Building our jungle

It was green in colour, though less so in spirit. 

The back garden of our house near Valencia, when we moved in, had grass and thirty-year old cypress hedges on each side. That made it attractive in its own way, but the hedges didn’t leave a lot of space in between and, as far environmental concerns go, the grass and the hedges took a lot of water for what they were. Something to avoid at a time when water crises seem to be looming.

Funnily enough, a photo of the garden when it needed no watering – in a rainstorm – shows clearly how invasive the hedges were. It was never a big garden, but the cypress hedging took 1.5 to 2m each side. That made it all but claustrophobic.

A little claustrophobic in the rain

Better, and a sun trap on a good day
but still a little narrow
Note Toffee and Luci enjoying the sun

Towering hedges under a striking sunset

Three years into our lives here, we decided it was time to make a change, especially since Danielle was keen to get some more things planted and therefore needed more space. The hedges had to go. After we’d received a shockingly steep quote for the work, we decided we’d do the bulk of it ourselves, a choice whose wisdom we later questioned more than once.

The gardeners who come to us once a week for a few minutes to tidy things up told us that if we took the branches down, they’d get the trunks out with a chain saw. On one side of the garden that was a bit of a chore but hardly unbearable.

The easier side where the hedge hadn't grown into the fence

On the other side, though, the hedge had interwoven itself into the fence so intricately, that parts of the fence were actually inside the wood of the branches. We had no choice but to take hedge and fence down together. Now, that really was hard work. The council would collect branches, if we tied them up in reasonably-sized bundles (which we did) but with no metal mixed up in them. Then there are people constantly travelling around collecting metal that people don’t want (and sometimes, if they’re not caught, even metal people still want and are using), so we could leave the fencing for collection too, but separately from the wood.

Tangle of fencing after removal of vegetation

Fortunately, our son Michael was with us. Ostensibly he was on holiday. However we unhesitatingly, and unscrupulously, put him to work for hours at a time picking out wood from fence wire.

With the fence down, the next job was to put in a new one. That needed a new low wall to hold the fence posts. We sensibly decided this work was beyond us and got both jobs done by professionals. 

New wall in

Fence posts going up

The new fence complete

Next we covered the fence with willow.

Willow going up along the fence
Note Danielle in the background, hard at work

After that we laid gravel in the garden between the new, extended beds for flowers. It amazed me just how much gravel it took. For a while, I seemed to be going out every day to buy more bags of the stuff.

Another batch of gravel bags

Toffee out inspecting the new gravel
Note the willow on both sides,
with the carefully designed gap on the right to allow 
sunlight to fall on the growing tables

Finally, Danielle could start planting. At that stage, we were simply at the mercy of the weather. We had less rain than we might have liked, but there was enough all the same, and the sun, as most people in Spain have discovered this year, was more than sufficient, whatever the climate change deniers may say about it.

The plants go in, the flowers come out

Further inspections by Toffee

The jungle takes hold

The grandkids’ playhouse in an increasingly jungle-like setting

Now, we’re just waiting for the climbing plants to grow up the willow fencing, to give us a new, much less invasive and more attractive kind of hedging. More attractive in scent, too, since the climbers include fragrant plants such as jasmine.

It took hard work, but we’re delighted with the result. And, of course, it’s a far more appropriate garden for a Mediterranean setting. It takes far less water.

I thought it would be fun to finish this post with a last image related to the one at the start. The new garden has had its first rainstorm. See for yourself how things have changed.

The jungle as rain forest