I typed this response below before I realized that you don't live in California, but Oregon! You can still have a mediterranean inspired garden further north, but will have to adjust your planting choices to reflect that you are still mediterranean influenced in climate, but too cold and often too wet to slavishly emulate a California mediterranean style. It can certainly be done, even so, as there are classic mediterranean style gardens even in Vancouver, BC, or along the East Coast, where maintaining drought tolerant mediterranean plants in east coast summer heat, humidity and rainfall takes extra work. Adapting a plant palette that emphasizes gray foliage, and avoids the lush and green will go a long ways towards establishing the look. If you are set within tall conifer woods or surrounded by lots of big deciduous shade trees, it may be a stretch to pull this off visually. Most classic mediterranean gardens are washed in bright sun, and would typically rely on overhead screens or everegreen trees to create some relief in summer. If you have a situation where you can create a walled courtyard, it might be far easier to create a landscape within to suit your theme, and relate the outside to the surrounding neighborhood if the mediterranean theme/illusion can't be sustained. If you ahve your heart set on a palm as part of the theme, a Mediterranean Fan Palm/Chamaerops humilis or Windmill Palm/Trachycarpus fortunei are two that would take your climate. The following is what I had started to reply before I realized you are so much further north... The remnant gardens of all of the California missions are but fantasy recreations, with little basis in fact. You probably wouldn't want to emulate the real thing, it would be too sparse, utilitarian and devoid of plants. Mission gardens were for work and agriculture, not aesthetics. Michelle has pointed you in a good direction as to books and info. You will probably find that it makes much more sense to design a mediterranean inspired garden full of plantings that reflect your climate. If you stay true to this, you won't include a lawn, or insist on the garden being at its peak in mid summer, when a mediterranean garden would be resting for lack of water, and waiting to revive with the fall rains. (This is probably true even for your location in Oregon, where most gardens still need some supplemental irrigation in summer and early fall, even with your reputation for so much more rain that here in California). Winter and spring growth and bloom, lots of plants that are naturally designed to conserve water in summer and survive would be the majority of the garden. I personally would not recommend a Mexican Fan Palm for the entry; too large and messy, there are many other more suitable palms. I'd consider using rosemary, lavenders, santolinas, phlomis, as backbone perennials in the garden. If you want to take a cue from moorish/spanish themed gardens in particular, then inlucing a few classic courtyard more water loving plants to be used as accents might include an orange or lemon tree and a small fountain within a walled courtyard. Using tile, saltillo pavers or decomposed granite fines as paving/non planted surfaces would also give a classic mediterranean feel. For me, there are several public gardens that exude this feeling. Visit the buildings and surrounding gardens of San Diego's Balboa Park, or State Street in Santa Barbara and especially the County Court House Complex. If you wanted to design a mediterranean inspired garden using California natives, the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden above the mission further up the canyon is another great place to visit and get ideas. Also in nearby Montecito, the Casa del Herrero Garden is open to the public by appointment, and has great spanish detailing to the house and gardens. I would recommend seeing as much as you can, and formulating your own style based on what you like, rather than trying to emulate a formula for your new gardenI'm willing to bet there are plenty of good examples of "mediterranean style" gardens in your own community, especially if you live somewhere like Pasadena or San Diego. Well, as you can see, alot of the references will not apply as you don't live anywhere near Southern California, but taking in the sights and paying a visit might still be good for generating ideas to recreate the "sense" of a classic mediterranean garden. Planting things that can survive and still look good on your seasonal rainfall also makes good sense even if the style isn't medit in feeling. You won't have to work as hard to keep it alive in the next drought, nor spend as much time pruning things back that are encouraged to overgrow by too much regular watering out of the natural rainfall season.

Stef-After my first letter that I posted a couple days ago, I replied to my friend with the words "Is it really true?" I then got this reply! "Not only it is true but it was even worse yesterday with 102 casualties in Mexico ,a lot more than Irak and Afganistan together,world governements are keeping it very quiet, because they are all interested in petroleos mexicanos ,and other mexican bussinesses ,but it is really too big now to hide what is a real civil war ,in the last two years almost one thousand children have been killed ." This is very sad for Mexico. Unfortunately, America must bare blame. This is the sentiment of even the Academics in Mexico. Drugs have forever been an integral part of Mexican society. The Cartels have been virtually transparent with government "co-operation". Everybody is happy. Gov't makes a little cash. The Cartels have a flowing business. The general public remains safe and lives in harmony. Then Uncle Sam, to whom Mexico is DEEPLY indebted to; and to this day, is financially supporting Mexico (since the PESO collapse crisis 1995) steps in with a little Blackmail of "shut down your Cartels" or else no more Dinero from us. American Puppet Fellipe Calderon, mindlessly, takes the dare from Washington and sacrifices his own innocent people to please Washington. And how long is this going to continue to appease America? Will it be another Iraq where 1.5 million Iraqi lives were lost since the invasion. For what? For political aspirations. Mexico is much closer to home for me and really you in bordering American states. But to think that one day one of my many dear and good Mexican friends, along with the now tens of thousands already killed, could also become casualties is extremely disturbing. In the name of Mexico, I hope Felipe Calderon will stop being a Washington Puppet and honor and respect the lives of the people whom he was elected to serve. Sad.

I think the easiest path to loading pictures on this forum is thru Photobucket.com. After you get your picture uploaded to your Album in Photobucket, which is easy because it shows you step by step what to do, you simply place you cursor on the picture and a little menu pops up. Click on "HTML Code" and immediately a yellow box pops up that says "copied". What you have done is parked your picture on Photobucket and copied the address where it *lives*. You can then open a "Message" window here on this forum and PASTE in the HTML Code which is the address where your picture now *lives*. Becareful not to delete any brackets or details from the HTML Code. Leave a couple returns (lnes or spaces) above and below the HTML Code. You can type your "Message" above or below the code. Or you can email me and I will post your pic here. It's not like who I am or my email is a big secret so here it is. :) lori@colorstrategies.net

"Best trees to plant near swimming pools" https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A86.J7vUD0dYXUUAr5cPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTBzdHZpaXZrBGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNyZWw-?p=best+trees+to+plant+near+swimming+pools&type=osf01s1&hspart=avast&hsimp=yhs-brwsr001&ei=UTF-8&fr2=rs-top&fr=yhs-avast-brwsr001 10 Messy Plants You Don't Want Near The Pool When it's time for the acacia to release its flower clusters, they spread—all over your yard and into your pool. If you must have an acacia, plant it in the front yard and hope a mighty wind doesn't blow around the time of pod and flower drop. "The little tiny flowers [of Crape Myrtle] fill the pool surface with brightly colored debris. It clogs the skimmers and when it sinks it's so small a pressure-side cleaner won't pick it up most of the time," says Brian Alan Shirley, owner of Abracadabra Pool Technologies in the Decatur, Georgia, region http://poolandpatio.about.com/od/patiolandsaping/ss/10-Messy-Plants-You-Dont-Want-Near-the-Pool.htm