The Gardener’s Dream

All of us who love gardening and even people who have never gardened before feel at once on coming to live in Spain that it is a chance of gardening in paradise. The brilliant light, a welcoming climate, and the flowers, trees and shrubs growing everywhere, all combine to tempt us to try to grow something ourselves.

Of course there is a winter season. Rain must fall but coming from Northern Europe, it seems unbelievable that in this subtropical climate, the sun shines all the year round. Where was the snow, the ice, the freezing wind and the low, grey sky pressing down for a fortnight at a time?

In midwinter in our northern gardens the high beeches would be bare. Little voles would be running through their domed tunnels under the snow. The hedgehogs would be sleeping the winter away deep in the Irish yew. Here we had come to live in an unbelievable world of good weather, colour and sunshine. One neighbour said: “You never get bad weather all day here. If it rains in the morning, the sun comes out in the afternoon.”

Perhaps that isn’t strictly true. You may get some steady rain. We have one or two storms most winters when the rain dances in sideways from the bay in squalls, looking like a regiment of ghosts storming the sand- dunes but the rain never lasts long. The trees in the garden are green. The terrace is bright with geraniums. Outside one set of flowers hands over to another, like runners in a relay race.

White showers of December jasmine and flaming aloes cheer the garden. Fluffy yellow mimosa gives scent and colour together. The fuchsias, Christmas cacti and poinsettias of December lead straight on to the pink flowering cherry, narcissi, hazel catkins, bougainvillaea, heather and lemons of January.  In short, we have flowers in borders, on bushes, trees or on the patio every day of the year.

Naturally, gardening in Spain is different from gardening in colder climates. Look round and see what grows well in your area before you set about it, almost everyone is prepared to help you. Whether you live in a palace or an apartment, whether you plan to lay out rich acres or content yourself with bright pots on a balcony. Spain is the fullfiment of a gardener’s dream.