With today's global warming gardeners are finding it harder and harder to continue with the English country garden tradition and are discovering new ways of planting. This timely book is about a most viable alternative - Mediterranean gardening. Anyone who has visited the continent will have noticed the colourful groundcover so proliferate around the coastal regions and smelt the aromatic maquis so endemic to the area. It is a scent and sight instantly recognisable and believe it or not, eminently suitable to our climate. Author Pattie Barron has made two Mediterranean gardens so far in her gardening career - one in the ideal situation of a southerly-facing terrace but the second in harsher conditions - flat and with a northerly aspect. Still learning but obviously very experienced, she divulges her secrets of success from soil preparation, mulching, plant selection and aftercare. Being drought-tolerant the main care needed is over winter when our climate turns wet and cold but using a decorative mulch of stones or gravel will assist and ensure that the plants survive to prosper for another year. Whether you prefer the delicate greys, pinks and lilacs of yuccas, lavenders and cistus or the more vibrant nerium oleanders, anagallis and papavers, the range of Mediterranean plants is huge and sure to suit every gardening taste. In addition to plant choice the book includes inspirational ideas for garden decorations such as mosaic tables, painted pots and shell grottoes for you to add that definitive Mediterranean touch. This is a superbly illustrated and well-written book full of ideas for existing or prospective drought-tolerant gardeners, no matter their location or soil type. - Lucy Watson
