SA Water Mediterranean Garden

• SA Water Mediterranean Garden
• Garden Ideas
• Garden Design

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The SA Water Mediterranean Garden

The SA Water Mediterranean Garden showcases plants of the world's five mediterranean regions

A Mediterranean Place

In southern South Australia, summers are hot and dry and winters are mild and wet. Rainfall varies greatly from year to year. South Australians live in what is called a mediterranean zone.

There are five mediterranean regions in the world:

• South and south western Australia
• Central Chile
• South Africa
• California
• Mediterranean Basin.

The SA Water Mediterranean Garden, located in the heart of the Adelaide Botanic, uses the plants of the five mediterranean zones to illustrate the stories of the world's mediterranean places. The three major elements of the Garden - the water rill, interpretive spine and geographic drifts - work together to tell the stories of mediterranean plants and people.

SA Water Partnership

SA Water encourages the sustainable use of water and is the major sponsor of this garden. The SA Water Mediterranean Garden highlights how careful plant selection and thoughtful garden design can be used to create stunning garden displays and use water wisely and well.

Learn Mediterranean Stories

Visitors can learn more about these water efficient plants

In this garden, you can learn stories about how plants survive the dry times. You can find out about the role that fire plays in this landscape. You will discover why mediterranean regions are some of the world's most biologically diverse places and also amongst the world's most threatened. You can also explore some of the connections between the plants, people and cultures of the mediterranean regions.

Be Inspired

We hope the SA Water Mediterranean Garden will inspire and enlighten you about growing your own garden in harmony with our landscape and conservative in its impact and use of natural resources. Though you may be familiar with some of the plants in the garden, others will be less familiar. A Plant List is available. You can use this to make notes while visiting the garden.

Every Drop Counts

The SA Water Mediterranean Garden emphasises the true value and beauty of water. It highlights the aesthetic value of water by using it as a central design element, it harvests water from its architectural features and it shows how beautiful water wise plants can be in a well designed environment.. It has much to inspire and demonstrate about plants and people who live in climates very similar South Australia, and is a great example for the South Australian community of how to put these ideas into action

Find Out More

Garden Ideas

The SA Water Mediterranean Garden is based on four major themes: Water, Fire, Threats and Plants, People & Culture.

Water

See the tiny flower on this cladode of Ruscus aculeatus

Some plants, need fire to reproduce

Some plants can pose a threat

Plants are used by people

The ephemeral nature of water is one of the most important features of mediterranean places.

The SA Water Mediterranean Garden shows the different adaptations that plants have evolved to survive the dry times. For example, what looks like shiny leaves on Ruscus aculeatus, (butcher's broom), are really flattened branchlets called cladodes. Cladodes have fewer pores than true leaves so lose less water.

Fire

Fire is a natural part of the mediterranean landscape.

For many Mediterranean plants, fire is an essential part of their life cycle. Some plants need the heat of a fire to release their seeds; some need the smoke to germinate. After a fire, some plants can take advantage of the fertile ash-covered soil and a lack of competitors to grow. Fire often brings regeneration to the mediterranean 'bush'. One plant that relies on fire is the Banksia. Banksia cones hold onto their seeds in tightly-closed capsules. When fire sweeps through the landscape, the capsules burst open and release their winged seeds into soil bare of vegetation but rich in fertile ash.

Threats

Mediterranean regions are some of the world's most biologically diverse places, but many of the plants are under threat in their native environment.

Activities such as clearing vegetation for agricultural and urban development means losing habitat for plants and animals. The introduction of feral plants and animals also presents a great threat to plants.

Sometimes, mediterranean plants are themselves a threat to other plants. Certain mediterranean plants thrive so well when introduced into a habitat similar to their own that they can become weeds where there are no natural control mechanisms.

The olive, Olea europea provides us with pickled fruits and a delicious oil. It brings great benefits ,however it can become significant weed in mediterranean zones if left unchecked. The Olive in our garden is sterile, highlighting a the care that needs to be taken with growing this species in gardens. One difference between our olives and other trees you may see is that our plants are sterile and unable to reproduce. Olives grow very well in mediterranean regions and have become a significant weed in some parts of South Australia.

Plants, People and Culture

All life depends on plants. We are no exception. All human cultures have relied on plants.

The world's mediterranean zones have sustained people for thousands of years. Not surprisingly there are fascinating stories to be told about mediterranean plants and their relationships with people both now and in the past. Plants, people and culture are inextricably linked through the use of plants for food, clothing, shelter, medicine, tools, spiritual and ceremonial symbols.

The grass tree, Xanthorrhoea australis is of significant value to Aboriginal Australians. Grass trees traditionally provided resins for glue to fix spears and axe heads to shafts. The base of the stem were eaten, while the flowers could be soaked in water to make a sweet drink. Flour from ground seeds made a damper or type of bread. The woody stalks of the flower spikes made strong and straight spear shafts, fire sticks and, when bound together, rafts.

Garden Design

Water is central to the lives of plants and people

Interpretive Beds tell stories

Geographical Drifts suggest wild nature

The major elements of the garden design work together to tell the stories of mediterranean plants and people. Click on image for the Plan (473Kb PDF)

Water rill

The central rill reminds us that water is central to our lives. It symbolises the transient yet pivotal role of water in the landscape and our lives. The garden design - particularly the water rill - is reminiscent of the gardens of the Alhambra Palace, built by the Spanish Moors around the 14th Century. Moorish garden design emphasises the interplay of light and shade through moving water and the sacred principles of balance and cyclical movement in the universe. The water rill is proving one of the most popular features of the SA Water Mediterranean Garden, with children arriving gumboot-ready to play in the shallow water.

Interpretive Spine

The interpretive spine has two elements: the interpretive beds and the diversity beds.

1. Interpretive beds:The four interpretive beds each focus on one key theme of the SA Water Mediterranean Garden: water; fire; threats; and plants, people & culture.
2. Diversity beds: In each of the diversity beds, you can see the plants grouped according to their country of origin. Each of the five mediterranean zones is represented and there is a bed called 'fusion', which contains plant cultivars bred from plants from each of these places. The beds highlight the great array of horticultural choice available for the home gardener.

Geographical drifts

In the geographic drifts, you can see the plants in geographic groupings with a sense of their wild origin. The plants heights gently rise and fall in waves in varying shades of green, giving you a sense of a wild landscape.