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When we moved into our house in Cadiz on the south west
coast of Spain, our garden, once part of the pine wood planted
in the 18th century to provide much-needed timber for the
shipbuilding industry, had been turned into what appeared to
be a rubbish dump. Builders must be notorious worldwide for
their skills in destruction. We had been left with a handful of
stone pines, Pinus pinea, and Cork Oaks, Quercus suber,
admist piles of aggregate, with the odd Crocus bravely pushing its way
up through the rubble. The scrub of the the former pine woods
had survived happily in a shallow layer of leaf mould,
protected from the elements it had no need of a deep layer of
topsoil. But even this had gone with the builders. All that
remained was a hard layer of red clay that turned to rock in
the summer. Hence the name of the district - 'La Barrosa' from
the Spanish word for clay, Barro.
I was determined to restore the damage and wanted a natural garden
with as many autochthonous species as possible, in order to recreate a habitat for the little
wildlife that remained. Exposed to the hot summer sun, torrential rain
in the autumn, the occasional frost in winter and vicious easterly
winds that can blow for days on end, it was not going to be an
easy task.
In haste we set about improving the soil by digging in
as much organic matter as possible. We make our own
compost, which provides a rich dark humus that helps to break
up the clay as well as providing valuable nutrients. While
waiting for the first load of compost to mature we used goat
manure and leaf mould. Plants slowly began to florish, and
patches of bare soil were disappearing. Then came the end of
th drought and the heavens opened. Lavender, thyme, salvia,
cistus rotted in waterlogged soils, topsoils were washed away
and plants vanished down gaping holes as subsidence occured.
Back to square one, but after a lesson well learned: a
little more patience, observation and study beforehand could
have saved much time and effort later. We made deep gravel
drainage ditches, dug in heaps more compost to improve soil
structure and replanted the more vulnerable species in areas
we now knew to be safe from flodding. Mulches of pine
needles, bark or gravel were spread to protect against erosion
and leaching, as well as to conserve water in the drier months.
The wet weather provided the answer to one puzzle
however - where were the worms? In all the digging we came
across not a single worm. Did earthworms not live in
Andalucia? We consulted a local worm expert who explained
that Spanish worms were solitary creatures and therefore
difficult to find - we weren't convinced. We considered
importing worms from another area of Spain but this seemed
to go against our idea of a natural garden. At the end of the
first year there was great excitement - a big fat juicy worm.
It was carefully placed in a shady area with lots of detritus and
needless to say disappeared forever. And so we continued for
the next two years when the drought ended. After 40 days of
non-stop torrential rain and heavy flooding we finally solved
the mystery. In the hot dry summers the worms burrow deep
down into the clay and only after the rains do they surface in
order to avoid drowing in the waterlogged soil. Worms now
abound, even breeding in the doormats in the really wet
weather.
With nurseries here offering little in the way of native
shrubs, we salvaged many plants from the building sites, a
method which proved quite successful provided the plants
were transplanted after the first rains in autumn. Cistus
palhinhae (a sticky species with magnificent large white tissue
paper flowers and glossy leaves) grows in nothing along the
cliff-tops and moved happily to our hard clay in full sun but
objects strongly to being watered; Cistus salvifolius (A low growing species with wrinkly leaves and white flowers)
provides good ground cover; Halimium halimifolium (the silvery leaves being almost as attractive as the yellow
flowers), Myrtus communis, Rosemarinus officinalis, Lavandula stoechas, Teucrium fruticans were all
successfully transfered to a lighter soil with some shade. Cistus ladanifer, struck from a cutting, grew into a
handsome 3 meter shrub in as many years, flowering
continually from February to June. Perennials such as Anagallis monellii (with brilliant blue flowers), Sweet
Alison (Lobularia maritima - sweet scented white flowers)
and Storksbill (Erodium primulaceum - pink flowers)
provide colour in the spring.
Judith Barclay.
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