I'm reposting this image of the back field from April 4 for purposes of comparison with the one below taken three days ago after I cut most of the weeds.

The garden is composed of several distinct areas or elements that each have  a horticultural priority and, given my lack of experience, involve different kinds of learning and research.

The field, due to size and unmanageability, is the area where my main intervention is controlled elimination and the attempt to give priority to specific plants.  In general I try to remove areas that are primarily grass and to privilege (as our academics say) various flowering species.

This often involves removing grasses one by one or by clumps from between clusters of, for instance, borage or clover or buttercups, a process that is tedious and until recently seemed unlikely to yield results.  This spring is the first where it is clear to me that the preferred plants are making progress as areas uninflected with grasses are expanding.  The following photo shows some of clumps of preserved wild growth.

The three above photos show a patch of unmoved field where grape hyacinth appear in profusion as they do from late February on all over the property.  The one shown right above is in the late stages of bloom and is possibly Muscari latifolium (μούσκαρι in Greek).

On the right side of the photo above and in the photos below are patches dominated from early April with hairy buttercup or βατράχιο in greek (Ranunculus sardous).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranunculus_sardous

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscari

Κίστος or rockrose (I'll say Cistus salviifolius with some reservations about the species name).  A few days ago I ant looking for a specific plant that has grown successfully in the experimental bed (a furry cabbage-like plant).

I didn't find it but was distracted  by the riot of blooming plants on the mountain sides and near the sea shore.  I dug out two dozen young plants and brought them home to plant directly in the garden or in pots.

This cistus was one of those and it's proceeded to bloom in its pot since I harvested it proving to be the local white variety as compared to Cistus creticus, the pink version, that I've already successfully located in several places in the garden.

This post, however, is about pots.  I acquire plants either by buying them or by growing them in pots since the soil in the garden is inhospitable in many ways to placing seeds directly in the ground (with the exception of poppies).

Into to pots go clippings from mature plants (either from the garden itself or elsewhere/everywhere), random plants and shoots that I uproot or dig out, seeds (commercial or from plants in season), or grown plants that I pot and place in the beds in the hopes that they'll seed the surrounding soil.

Mostly plants harvested on my latest gathering trip (including the rockrose) but also some fragile ones that benefit from being up off the ground (suck as the young knifofias in the upper right hand which were nearly consumed by snails in less than a day).

This is not the usual state of things.  However,  I'd pruned some plants severely and have prepared them to be planted in a client's garden.  Also shown are the plants that are ready to plant in my own garden.

Protected from the sun in summer by the row of λίγουστρο (possibly Ligustrum vulgare and common privet) and the north wind by the house itself are the potted plants which take root until I place them in the beds.

Nearby and by the entrance to the front porch are plants that I want to keep an eye on or seasonal plants for decoration.

My nod to the frequent suggestions that in a time of economic crisis I should be growing food rather than decorative plants.  Shown here, the absolute necessities: mint, coriander, two lettuces, chives and strawberry...

I've been trying to grow nasturtiums since I saw them at Hampton Court and in the private garden of a lady in Athens.  These from bought seeds which I planted a mere 6 days ago.

Finally, the first of this year's basil plants an absolute traditional requirement in Greece and the only plant that I have specifically for pots. The jade plant (Crassula ovata) is yet another solution to the economic crisis.  If I only remembered to water this Money Plant more often.

A dramatic photo of a calla lily.

Below are four photographs of another plant I've been told is called a violet (βιολέτα) and which was here in the garden from before.  I've trimmed them and taken cuttings and transplanted them.  They bloom in March.

The two following photos are of one of the several bushes of Japanese quince (Chaenomeles japonica), Ιαπωνική κυδωνιά) I planted last spring in a semicircle centered on the big pine tree a meter beyond the iron ring shown in the April  post.  As frequently occurs in this garden their first year in this garden was a rough one (presumably as their roots push there way through the dense clay of the soil).  I was pleased and surprised when all of them (with one exception which I both stepped on repeatedly and weed-whacked once) bloomed profusely.  Relative to their size, of course.

Finally, a glimpse of things blooming in what I call the main flower bed. More detail in later posts...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaenomeles

I took this photo early today at the beginning of a day of intense work in the garden which included mowing the weeds in the north half, completing the weeding of the wall side bed, potting clippings and random transplants found during the weeding, digging the holes for planting several potted plants, moving rocks, and spraying insecticide on the new leaf shoots on young trees (last spring several were stunted by mite attacks).  

as a result there was little time or inclination for documenting, photographing and blogging but the above picture reminded me of some that i took last spring on a work site visit in eresso.  the first two are from the site itself while the rest are from the roadside.

perhaps the tapestry-like texture of wild plants shown in the images is my goal for the garden in spring to take advantage of the incredible variety and abundance of plants and flowers.  in fact, it may be that this visual model might also work at a bigger scale and guide the planning of the garden as a whole.

