Most plants are the side facing due south. They get 300 days of sunshine per year. Temperatures range from -10°C (rarely gets down to -15°C) to +30°C (sometimes up to perhaps 34°C).

Rain or snow is abundant all year round, with quite dry periods in spring and autumn.

Natural irrigation channels run around the lawn area, being fed from mountain torrents arriving from the upstream north side of the house, and running around both east and west sides joining up again centrally on the south side. These keep most of the soil damp for most of the year.

I rarely fertilise, I rarely used other products (only if there is a real insect issue), because we create our own organic compost.

The general layout creates the largest possible flat lawn area around the house, with fruit trees and fruit shrubs to the south, and ornamental trees and shrubs (some with non edible berries) to the north (road side), and evergreen (pine) trees to the sides to give some shade and privacy. The choice of plants has been to give a variety of colour.

I decided in summer 2018 to have cut down or shorten the largest trees (8, up to 10 m heigh), all Pinaceae, to allow more light into the garden. I then went about selecting a series of new plants to give a much lower profile, but colour thoughout the year.

I've always kept the plant labels, and planned where to plant them, so this year I decided to do an inventory of what I have, what is alive and where. I've more to do to plot positions on the map, and I'll find plants that I forgot or couldn't identify in the winter. Also there are many growths that I need to indentify, they just grew spontaneously, which is great!

Garden Layout Views

Plant list