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I love the gardens of the Mediterranean. They thrive in their hot climate with their poor stony soil. As an artist I love the colors of the Mediterranean buildings, plants, and the light of the sun as it hits these things.
Should you like in a mild climate you too can have a Mediterranean garden that will give you colorful flowers and better still lots of herbs and should you have really poor soil then you are lucky and might only have to amend it slightly with some stone.
Regardless, preparing the soil for a Mediterranean garden will require a little muscle at the beginning but will give you many, many years of enjoyment.
First stake out the area you want to use then get a good spade and some ¼” to ½” gravel or pea shingle. Gravel is simply stone chippings from larger pieces of gravel and pea shingle is dredged from river beds giving this a more rounded surface caused by the water eroding the stones.
Once the frost is over and the ground is not wet take your shovel dig your area into a series of trenches making sure you work backwards so you do not tamp down and compact the area you are working by walking on top of it.
Next throw gravel over each dug section of trench filling up most of the trench but leaving enough room for some dirt. Now turn the dirt from one section onto the gravel you have thrown into the first trench. Continue this way until all your trenches are filled with gravel.
Work the gravel into the soil and this is basically the hard part especially if you soil is clay based like mine is.
Once you have worked the whole area over your soil should not be sticky or form clods but should have a nice crumbly consistency.
Since other gardeners worry about enriching their soil, the Mediterranean gardener only worries about digging in the gravel to improve the texture of their soil.
Feeding Mediterranean plants in a Mediterranean garden will not help them. Matter of fact it will really only weaken them. The only suggestion I will make is should your soil be really poor and dry, not being able to retain water and then work in some organic matter to improve that situation.
Now you are ready to plant your Mediterranean plants.
“Tread the Earth Lightly” and in the meantime… May your day be filled with…
Peace, Light and Love.
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Author Bio Box: Arlene Wright Correll
 For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/
To see Arlene’s Gardens and to read her gardening diaries and to take a walk through her pictorial garden or click on Arlene’s Books where you can download or buy her gardening & cook books, including her new book, “The ABC’s of Wine and Beer Making”. Many of her articles written for Greenthumbarticles have paintings she has created of the subject and they can be seen at her “How to Do It” site. Remember to check out her artwork, especially of her fruits and vegetables. Many of her paintings are sold internationally and many of her works of art have been reproduced on note cards, post cards and other functional items and you can get Giclee prints of her artwork starting as low as $11.89 Arlene says, “All my royalties from the sale of my books, art, etc. go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and I thank you for visiting my sites.”
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