Mediterranean Plants For Landscaping
See how drought-tolerant Mediterranean landscaping plants can add color and texture to a yard.
A video transcript featuring Ive Haugeland, Shades of Green Landscape Architecture
Choosing the plant palette We always try to do as much drought- tolerant plants as we can here in California. That just makes sense. But we try to go kind of Mediterranean. We have lavenders. We have santolinas. We have Lambs' Ears. We have Miscanthus.
At this time of the year, most of the blooming is finished. The bloom colors we kept to purple, whites and yellows. But there's a still a lot of texture that works in the bluish-green leaves. And the Miscanthus, for example, are really pretty at this time of year.
Varying the plant height For this property, one issue was the perimeter. We wanted to hide the fences as much as possible, which is why we did more trees and these variegated Pittosporums along the fence. These are going to grow up and hide the fence in a couple of years. But towards the patio, we wanted to do much lower plants so we get that feeling of plants creeping in on the patio.
Design tip For planting, one thing to think about is to limit your palette, limit your color use, and think a lot about texture.
