Gardening in Malta

Abstract

Any sort of literature or expert written advice on gardening in Malta has always been sparse and hard to come by. In the early years of this century gardening was not taken very seriously except by the few owners of big, quite often amateurly landscaped gardens. There were no such aids as water pumps or rotomotors in those days, but labour was cheap and plentiful. In 1910 a booklet entitled Notes on Gardening in Malta, compiled by Captain E. F. Price, Royal Navy, was printed at the office of The Daily Malta Chronicle. This small work of under 100 pages was reprinted from articles written by Dr J. Borg M.D. which had appeared previously in the Chronicle, plus some extra material supplied by other enthusiastic amateur gardeners. In 1925 Dr Borg, who by now was denoting most of his time and energy to his keen interest in horticulture, published a new book called Gardening in Malta which updated the previous 1910 booklet and gave considerably more information on gardening in a book twice the size of its predecessor. [excerpt]