By Clodagh and Dick Handscombe practical gardeners, authors* and broadcasters who have lived in Spain for some twenty five years.Like a round of golf a regular satisfying score and a reducing handicap needs practice and a good degree of preplanning and dedication. Likewise with your golfing home in Spain. The most satisfied will enjoy their golf and leave and return to a home with restful luxuriously planted and in some cases productive terraces, courtyards and gardens. The least satisfied will be frustrated with the number of miss hits and the absence of below par scores and return to a barren or untidy outdoor living space and the thought that perhaps it would be easier and more satisfying to use golf holiday hotels.
Twenty five of the most common mistakes with Spanish gardens are summarised below. Read through the statements ticking those that apply to yourself as at today. Add up your ticks to determine your golf playing gardeners handicap score.
1. Unsuitable plants for the exposure of the property to winds and sun have been planted.
2. The plants are normally in full flower when we are not resident.
3. Little thought was given to selecting drought resistant plants.
4. Drought resistant plants have been co-planted with thirsty plants which results in pest problems.
5. There is no or little shade from the hottest summer suns.
6. There is no or little sheltered sunny spots to enjoy the winter sun.
7. There are no high shrubs or trees to give privacy from adjacent properties.
8. Plants are being lost due to a failure to forget to water them before going out to dinner.
9. As an over reaction plants are being lost because they are rotting off due to over watering.
10. Untidy dead flower heads/seed pods are left on rather than deadheading each week to stimulate continuous flowering.
11. There are no windbreaks to protect the more delicate plants from cold winter and scorching summer winds.
12. Trees and tall shrubs are not staked as canes are difficult to find in the area – what about worn out club shafts?
13. Most plantings are high care need annuals versus low care need perennials.
14. Soils were not improved before making plantings.
15. Poor quality composts were used to fill containers.
16. Poor quality versus ergonomic tools are being used. You would not put up with a poor putter as long as an awkward pair of secateurs.
17. Long distant vistas have not been preserved or enhanced by framing with plants.
18. Horror views have not been blocked out by large plants or trees – in containers if you can see them from terraces.
19. The absence of a visually pleasing even stimulating outside area means that we rarely eat outside but retreat to an air conditioned interior.
20. We are pestered by flying insects and regrettably did not plant insect inhibiting plants such as lantanas nor attract a family of geckoes.
21. We are using smelly potentially harmful chemical insecticides and fungicides rather than using ecological alternatives.
22. Because we are not out in January and February plants are not being cut back in the dormant season and are now overgrown for the space we have.
23. We have yet to plant a first fruit tree in a container on a terrace.
24. We have yet to grow any vegetables and if we have we do not grow them ecologically.
25. Security is low as we leave dying/dead plants that no one is at home when we return to the UK etc..
Clodagh and Dick Handscombe’s books were written to help you reduce your golfing handicap to single figures at least and in many cases more quickly that reducing your golf handicap to similar levels.
‘Your Garden in Spain’, ‘Growing Healthy Fruits in Spain’ and ‘Growing Healthy Vegetables in Spain’ will be of immense interest and use to holidaying owners and all year round residents be they experienced or beginner gardeners and whether you have just a small terrace or patio or a large villa garden. The books can be obtained from a good number of bookshops on the coast but for many living inland ordering them by mail order may be more convenient via the telephone on 952 485838 or internet on
www.santanabooks.com.
If you want to first read more about the books first search the OUR BOOKS section of
www.gardeninginspain.com. Having read each book description there is a convenient link at the bottom of each through to the publishers website.
