Home & Garden
Page 40
Female Focus
www.charlesworthgardens.com
Happy New Year, we’ve completed another annual cycle and it all starts here again. Every time winter comes around it always reminds me of just how cold and wintery it still can be here in Spain, and therefore this naturally results in having to take some care of your garden.
Despite the temperatures on the coast not being too bad +/-5 degrees (normally at their worst), inland, especially in the valleys, temperatures drop to around -7 degrees centigrade in places. This inevitably means that even plants that can survive -5 conditions fi nd it hard, resulting in the loss of many plants. This means that planting in the valleys can be very diffi cult as choices are limited due to cold winters and very hot summers as the heat gets trapped in the valleys during the summer.
This means there are three main choices for gardening in extreme areas.
1. You can choose to use standard and even tropical plants (which will love the summer conditions) but it means you will have to either keep some planting mobile or protected. By mobile I mean they have to be in pots be it large or small so you then have the ability to move or ask your gardener to move them into more sheltered areas within the garden to protect them through the winter. You can also fi x up small shelters with frost proof fabric to help protect larger plants that are situated in the garden.
2. You can take the option of using frost hardy plants, the only problem being that many plants that are fi ne with the frost will then fi nd it too hot in summer so you have to go for a range of plants more like conifers etc that will be able to withstand both extremes of temperatures but this leaves your garden palette looking a little bland.
3. You can create, either by studying or trial and error, a specifi c micro climate in your own garden. This is achievable but sometimes may take a little time as you will need hedges and trees to develop fi rst to create a more sheltered environment that only allows warm air from the south and exposes the garden only to the south. Then using clever planting schemes utilise the best plants in the best positions within the garden to give variation and protection.
Unfortunately to get a really nice garden that works well will take some time, but my biggest tip for anyone starting a garden in this type of situation is to look at what is growing in neighbouring gardens, how well it is growing and its planting position within the garden. These are all good indicators as to what is achievable for you.
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