Gardening in Malta’s heat, drought & dust

With summer heat rapidly approaching, it’s time to start thinking about what we can do to help our plants through the warmest and driest months. As spring’s profusion of blooms starts to fade, many plants will go dormant to survive the drought-stress. Keeping them neatly clipped will ensure they still look good among their greener neighbours. Here are a few easy tips which can facilitate summer gardening tasks.

Plan ahead – choose hardy Mediterranean plants which, once established, are drought-tolerant and very low maintenance. Favour perennials over annuals as their deeper root systems allow for less frequent watering.

Increase the intervals between watering by using large pots and planters as the soil will dry very quickly in small ones.

Improve the soil by adding peat and compost. A high organic content means better water retention.

Mulch! A layer of bark mulch or pebbles decreases evaporation, traps moisture in the soil and keeps the roots cool. Mulch will also greatly reduce the amount of weeds which, apart from being an unsightly nuisance, also compete with plants for water and soil nutrients.

Deep and less frequent watering is preferable to frequent shallow watering as this will encourage roots to grow deeper where they are less likely to dry out.

Group plants according to their water needs – concentrate on the thirstier ones without wasting precious water on those that don’t need it. The more delicate ones in pots can also be temporarily relocated away from the sun’s harsh glare, for example in the dappled shade of a tree.

Consider a drip irrigation system even in the smallest of gardens and patios. A drip system will lessen water consumption considerably by applying water only where it is needed and slowly soaking the soil thereby reducing evaporation. It will also put your mind at rest when you are away on holiday.

Melina Scodanibbio, Garden Designer
Contact Melina on +356 79734379 and see her website.

Photo: Sea daffodil by Leslie Vella.

Al Fresco Spaces made into Green Living Spaces
With Malta’s amazing spring in full swing and summer fast approaching, any excuse will do to be outdoors. This, in fact, I am writing on the beach, soaking up the warm sun and looking up a little too often to admire the gorgeous, velvety sea. Not bad for early April!

It makes sense then to prolong our time al fresco as much as possible, and having a pleasant and welcoming outdoor space is definitely worth some thought and a bit of effort. The good news is a large garden is not necessary; the even better news is that not even soil is! With terraces, patios and balconies sometimes being the sole space available in many of our homes, container gardening is often the only option. The microclimate of the area must of course be taken into careful consideration: terraces are usually exposed to wind and sun, while patios may be sheltered and shady.

Keep it simple
Where space is limited the trick is to stick to one central idea, style, theme or colour scheme, and to carry it through to the details. It is always better to go for large planters in the same style and material rather than a mishmash of different small ones, which also dry up very quickly in the summer heat. With larger planters it is much easier to achieve a garden effect, with a few feature plants to provide the structure and smaller shrubs and fillers to soften the edges.

What to Pot?
A surprisingly large number of plants thrive in pots and containers, from small trees and large evergreen shrubs, to perennials, annuals, herbs and vegetables. Olive, Citrus and oleander trees can provide the vertical element in a planting composition, as well as fruit and endless summer colour in the case of the oleander. The linear leaves of Yucca, Agave, Dracaena, or Strelitzia create an accent and contrasting texture to finer-leaved shrubs, which in turn will add foliage and flower colour. For a striking night-time effect use white or pale blooms and silvery leaves; bold colours on the other hand will stand out much more in the harsh daytime glare.

Fragrant plants and climbers add a further dimension to the design, with their heady scents perfuming the warm summer air. Plants such as jasmine, Stephanotis, Cestrum, laurel, honeysuckle and Ipomoea alba, a variety of annuals as well as of course herbs, are all good options. Herbs and vegetables can be planted on their own but also look great intermingled with the ornamentals. Basil and petunia, peppers and lantana, chamomile and laurel, tomatoes and marigolds, fountain grass and creeping rosemary, your imagination is the limit for a visually gorgeous, scented and tasty terrace!

Melina Scodanibbio, Garden Designer
Contact Melina on +356 79734379 and see her website.

Photo: Gege Gatt

Shop-bought marmalade jars reused for the real thing, Malta style

‘We don’t have much call for them,’ says the kiosk man selling oranges at the Wied Incita nursery in Attard. ‘Nice to know someone’s using them. Everyone likes things easy and ready-made these days. Here, have them for free.’

