Mediterranean Garden Planting in South East London
Silver leaves, sun-loving colour and the smell of lavender and rosemary on a warm evening. Our Mediterranean pack is built around plants from dry, sunny hillsides that cope happily with London summers and, in free-draining soil, our winters too. Finish it with gravel and it stays tidy with very little watering.
Buy it as a planting pack, let us plant it for you, or have us design and build the whole garden around it.
Gallery photos: the first is a Mediterranean bed we planted in Chislehurst; the rest show the style for inspiration.
Key Plants
Olive (Olea europaea) as the centrepiece, multi-stem or standard. Lavender and rosemary for scent and bees. Euphorbia for evergreen structure and lime-green spring flowers. Stipa tenuissima and Verbena bonariensis for movement. A bay or pittosporum for year-round green.
Design Ideas
A single olive in a gravel bed with drifts of lavender for a Provençal front garden. A raised herb bed by the patio so you brush past the scent. Big terracotta pots of olive and rosemary for courtyards. Repeat two or three plants in drifts rather than dotting singles about.
Hard Landscaping Features
A sun terrace in warm sandstone-effect porcelain paving. Rendered or sleeper raised beds with a built-in seat. A gravel garden held by crisp steel edging, with a stepping-stone path through it. A timber pergola over the seating area, ready for a vine or climbing jasmine.
We design and build all of this ourselves: see our landscaping and garden design services.
Setting It Up for Success
Mediterranean plants want sharp drainage and lean soil, so we dig horticultural grit into heavy clay and use a low-nutrient soil improver rather than rich compost. Every plant gets mycorrhizal root grow at planting for faster, deeper rooting. The olive goes in with a tree stake and tie, a weed membrane goes under the gravel, and a slow-release feed in spring keeps everything ticking over.
Add a success kit to any pack: we'll bring the right compost, root grow, stakes, mulch and feed, matched to your soil.
Where does it work best?
Anywhere that gets at least six hours of sun a day. South- and west-facing front gardens, patios and raised beds are ideal. On heavy clay we raise the bed or work in grit, because wet roots in winter are the one thing these plants dislike.
How much looking after does it need?
Very little once it's established. Water through the first summer, trim the lavender after flowering and top up the gravel every few years. No regular feeding, and far less watering than a lawn or a traditional border.
How do I order a pack?
WhatsApp a few photos of the space, rough measurements and your postcode to 07490 103088. We'll size the pack to your garden and come back the same day with a price for the plants on their own, plants plus planting, or a full design and build.
"Matthew has done an outstanding job transforming our overgrown and messy borders into tidy, easy to maintain, pretty borders. His workmanship and work ethic cannot be faulted."
Helen G.
"Matt did an amazing job transforming our garden. It had become quite overgrown, with lots of trees and plants all tangled together, but he carefully worked through everything and refreshed the lawn so the whole space feels renewed."
Laura W.
"Matt and Lenny came over to strip out our overgrown and difficult to maintain garden. They removed and trimmed all the unsightly weeds while keeping the flowers, and Matt gave us really helpful maintenance advice."
Aaron L.
