A book I found helpful in understanding mediterranean climates was Oliveri Filippi's The Dry Gardening Handbook: Plants and Practices for a Changing Climate. This book discusses all the main mediterranean climate regions around the world, biogeography, plus plants from each. Based on this, I took the step of setting up a new bed that gets no artificial water, which in my area means no summer water. It's done very well in general, though my soil is apparently not well drained enough for some winter wet, summer very dry species. Kathleen Where locals are sawing up thousands of trees that fell in the last storm, temps in the 50s, and no rain or wind today, and I have power once again.