Touch of the Sun: Mediterranean Fruit and Vegetable Gardens

The Mediterranean climate of warm summer days provides the perfect growing conditions for colourful fruits and vegetables. Olives, peppers, tomatoes, aubergines and grapes all thrive in the heat. The idea of cultivating your own crops of these popular edibles might be appealing, but how well do they adapt to the UK climate? Here’s our guide to turning your garden into a haven for Mediterranean plants.

Sun, Sun, Sun, Here It Comes

There’s no getting around it, we just don’t have as much sun in Britain as they get down on the Med – that’s why we all jet off there for our holidays! The best way to mimic the warm dry conditions of Southern France, Italy and Greece is to install a greenhouse or polytunnel. You can also maximise the warmth of the sun that we do get by growing your plants by a wall on a south-facing patio. The paving and brickwork will absorb and radiate extra heat.

Water, Water Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink

Another feature of our climate is the amount of rain that we get. Too much water is bad for plants such as chillies, peppers and aubergines. A light misting of the flowers and a good dollop of fertiliser will encourage a bumper crop. Too much water stunts the growth of the plant and washes away vital nutrients. For plants in pots, water once the soil is dry and the plant is beginning to look wilted. Long infrequent watering is best for plants in raised beds. This mimics the drought and thunderstorm pattern of conditions on the Med.

Read more about watering pepper plants.

Olive Garden

You can grow an olive tree in your garden in the UK – they are even fairly hardy and mature plants should withstand temperatures down to about minus 10 degrees centigrade. Getting your olive tree to fruit is a whole other issue! The conditions have to be exactly right for this fussy plant. The olive tree requires two months (but no longer) of cold weather, regular watering between February and May and its branches must be shaken to release the pollen when in flower. All to get a ‘fruit’ that needs to be soaked in brine for months in order to be edible.

Read the Royal Horticultural society's advice on growing olive trees.

Heard It on the Grapevine

Grapes require a measure of landscaping. Alan Titchmarsh recommends preparing a trench 3ft wide and 2ft deep and filling it with organic matter and compost. You will also need to build a trellis for your grape vine to grow along. It will still be two or three years before your first decent crop but, once established, all that hard work put in at the beginning will pay off.

Patios, trenches, trellises and raised beds are all in a day’s work for the team here at Knight’s Paving and Landscaping. If you require any help with the landscaping you have to do to establish your Mediterranean garden, give us a call on 01603 360548.

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