Talk about making the most of your space for gardening! Absolutely beautiful, the use of natural stone, serves to make an intensely planted area, look completely natural. Al

Beautiful photos, Daisy. I'd love to come sit in your garden!

Just stunning! Are you also in the Dry Gardening Handbook's drought resistance zone 4/5? How much water would you say you have to give your in-ground plantings?

What an inspiration. Beautiful. I love that I see carnations. The scent of rose and carnation must be heavenly.

Absolutely beautiful! I wish you had smell-a-vision to add to the photos. Share anytime you wish!

Elaine

OMG,your gardens are beautiful!! I'l have to go back for more looks.Love all the colors you used.Tfs
Kathi

Ahhhh- magazine material! Your garden is breathtaking. The hardscape, the secret places to sit, the roses! and everything else- I'll look at these pictures again and again, Daisy. Thanks for taking the time to post them all and share them with us.
Renee

Thank-you all. I am glad you didn't mind me posting the photos here.
Julianna, I think I am in 4/5 zone for drought.
The last time it rained here was on 6th May, apart from a 40 minute shower in mid September.
It is supposed to rain to-day, but so far, nada!
It is hard to say how much water I use when I water the garden.
I do give the hose longer on the roses and clematis, to make sure they get a good deep watering.
As everything has to go another fortnight before getting anymore, I am learning, which plants won't wait that long. So far, the only plants that wilt before the next watering is due, have been Bizzie Lizzies, Impatiens walleriana.
Daisy

Here are a few more photos.

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Wow wow wow! Spectacular! What a lot of work putting it all together. I love the rock work and urns, fullness of the garden. It's a heavenly retreat. Thanks.

Just awesome! You've done a great job in your design.

2 weeks isn't bad between waterings. I was poking around the itnernet looking to see if some other roses were as drought tolerant as the Lady Banks (listed as zone 4 in the book) and it seems several are. This is good news. I wouldn't be able to really irrigate, but maybe for a few plants I could bend the rules.

How long did it take for you to put your garden together to this point? You've really managed your elevation changes well.

Fanastic is all I can say. It's a little bit of Heaven.

Ivy 2003,

Julianna, regarding the roses. There are quite a few that are okay without any watering, once they are established.
They are the tea roses, the noisette roses, the tea noisettes and the china roses. I grow a few of these. I would grow more but my garden is tiny. The tea scent is one my nose cannot smell but other people can.
I have Archduke Joseph (tea). This rose has a really good flush in the spring/early summer and again in the autumn. In the heat of high summer, he still flowers, but with much smaller blooms. Without watering, he wouldn't flower in summer at all.

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Blush Noisette flowers all the year except January and February.

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Sombreuil is sometimes classified as a tea and sometimes as a tea noisette. Whichever he is, he is one of my favourites. His perfume is strong and gorgeous. In my garden, he blooms all year except Jan/Feb.

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Marechal Niel is a tea and one that I can smell. He also blooms all year except Jan/Feb.

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Aimee Vibert climbs through my golden gage tree and blooms April to December. Although I have noticed that the older she gets the more and longer she blooms. So that could change.

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I also have Archduke Charles (china). Unfortunately he hasn't got a perfume. But he does flower in flushes year round. This photo was taken in January.

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The other roses that do really well in my garden are...
Cornelia (hybrid Musk) Abraham Darby (English Rose) Perdita (English Rose) Lady Emma Hamilton (English Rose) Buff Beauty (Hybrid Musk) Teasing Georgia (English Rose) The New Dawn (Climber) and Colombian Climber.
All these roses seem happy in the heat.
Most of my roses came from Peter Beales. I have put a link below.

I have noticed, that the roses that have done best are the ones that I wasn't ready for. They had to spend their first year in pots.
These roses grew much quicker, than roses planted directly in the ground.

There is another book I recommend. It is called Tea Roses. Old Roses for Warm Climates. It is written by some Australian ladies and is very useful and informative.
Daisy

Here is a link that might be useful: Peter Beales Roses

Oh lovely-- can you actually mail order things there? I know if you're sending something to Jordan it's a big ordeal and that's if it ever even reaches you. No PO delivery.

That's good to know about the water and the establishing. I knew several should be OK without much help once established, but I wasn't sure about the totally relying on rainfall part. I'm guessing that if you don't supplement there will be more bloomless time than if you supplement with water?

How much upkeep time do you have on your garden? It looks labor intensive, but soooo worth it! I don't mind upkeep myself. I hate weeding, but pruning and other things are fine with me. :) Odd, I know.

I've actually had some of those climbers in this climate, but not in that climate before. I also grew roses in Las Vegas- -which blows any of these places out of the water heat-wise. That's where I learned how good roses are in the heat. But there we had to do a lot of watering-- and I also didn't realize how drought tolerant the right roses are.

I've put in an order for the rose book. You're giving me so many amazing ideas. I we do end up compiling some plant lists and plans in a booklet for Jordan, I'm definitely going to have to thank you!

Daisy-- it's been a year and I wanted to say that I keep coming back to this and looking at your pictures! Lovely! My husband is off job hunting in Jordan, and so far nothing-- but we do now have 2 acres (well, 2.1 acres more or less-- 8,497 square meters). We need to pay to have it separated from the other owners (they inherit as a group) and then we'll know where our plot is within the larger group plot. We're hoping to get part of a hillside and then a flat portion. With 2.1 acres we can put a house on it and still have 2 acres for growing things.

I immediately was reminded of your terraces. How hard was it to put them in? Do you have much in the way of trees in them? If we get hillside, we planned on making that the orchard portion of the property with a zig-zag path through the levels. The olives would stay up on the flat part, but the more easily harvested (larger, less abundant per branch) fruits could go lower as well as things that need more chill hours.

I really like the idea of mixing citrus/other fruiting trees and bushes and other plantings such as herbs and flowers. Also, since we were considering doing a grey water set up with tanks, we could more easily gravity irrigate things if they were at a lower level than the tank itself (just put the pipe to feed them on a spigot valve type system).

The plot is gorgeous. It is across the valley from Syria (so at most 1km away?) and 5km/3.1 mi from Israel, and 11.1 mi from the Sea of Galilee. On a clear day we could see all the way to Damascus or even better, Mt. Hermon.

Even if he doesn't get a job there now, we'll still work on separating it and then work out where we want our house and start planting trees in places that are not in the way. That way they can begin to mature.

Daisy,

Wow! amazing garden.

I now have about a dozen new ideas for my garden. Thanks!