereas a country, picket pergola is extra harking back to a provincial, French farmhouse look, up to date designs can complement a pared again and minimalist coastal backyard fashion.
5. Create a Mediterranean backyard on a slope
(Picture credit score: Future / Annaick Guitteny)
A sunny sloping backyard is good for Mediterranean vegetation as rain naturally travels down a gradient and the vegetation can cope effectively with water run-off and dry soil situations.
Drought tolerant vegetation which might be effectively suited to gravel gardens can thrive on a sloping website. Verbena, gaura, euphorbia, achillea, artemisia, nepeta and erysimum are among the many many selections. Search for vegetation with small, slim leaves, or a reflective, glaucous waxy coating as these are indicators of a plant’s drought tolerance and skill to outlive in scorching, dry situations.
6. Enhance with potted plant shows
(Picture credit score: Little Greene)
Container gardening concepts present a straightforward answer to rising vegetation that like drier environments, as you possibly can management the soil situations and drainage.
Colourful flowers, corresponding to a mass of shiny geraniums, osteospermums or agapanthus, or spiky architectural vegetation in terracotta pots working up a flight of steps or lining a terrace wall, are a mainstay of Mediterranean backyard concepts. For optimum affect, embody solely a few bloom colours, as repetition relatively than selection is essential to this fashion.
You may also create a powerful focus with outsized pots crammed with vibrant blooms or citrus bushes.
‘A Mediterranean backyard is all the time crammed stuffed with pots. Plug any gaps in your patio areas with an assortment of colourful containers and enormous pots, too,’ advises David Domoney.
7. Plant flowering climbers
(Picture credit score: Alamy)
The sight of the gorgeous, shiny blooms of bougainvillea scrambling up a wall or trellis concept immediately transport you to the French Riviera or Greek villages, whereas a grape vine winding its approach round a pergola is harking back to so many areas of the Mediterranean.
Use any vertical floor to your benefit when planting among the finest flowering climbers, and these can soften the look of a sunny courtyard space or south dealing with wall by clothes it in greenery and blooms.
Plant extra tender specimens in containers, to be introduced indoors or below glass in winter to guard them from the weather.
8. Construct a dry stone terrace
(Picture credit score: Future / David Cleveland)
Exhausting landscaping is an integral a part of the Mediterranean backyard concepts, damaged up by splashes of vibrant shade.
Ultimate for smaller areas, a pure stone terrace, comprised of regionally sourced stone, is an eco-friendly different to brick and can final a lifetime. Stone partitions may also present essential houses for wildlife, together with useful bugs.
Terraces are additionally ideally suited for sun-loving vegetation that thrive in free-draining soils, corresponding to alliums, Eryngium bourgatii (sea holly) and perovskia (Russian sage), in addition to an entire host of patio planting concepts.
‘Soften the sides of any paved terrace areas by planting floor cowl vegetation across the edges and permit them to spill over barely onto the stones,’ advises David Domoney.
9. Select scented vegetation and herbs
(Picture credit score: Future / Polly Eltes)
Mediterranean backyard concepts embody enlivening the senses with intoxicating scents to get pleasure from on lazy, hazy summer time days.
Immerse your self within the candy perfume of scented fragrant herbs, corresponding to lavender, rosemary and thyme in a French-themed backyard, or different aromatic flowers. Plant lavender in full solar and free-draining soil, even perhaps utilizing raised backyard mattress concepts for simple watering, interspersed with mild, feathery grasses, corresponding to Stipa tenuissima, for an attractive, textural distinction.
Place the aromatic selections near a seating space the place it is possible for you to to benefit from the scents, and use potted herbs to embellish outside eating tables, ‘or plant herbs rampantly alongside a path for a aromatic and alluring walkway,’ suggests David Domoney.
‘Do not be afraid to prune lavender and rosemary after flowering as they’ll grow to be woody and leggy in a short time,’ advises Peter Jones, backyard supervisor at RHS Wisley.
10. Develop citrus fruit bushes
(Picture credit score: Future/Brent Darby)
With their scrumptious scent, fairly blossom and sunshine fruits, citrus bushes would immediately improve the Mediterranean really feel of your backyard.
Whether or not you have mastered the right way to develop lemon from seed, or choose to purchase a small lemon tree from a nursery or backyard heart, these might be grown exterior in the course of the summer time. Plant them in giant terracotta pots and transfer them indoors right into a cool greenhouse or conservatory from October to April to guard them from winter climate.
They’re hungry vegetation, so pot them up with specialist citrus compost and feed with a excessive nitrogen feed in the course of the summer time months.
11. Set up a water function
(Picture credit score: Little Greene)
Formal Italianate gardens typically embody fountains, and whereas not important to Mediterranean gardens, water function concepts are a beautiful approach so as to add sound, shimmering mild and motion.
You might go for a freestanding fountain as a central focus, or a wall fountain for a extra delicate watery presence. Added to which, a water function will likely be liked by birds and bugs alike, who will flutter to its cooling and thirst-quenching waters.
And, in fact, whilst you’re putting in a water function, why not discover house for an outside bathe? It is the right cooling off spot when the climate hits Mediterranean temperatures.
12. Enhance with sample
(Picture credit score: Little Greene)
Mosaics might be integrated amongst paving, vertically on steps or partitions, or add shade and sample to ornamental chook baths, fountains or containers.
‘These will make beautiful centerpieces to your Mediterranean backyard concepts,’ says David.
Mosaics that mirror the brilliant colours of the Mediterranean, corresponding to deep cobalt blues, wealthy terracotta tones, and vibrant yellows will enliven any outside house.
How can I make my backyard look Mediterranean?
You can also make you backyard look Mediterranean by embracing among the concepts above. You might both rework a small space of your backyard right into a Mediterranean sun-kissed retreat, corresponding to a patio, swimming pool, or courtyard space, or rework your entire backyard.
Begin with drought tolerant planting selections. A straightforward approach so as to add prompt affect and shade is with terracotta pots crammed with colourful and vibrant blooms, orange and lemon bushes, or architectural palms.
Altering onerous landscaping will take extra planning and time, however you possibly can step by step add components in phases till you obtain the specified end result.
What vegetation are within the Mediterranean backyard?
There are a big number of vegetation one can find in a Mediterranean backyard. Many of those are drought tolerant, hardy choices that get pleasure from a sunny spot, together with artemisia, agapanthus, salvias, ceonothus, euphorbia and plenty of extra.
Hardy palms and yuccas additionally lend an prompt Mediterranean really feel to a backyard, as do decorative grasses and citrus and olive bushes.
Aromatic herbs are a mainstay of this fashion of backyard, including shade, scent and exquisite scents to the stress-free and alluring scene.
Use a restricted planting palette with repeated plantings of the identical selections for an genuine really feel.
