Lessons on climate change from Spain
Drought in Spain, a masia in Catalunya, plus a tomato rockstar from the Basque region and a hunt for Game of Thrones locations ....
Earlier this month I popped over to Spain for a few days to visit some gardens and look at urban trees and some of the problems associated with climate change.
Climate change is affecting Southern Europe badly. The area has warmed twice as fast as the rest of the world over the last 30 years, with record low river levels, droughts, crop failures and widespread forest fires. Spain is expected to experience 2℃ of warming over the next 20 years, with the worst case scenario predicting 4℃ of warming by the end of the century. Its not looking good.
More droughts, fires and floods
Spain is already experiencing higher temperatures, droughts, more high intensity fires, and floods. There has been a prolonged drought for three years, exacerbated by record high temperatures in 2022 and 2023. In 2023, some areas of Almeria didn’t see any rain at all for more than 150 days, before storms delivered around 200mm of water in a week, with the torrential rain causing widespread flooding.
At the time of my visit, May was unseasonally cool and wet, something which was very welcome.
Iconic trees in Barcelona under threat
The lime, or linden tree, is an iconic tree in Barcelona. They are seen in the famous Rambla de Catalunya alongside the London plane, as well as in many more streets. But they were planted decades ago. With the changing conditions not favouring the lime (or, indeed, the London plane) its becoming increasingly difficult to maintain newly planted trees, as this photo shows. The three-year-drought has affected these young trees badly.
Barcelona has a huge tree planting scheme to establish biodiversity corridors through the city, as well as to create green spaces with a cooling canopy of trees. Tree roots help too, by holding more water within the soil. This will be essential in the decades to come. But city planners will need to make sure that they plant a diverse mix of tree species, in case some species fail to thrive in the future climate.
The Avda Diagonal is one of the city’s most important roads, dividing the city as its name suggests and these photos where taken at its western end, near the university. There were wide pavements and cycle ways beside the road, plus double rows of trees. Although the trees within a block were all of the same species, the species varied from one block to the next, so there was some variety and it included pine trees as well as deciduous species.
Worryingly, there were signs apologising for the poor appearance of some of the trees, explaining that the drought meant the trees could not be irrigated.
The photos below show the iconic building, Planeta, with its many balconies bedecked with plants, plus the drought resilient planting around the building itself. In some ways, it reminded me of The Barbican in London. The outside planting consisted of blocks of plants, such as salvia, teucrium, thyme, lavender, plus cycads and palms. As well as being a beautiful building, it creates a green space in the city attracting insects and birds.
Vegetable growing in Catalunya
I rarely pass on the chance to wander around a kitchen garden. Our host, Anna, has a small holding, or masia, in the hills behind the coast, north of Barcelona and she has converted part of her garden and paddock to vegetable growing, with a more formal kitchen garden with arches and low raised beds near the house and a more traditional, allotment style area of raised beds and a couple of small polytunnels in the paddock. Her main issues are heat and intense sunlight, so she is growing trees and shrubs to cast shade over the vegetables, plus harvesting water. Her polytunnels extend her season in the same way as they do in the UK, but she has chosen a green cover rather than a clear one, so they cast shade in summer for her plants.
This spring has seen a lot of rain, so her vegetable beds were full of lush vegetables - her overwintered crops of globe artichokes, calabrese and cauliflowers were amazing, plus there were beds of lettuce and other crops. Their season is probably two months ahead of us and last month Anna was harvesting many kilos of broad beans. Mine have barely got going in our cold May!
Looking forward, she has a number of concerns, with water being one and pests being another. The three year drought was a wake up call for the region. With its reservoirs almost empty and a lack of snow on the mountains, water restrictions were a real possibility. Fortunately, the unseasonal and very heavy rain has replenished some of the water. But, in the future, they may not be able to fill swimming pools, use hosepipes, irrigate public gardens etc. Anna is trying to reduce her water use. One of the easiest is to leave a bucket in the shower to collect the cold water that usually disappears down the drain, while waiting for the warm water to arrive. This is used to flush the loo. Really simple, but saves a lot of water in a climate where you shower frequently.
Pests are another threat, with several tropical insects moving into the area. They are seeing new species of stink bugs and more processional caterpillars, but the one that worries Anna the most is the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus). This invasive species arrived in Italy a while ago in a shipment of tyres from Thailand, and it’s spread around the Mediterranean to Spain. Anna is used to mosquitoes in summer, but they are usually active in the evening. This species is on the wing during the day and it bites! Often they can give you multiple bites, even through clothes. Anna worries that soon she won’t be able to enjoy being out in her garden so much and she will have to use more repellent, plus there is the very real threat of mosquito-borne disease, such as dengue fever.
I spotted the sign below in a botanic garden.
It is a worry. The tiger mosquito has been spotted in Kent in recent years. Our gardens have many water features which would be perfect habitats for these insects. My own garden has lots of water and I would hate to have to cover it over or do away with it all together because of the tiger mosquito.
A tomato rockstar
I didn’t realise that Anna was a tomato fan and she likes to grow a wide selection of tomatoes - more than 75 varieties in fact. Being far more organised than I, she lists all the varieties in her note book, which I photographed instantly!! [If anybody would like the hires image so you can see the varieties more clearly, let me know]. Some names you will recognise - Moneymaker, Black Beauty, Tigrella, Green Zebra but there are many others from Spain and beyond.
I’m going to highlight one - Aretxabaleta - named the best tomato in Spain by the jury of the National Antique Tomato Fair, which takes place in Santa Cruz de Bezana in Cantabria. This variety comes from the village of Aretxabaleta in the Basque region The back story is that a farmer from the village was given seed by a nun more than 50 years ago, but by the 1990s, it was almost extinct, one of the problems being that it didn’t produce much seed. Fortunately, its wonderful taste and meaty texture led to it being saved from the brink. It described as being ‘a tomato rockstar’ in the region!
I hope Anna will update me on its progress through summer!
In case you are planning a trip to Barcelona, I’ll mention that Anna has a delightful shepherds hut which she lets out on AirBnB - if you fancy a few days in a glorious setting, surrounded by a kitchen garden (and some ducks) let me know!
Game of Thrones
Many locations around Girona were used in Game of Thrones. So being a fan, I was delighted to find myself in the city during its recent flower festival. One of the key GOT settings was Girona Cathedral used as the Great Sept of Baelor. Fans may remember the scene of Jamie Lannister riding his horse up the steps. Also, most of the scenes featuring Baavos were set in the city, including the Arab Baths and the streets of the Old Town behind the cathedral.
We also visited Castell de Santa Florentina, aka Horn Hill of House Tarly, which featured in series 6, episode 6. It’s a delightful moorish style castle, but it doesn’t have much of a garden. Here’s a good link to read more about the castle.
Thats all for now.
Happy gardening
Great article!!
I hope you travelled by train - otherwise you are contributing to climate change. Take the flight free challenge https://flightfree.co.uk/