Another gem of daily life in Malta: generosity coupled with five kilos of Malta’s produce at its best; humble bitter oranges, and all for free. The annual ritual at the kiosk is for me part of the sweeter side of living here.

Two nights later and I’ve the 2011 batch of marmalade made for the price of the sugar and some gas. Whatever the cost per kilo of my jam, it’s worth it. Once you’ve tasted marmalade that’s made with fruit from tree to pot in hours, you’ll never buy factory made again. I love the ritual making it. The house is cold and damp right now, but smells of heavenly citrus. Warming and uplifting. When sun is in shorter supply, even in Malta, these oranges are my fix.

Malta’s citrus fruit comes into season now, January, just when we need it most to help boost our vitamin levels and keep viruses in check. It’s bountiful, cheap, and far better than any imports. The kiosk man will only be there for a few more weeks until the government nursery guys have picked all the fruit in Buskett and San Anton Gardens. You’ll need to ask for the bitter ones, but the sweeter ones are on sale daily. Wied Incita is on the fringes of Attard as you head up to Mdina on the main road. Logs for sale there too sometimes.

Photo: Liz Ayling

Perfect in its messiness: our choice flower for June, Plumbago

I love plumbago. It’s messy, it’s sticky, it sprawls in an ungainly fashion, and it’s now used in almost every roadside verge as ground cover to hide dusty soil. But enough of its ‘faults’.

What really draws me to Plumbago is its luminous blue; the flowers are impressive in full sun, which it thrives on, but even more beautiful at dusk when it seems to shine out of the shadows. In fact, Plumbago is an altogether very useful shrub/climber to hide and improve those awkward corners of gardens (or public highway verges), unsightly walls or barren earth.

Now to some brief Plumbago facts, without getting too academic…

What’s in its name?
Apparently, the name has something to do with lead – the Latin word for lead being Plumbum. It may have been its lead-blue flowers that inspired the name. Apparently, Pliny the Elder (23-79) believed the plant to have the power to cure lead poisoning. But Plumbago doesn’t just come in blue – it can be white, pink or purple. Was Plumbago only blue in Pliny’s time?

What’s the sticky bit about?
The flower’s inner part has hairs which secrete a sticky mucilage that is capable of trapping and killing insects. This may be to prevent crawlers like ants from entering since they don’t typically pollinate plants. The stickiness is impressive – brush against a Plumbago and expect to spend an hour picking bits out of your hair! At least it gives my cat something to do.

And a last word about it – Plumbago is happy without a drink, so very useful for Malta with our dearth of rain for the next three to four months.

Lavender flowers early in Malta, so sniff it out while you can

I wish it could be forever spring in Malta. It’s the season to be joyful as everything interesting and perfumed is in bloom right now from citrus and honeysuckle to lavenders. Not so in the dusty days of searing summer when bulbs hibernate, browned seed heads wave in the wind and gardens sport garish bougainvillea.

Flower of the month for me in April is lavender. It’s been at near perfection over the past few days – not quite in full flower, so still with the promise of an even deeper purply-blue haze to come. My four established bushes are a hive of industry, covered in bees. I wish I knew which hive they came from as lavender honey sounds tasty.

Lavender is not a wild flower on the Maltese Islands unlike in the maquis areas of France and macchia of Italy. At least, I’ve never come across it here on my many cycle rides and walks; nor for that matter its Mediterranean scrubland neighbour, rosemary. But you will find it in corners of public gardens, some front yards and even cropping up in a roundabout here and there. When you can, pause to take it in. Brush against it to release its scent – from leaves, not just flowers. It’s not an old ladies’ scent at all; it’s the ultimate heady Mediterranean scent.

You will find it in garden centres at the moment, but if you haven’t a plot of earth, you may find keeping it in a pot a disappointment. It can do fine, but will need a deep pot as its roots, in the wild, are used to digging deep to seek water. It can die off almost overnight, wilting inexplicably (or perhaps from ants in the pot). Potted lavender is tricky as it needs some water, but not too much. If you haven’t green fingers, then make the most of the few plants you find around. Sniff them out!

A note for gardeners
French ‘stoechas’ lavenders, as in the photo, are rare in garden centres here. You’ll find regular lavandula augustifolia, but if you want these tufted ones, you may have to ask the centre to order them in, but for next year now as it’s almost too late to plant up before heat hits!