Southern Europe
Gardening in Spain
Long hot summers, sharp inland winters, and a genuine water budget to respect.
The numbers that decide your year
- Growing zones
- USDA 8a–11a · Mediterranean to semi-arid
- Last spring frost
- February on the coast, April inland
- First autumn frost
- November to December inland
- Rainfall
- 300–600 mm, autumn and spring
The local challenge
Heat and evaporation. Shade and mulch are not decoration here, they are irrigation.
Rules worth knowing
Regional water restrictions are enforced in summer; some regions restrict planting invasive species such as pampas grass.
How people actually garden here
- Patio gardens
- Dry gravel planting
- Citrus courtyards
- Terraced huertas
Native to this country
Plants that evolved here. They ask least of you and give most back to local insects and birds.
Reliable in this climate
Introduced rather than native, but proven in these conditions. Each links to its full encyclopedia entry.
Seasonal jobs
Open the calendarThe calendar reads your device clock and orders every job for the northern hemisphere.
The printed guide
The Spain Gardening Guide
288 pages written for this country alone: its soil, its frost dates, its rules and the plants that reward the effort. Everything on this page, expanded and in your hands.
- Designing for a water budget
- Shade as a structure
- The huerta vegetable year
- Citrus, olives and almonds
- Coastal salt and wind
- Inland frost pockets
€9.95288 pages · PDF download