Skiathan Sunshine
By maggiski
4 comments
Here in Skiathos we have had a week of warm sunny weatther and have made the most of it by ‘cleaning’ our land. It is a legal requirement here that land is kept clear of undergrowth and forests plants. Not an easy task when you are surrounded on 3 sides by forest! We are about 1/2 way through removing large heathers and rock roses from the sloping part at the back of our land. We aren’t taking the roots up and consequently will have to repeat the exercise again next winter although it shouldn’t be so difficult as the growth we are removing at the moment has had about 6 years to establish. There is no way of getting rid of the rubbish ecologically here and so unfortunately we have to burn everything. We do, however use the woodash on the garden to feed and revitalise the soil
11 Feb, 2011
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welcome to GoY, i shall be very interested to hear how you get on, what a beautiful place to live and garden.
11 Feb, 2011
Thankyou both for your comments.
Firstly the land we have cleared has Olive trees growing on it and the soil is very acid as it is bordered by pine forest. So we don't plan to plant on it. Another reason for keeping these areas fairly clear is the very real danger of fire. Just four years ago we had to evacuate the house and heaup the mountain as fire raged through the valley in which we live. Fortunately the fire remained about 250 metres away from our home and we were able to return in the evening.
We do have about half of the one acre site planted but as we do other people's gradens for a living ours tends to be neglected!
It is an extremely challenging place to garden and coming from the South of England we ahve had to learn all over again.
We have a range of weather from snow and frosts in the winter to 5 months of drought in the summer when temperatures can reach as high as 150F.
Even weeding was a huge challenge when we started out as many of the weeds here are regarded as garden plants in the Uk.
Heather is a good example as is euphorbia.
The island also has several different climates and the soil types are very variable even in a small garden. Our own land is mostly sandy & acid but there is a lower area which is loamy and akaline. This where we grow flowers & vegetables.
When creating new gardens for other people we always tell them taht it will take us a couple of years to establish what will or won't grow in their particular garden.
We rely heavily on rosemary, geraniums and gazanias as a basis for most gardens as these are very reliable here and are easy to propogate. We also use pig's face and lemon verbena for bank cover ( every garden has banks!)
I will try to post some pictures when I get a chance . Thank you agaian for your interest
15 Feb, 2011
photos will be great ~ thanks maggiski. we were in italy 4 years ago when there were awful fires.
hope you enjoy your garden
15 Feb, 2011
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30 Dec, 2011
You seem to have a never ending job there then. I hope you can get it under some sort of controll. Do you have any plans for the land ? or will you just be leaving it to 'do it's own thing' :o)
11 Feb, 2011