Concrete is king, here in Cyprus. Most of the houses, offices, any buildings really, are made of concrete. Even the crazy paving slabs around our pool are mostly concrete, some better quality than others. Take a close look at the crazy paving in the picture above and you can just see where the concrete is wearing away due to rain, wind and sunlight.

One of the main problems in Cyprus is that the houses tend to get damp in the winter when the rains come. This winter, while we were sunning ourselves in Australia, violent storms and lots of rain were lashing the island. Consequently we’ve got a lot of damp inside the house and a lot of the outside area has turned a sickly shade of green with moss growing out.

That’s the problem with property like this, there’s a large area to create a garden, but the soil is underneath the concrete. So, how do you go about creating a garden on concrete? One way is to use a pick-ax and smash your way through the concrete to get to the soil beneath and then plant whatever it is you want to plant. Proof of the pudding is the fabulous orange tree that we have which is now bearing lots of sweet fruit.

What I’ve done with our garden is to use mostly pot based plants, but with a few interspersed larger plants dug into the underlying soil.

What I do like in my garden is my little experimental area, hidden beside the gas tank, so that my wife doesn’t see it and complain too much!

It’s not often you see plants growing out of a microwave.

I also use a lot of smaller pots that I then surround with rocks, giving it the rockery effect, but that takes a lot of rocks and rocks don’t come cheap.

There’s always wood, but that has the disadvantage of needing to be treated on a regular basis or the rot will set in.

I may have a concrete garden, but there’s nothing stopping me creating a green oasis!

Tom Kane © 2018
 

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