In the past couple of months, due to my work, I have travelled from the North of England to the Eastern Mediterranean. Various projects and work in progress in gardens have been the cause.

 It has been interesting to see how the gardens whether in the North of England or in the East of the Mediterranean have reacted to the summer. In most cases the link has been the presence or lack of water. 

In Yorkshire water is obviously not a problem as the greenness testifies. The lawns are lush, the borders full, the meadows look a little brown…but that’s all.  

In Italy we have decided to save on water bills and irrigate less. The scorched ( and I mean scorched) lawn shows the result of this …the “ borders”  …mostly shrubby as one would expect Rosemary , Dwarf Pomegranates, Lavender and Perovskia have all bloomed and survived well…. Olives survive on practically no water....as can be seen by some of those visible from our garden

In Corfu the garden is that odd mixture found in Mediterranean gardens that are part irrigated. Green borders surrounded by lush borders lie in the heart of the garden. In the peripheral areas or in areas were we have just decided not to irrigate a thirstier more parched look dominates. 

The last photo shows a forest fire in Albania......for us it was the evenings TV show