This is the bloom of Medicago arborea which according to Wikepedia is called moon trefoil and, I think, μηδική δενδρώδης in Greek.  I grew mine from several cuttings clipped four or five years ago, potted and then planted the following year in the experimental bed near the garden gate.  It blooms from February to May.

It's probably obvious that I'm starting this blog by concentrating on individual plants not describing the garden and its design overall which might seem like the more obvious place to start.  I'm doing this for several reasons.  

The first is that this is the season of most intense activity in terms of the plants themselves many of which only bloom for a short time in spring and I want to record them before it's too late (or, in the case of gardening, waiting until next year).  I also spend a tremendous amount of time working in the garden at this time of year for the same reason, weeding, weed whacking, planting and transplanting, pruning, etc. which leaves me little opportunity to conceptualize the blog!

Second, I'm new to blogging and to photographing plants and it is easier to concentrate on individual plants on both levels.  I find the blog templates and formats inflexible, inconsistent and unpredictable and I hope that with use and familiarity I'll be able to develop an overall organization for the blog.

Lastly, the organization of the blog reflects my approach to the garden in general.  As a person who lived in apartments until I moved here, I started working on the garden, timidly, on a plant by plant basis rather than with an overall plan.  I made several major mistakes as a result (more on those later) but it is certain that the current state of things reflects this approach and that I am only now starting to proceed with an overall idea of where I'd like to see the garden go.

That being said, the photo below shows a more general view of the experimental bed (I'll explain why I call it that later) with the moon trefoil in the foreground and extending to the large myrtle bush in the upper right hand corner of the photo.  i recently planted a row of mulberry trees extending the full 20 meter length of the bed and some of the plants described previously can also be seen.  

One of my favorite plants in the experimental bed is another that is referred to locally as a βιολέτα (Nodding Stock in English no less and Malcomia flexuosa scientifically) which i started importing from the shore near the town of Thermi where it grows in abundance in many cases in the dry seaweed and blooms in March and April.  

In this case it's worth showing how it appears in its natural environment since it's my hope that at some point it will reproduce the effect here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicago_arborea
http://web.me.com/pierre.seba/Tilo_Botanica/Malcolmia_flexuosa.html

A friend of mine tells me this is a wild violet.  I've noticed however that many plants are called violets here as will become apparent later.  In other words this requires research.  In any case, this is one of the plants that appears in early March and which I attempt to preserve in the hopes that it will expand.  It's a creeper.

The three photos above illustrate combinations of plants in the experimental bed.  They include the clover, yellow horned poppy (Glaucium flavum), as yet unidentified yellow flowers, and borage (Borago officinalis), which all grow naturally (in other words, without my being involved) in spring.  The poppy and the borage are plants that grow randomly in the garden that I've transplanted to the experimental bed whereas the remaining two simply happen to be there...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glaucium_flavum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borage

I have some doubt if the above is a naturally occurring plant in the garden or if I imported early on when i used manure to fertilize.  Regardless, it is very pretty and the most aggressive weed of all.  It is called τριφύλλι ("trifili" roughly trefoil or three leaf) and possibly a clover.  [Actually Oxalis pes-caprae, Bermuda buttercup is the most appealing name in English].  It starts to show up in January and carries on well through April.

Left to its own devices this plant forms a dense carpet.  It seems to coexist with other plants without choking them although in some cases it will completely cover them.  It's quite easy to pull out although it often leaves the root  in the ground.

After allowing it to spread for a couple of years I decided to start restricting it but i didn't want to eliminate it completely.  Coincidentally, I was also struggling with another plant in the main bed.  The periwinkle (Vinca major) is a very aggressive creeper who's crab grass-like roots do strangle neighboring plants.  It's called βίγκα in Greek.

It is also very easy to transplant.  About 5 years ago I began removing it from the main bed, potting and later replanting it around the base of the big pine tree.  Where, unencumbered, it spread rapidly.

As it turns out, the "trifili" manages to grow in the dense cover of periwinkle and last year the combination of the two blooming simultaneously inspired me to make it official.

I ordered a steel ring to edge the pine tree bed and also provide a fixed edge for these two aggressive but beautiful plants (the iron ring is perfect for running the weed-whacker against to terminate escapee periwinkle and "trifili").  It turns out that the main water line of the house runs below the pine tree bed so the installation of the steel ring is temporary until the line is moved.

Another plant that was growing wild in the garden is the asphodel (possibly Asphodelus albus although the species of this genus are difficult for me to tell apart) below. It puts on a spectacular show in March and has been expanding slowly over the years that I've been preserving it.  It is very common on the island and is call ασφόδελος.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trifolieae

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinca_major
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asphodelus_albus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxalis_pes-caprae