Ideas for my unusual garden

[Bob A Job]

Has anyone got any ideas for plants/vegatables/trees/herbs for my garden.

I live in Fuerteventura, the winters just kicking in (which is the equivelent of a British summer, but any plants will have to survive the summer as well +40 degrees and rains once every few months. I'm quite happy to put in the hard work of watering daily but the heat seems to kill off everything i plant. Any ideas?

Thankyou!

[andyjevs]

For the drier areas...some of the succulents and cacti would be fine. Agaves and aloe vera would be good as would some of the bigger crassula sp and mother in laws tongue. Bourgainvillia, hibiscus, citrus, oleander (poisonous), datura (poisonous), jacoranda, cassia, almost any mediterranean herb, rosemary and lavender, callistemon, bananas, pommegranites, phoenix palms, other hardy palms such as trachycarpus and chamaerops, grevillea................the list is endless...there's more but this is off the top of my head.

[Bob A Job]

Ive got cactus and aloe vera growing wild! but thanks for the ideas..  Anything greeny and soft that will like the heat?

[andyjevs]

Most of the above are greeny and soft. The best thing to do is to see what's growing in other people's gardens as well as growing wild or in local parks etc.

[rampart]

I agree with andyjevs' inclusion of hibiscus. I think you will like it for your unusual garden. Some of them have immense blooms - bigger than your hand. You can find some with braided trunks, and you easily can shape them different ways. They survive very hot summers with little attention. Do take a look at some on the internet.

[jake-the-peg]

Today in England it's grey wet and nasty so I just thought I'd tell you to get stuffed!

seriously though you might be interested by the "dry garden" piece on this page:

http://www.rhs.org.uk/learning/research/climate_change/casestudies.asp

[Bob A Job]

Thanks guys,

Pickle, im in the Canaries... hot all year round and we get less than 10cm of rain a year, see here Ibiza gets 7 times that.

Jake, The weather is one reason i left the (Y)UK