introduction

Hi all--
I was wandering on the web . . . searching for info about mediterranean
plants, and bingo! Found you guys!  I'm a free-lance journalist living in
Seattle, Washington, USA, and can spare you the deatils about my climate
because Bob Beer has already done a smashing job.  

I began gardening five years ago when my husband and I bought our house on a
1/4acre lot.  Most of the sod is gone now, replaced by 20 cubic yards
[warning I'm metrically-disadvantaged because I live in the U.S. -- blame it
on Reagan] of compost and sand, perennial beds and vegetable beds. In just
five years, I'm beginning to get Planted Out!  Last summer I began eyeing my
neighbor's strip of lawn -- virgin territory. They agreed that whatever we
decided to do with it would be better than it was, so I began designing a
bed for the 50' long x 8' wide strip (faces South, full sun, beside the
house, well-protected from wind on all sides).

My previous travels to Greece and Crete must have stayed with me because
ever since then I've tried growing plants from this region.  I think the
first thing I planted in our yard was a bollata (more on this plant later .
. . I have some questions for you guys). Also a geranium macrorrhizum from
the Pindos mtns of Greece, Greek yarrow, aubreta gracilis. . .


But when it came time to design the new garden, I knew I wanted to try a
whole bed dedicated to mediterranean plants. Here in Zone 8 USA, besides the
lack of hot summers, we have the 30 inches of winter wet on top of glacial
deposits of silt and rock. I wasn't sure what to do to amend the soil, but I
thought ANYTHING that would give the soil more porous drainage.  This is all
highly experiemental, I don't even have the plants in the ground yet (or
even all the plants picked out, but I may never be "done" with this -- hope
not, anyway).  I put down a layer of wood chips and added fish meal pellets
to offset the nitrogen that would be depleted by the breakdown of wood (my
"fish and chips" layer), then tilled that in with 3 cubic yards of compost,
2 cubic yards of sand and 1 cubic yard of gravel.  I also added 40 lbs of
lime.  This is the recommended rate for 400 sq feet of PH 6.6 soil!

If anyone has any warnings or suggestions at this point, (besides "don't do
it, the plants will die"), I'm all ears.  Of course, it will be difficult
for me to remove anything at this point!

I've ordered five cistus "chelsea bonnet" from Heronswood nursery. It's
supposidly (I'm off work right now) a Cistus libanicus hybrid.  Does anyone
know of Cistus libanicus, it's origin or distribution?  

As for the bollata, well, that's for another message.  You're probably bored
reading this and need a break.

Thanks, Sean, for putting this Medit-plants things together! 

Deb
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