Spanish Gardens in February

By Clodagh and Dick Handscombe practical holistic gardeners, authors and broadcasters resident in Spain for 25 years.

The ravages of frosts

Unfortunately gardens just inland from the Mediterranean coast suffered severe frost damage during the last ten days of January and there is the risk of more to come this month. Even the coastal town of Javea on the Costa Blanca reported minus 2 centigrade and snow falls on the Mongo mountain above the town. Having had colourful gardens and productive vegetable plots and citrus trees until Christmas it’s disheartening at times to see gardens as burnt as during the 50 year record breaking frosts of February 2005. We pray that that doesn’t happen again.

Again we plea that readers study the frost and drought resistance columns of the plant description tables in our book ‘ Your Garden in Spain – Planning planting and maintenance’. Spain is a true Mediterranean Climate with cold winters and very hot summers.

Amazing terrace gardens

In spite of the frost damage in gardens we have been amazed at the resilience of:

1. Tender flowering plants on covered terraces if the sun blind is pulled down to maintain the temperature around plants above zero when the garden has been minus five degrees centigrade.
2. Unprotected green vegetables grown in window boxes, planters and growing tables on small first floor terraces and early tomatoes covered with nothing more than upturned cut off water bottles when at the time similar vegetables have been seriously affected by the frost in local gardens and allotments.

Many creative ideas for creating year round gardens and mini allotments on apartment terraces, balconies and windowsills are given in ‘Apartment Gardening Mediterranean Style’ Santana Books 2010.

It’s now raining, but!

As February arrived so did a week of wet weather but as soon as it stops and dries out a little there is much to do in finishing the pruning of fruit trees and bushes, progressing the flower garden winter cut back and clean up, weeding vegetable plots, cleaning out garden ponds, getting seeds planted in the greenhouse and checking cuttings. Our quartet of books give appropriate seasonal guidelines.

Some early talks

The following talks have/will help long resident and new gardeners to Spain cope with the current issues at the forefront of gardeners these days.

• 13 th January U3A Val de Pop, Jalon, general meeting – ‘Question and Answer session’.
• 2 nd March Denia Rotary Fellowship Club – ‘Challenges of Mediterranean Gardening’
• 3 rd March Costa Blanca Gardeners Circle – ‘Realistic, value for money gardening’.
• 19/20 March, ‘This is Spain Exhibition’, Question and answer stall.
• ? May, Costa Blanca Gardeners Circle, Tour and talk ‘Differences between coastal and valley gardens.
• 27/28 May Parcent Flower Festival, ‘Question and Answer’ stall.

If club secretaries and cruise companies are interested in talks please contact us asap as several others not listed are in the pipeline.

We are going back on the air

Having had a rest from regular radio gardeners spots we are going back on the air on Costa Calida International Radio in March. Watch this space in four weeks time for the day and time.

At last! How to grow your own paella.

For the past four years there has been an 80% completed article on ‘Growing your own paella’ on the computer but time after time other priorities and urgent readers questions somehow stopped it being polished. But we now guarantee to ourselves and yourselves that it will be online by the end of the month.

Keeping warm

During the recent cold spell the log fire has been kept going with well dried olive orange carob and almond wood and our latest and unexpected fuel – the oily compressed cake cleaned off from the mats used to press our olives into a very tasty extra virgin cold pressed olive oil. These days a more sensible use than feeding the material to animals.

© Clodagh and Dick Handscombe February 2011.