Reading for the local gardener

Kipotechnia-Anthologio magazine is packed with practical information and lovely photo spreads

By Yvette Varvaressou - Kathimerini English Edition

For Mediterranean gardeners, the large variety of foreign garden magazines, in particular from northern Europe, are usually just something beautiful to look at, as the climatic conditions and plant species they talk about usually have little relevance to conditions here (although for those who read Italian there is the wonderful Gardenia and in Spanish, Jardines, both of which specialize in Mediterranean gardening).

For just over two years, a new Greek-language magazine has been appearing on the newsstands that does much to fill this gap, giving a wealth of information about gardening in local conditions along with products and services close at hand, but without pages and pages of advertisements.

Kipotechnia-Anthologio, published every two months, presents plant “profiles,” giving their Greek as well as their botanical names and making the search for them just that much easier, features on plant groups (climbing plants, summer flowers, aromatics, bulbs, annuals, drought-tolerant shrubs, conifers, scented summer flowering plants, vegetables), sites to visit, particularly in Attica but also Thessaloniki and northern Greece, and a small section on animals, wild and domestic.

An associate and contributor, the agronomist Taxiarhos Andritsopoulos, told Kathimerini English Edition the aim was not just to have a magazine on nature in general but to try to help people set up their own gardens, even if only on a balcony.

The current issue contains a feature on how to balance the practical with the aesthetic when installing lighting in a garden and a report on a split-level landscaping project for a garden in Panorama, Thessaloniki.

In every issue there is also a chapter on gardening jobs to be done at that particular time of year.

“We try to achieve a balance between ‘wild’ and ‘organized’ nature,” he said. “For example, in the current issue we have a feature on the new botanical garden in Stavroupolis, Thessaloniki, which functions as a plant ‘museum’ — it is not a nature reserve, such as the Prespa lakes, which we have featured in the past,” he said.

He said the magazine also wants to meet the needs of professionals in the field, and therefore has articles with more detailed information on particular plants.

A list of just some of the plants it has profiled indicate its strong local focus: Acanthus mollis, Euphorbia pulchaerrima, Aloe vera, Rosmarinus officinalis, Olea europaea, Castanea sativa, Arbutus sp., Cercissiliquastrum, Virtex agnus-castus, Punica granatum, Salvia splendens.

As for the choice of plants for Greece’s gardens, Andritsopoulos believes the current rage for imported species from northern climates will run its course; those plants which are unsuited to Greece will not easily survive and have to be replaced.

“The problem is not only in Greece. In Italy there was a similar fashion for northern conifers, but now they are moving back to the use of Mediterranean species. In four or five years’ time, the same will happen here. For example, in Italy, in order to get a hedge immediately, conifers were often planted too close together. Ten years later, it was impossible to prune them.”

Its 16th issue, due to come out in September, will include ideas for planting hedges, features on a palm garden in Attica, and the second part of this issue’s article on succulents.

The July-August issue, the first in a smaller format that is easier to store on bookshelves, focused on the Floriade 2002 exhibition in the Netherlands, with an excellent photograph spread over more than 20 pages.

Previous issues have traveled to the botanical garden of Padua, in Italy, and in Greece, to Athens’s National Gardens and Mt Parnitha, the Presidential Palace garden in Athens, Mt Hymettus and the old quarry in Nikaia.

Particularly interesting was an in-depth feature in the January-February issue on the green spaces in Athens, including interviews with Aikaterini Chronopoulou, a professor at Athens Agricultural University, who has studied the effects of green spaces on the city’s climate, and Dimitris Papadimas, in charge of Athens municipality’s parks and gardens.

This month, there is an interview with the founder of the botanical garden in Stavroupolis, the agronomist Athina Hatziathanasiadou, who has collected plants from the wild as well as from nurseries.

And in Athens, the magazine visited the Pikioni garden for children in the green-belt suburb of Filothei.

The “Anthologio” section is particularly informative, with details on the care and propagation of (this month) Archontophoenix alexandrae (King palm, archontophoenicas), the Leonotis leonorus (Lion’s Ear, minares), and Brugmansia candida (Angel’s trumpet, salpinga tou angelou).

Regular columns include book reviews, Internet sites, instructions on gardening techniques such as when and how to prune, plants for the particular season, landscaping and even cooking, in the section “From the garden to your plate.”

The magazine also promotes the use of succulents (which, although underused in Greek gardens, have become more popular of late) and the work of the Greek Association for Cacti and Other Succulents (tel 010.994.3319), and its journal O Kaktos.

Back issues are available from the magazine at Technikes Ekdoseis SA, Ilioupoleos 2-4 & Kassianis, Athens 17237, tel 010.979.2500, e-mail address: kipotexnia@techlink.gr