Tips for the perfect Mediterranean garden

The Mediterranean diet and plants are a big trend right now. Why not combine them to make an edible Mediterranean landscape? Although Florida has a warm, wet summer and a cool, dry winter, and the Mediterranean has a warm, dry summer and a cool, wet winter, we can grow the same plants. Floridians may not see the same gardening results because our climate leads to more plant diseases.

Mediterranean gardens are drought resistant and prefer full sun. They are often created as a courtyard with a central focal piece such as a fountain or statue, but can be much less formal with an eating area and plants in terra cotta pots or even an arbor. Olives, figs, pomegranates, oriental persimmon, citrus, grapes, rosemary, oregano and basil can be used for an edible Mediterranean garden.

Olive trees may not produce much fruit here, but they are lovely ornamental trees. If you get fruit, it must be preserved in brine or pressed for oil. The leaves can be used to make an anti-oxidant tea. Olive plants are available in local nurseries and form small trees. The cultivar arbequina is popular in Florida and does not require another cultivar for pollination.

Figs are delicious straight off the bush or small tree. The fruit ripens in Florida between July and October. Leaf rust disease will usually cause the leaves to fall in autumn but will not kill the plant. The recommended cultivars for Central Florida are celeste, brown turkey and ischia.

There are ornamental pomegranate cultivars as well as ones chosen for fruit production. Be sure to get a cultivar such as wonderful, purple seed or spanish ruby that is adapted to this area and will produce good fruit. The plants may be grown as a bushy shrub or trained into a small tree.

Non-astringent cultivars of oriental persimmon can be eaten fresh and crunchy like an apple or soft and ripe like the astringent cultivars. Trees can reach heights of 20 to 30 feet if left unpruned. It is considered a Mediterranean fruit, but grows best in moist, well-drained soil in full sun.

Currently, only muscadine grapes can be grown in Florida because of diseases. These are not the types of grapes grown in the Mediterranean, but the plants give the same visual effect and produce delicious edible fruit. Create a grape arbor to shelter a table and chairs or trellis the grapes to make a wall to divide a garden room. There are several recommended cultivars to choose from. Go to http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs100 for details.

Several herbs can be grown in your edible landscape, and clippings can be used to flavor many dishes. Rosemary can be used to make a short 2- to 3-foot evergreen hedge in a Mediterranean garden. Oregano can be used as a ground cover. Many different types of basil are now available, but sweet basil is the type used in the Mediterranean. Go to https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vh020 for details.

Visit the Discovery Gardens and our plant clinic with your problems and questions from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays at the Lake County Extension Center, 1951 Woodlea Road in Tavares. Go lake.ifas.ufl.edu for registration and class information.

Juanita Popenoe is the director of the UF/IFAS Lake County Extension Office and environmental horticulture production agent III. Email jpopenoe@ufl.edu.