Blog by CIndy Yee, UC Master Gardener
Greetings from a Road Scholar tour called “Tales of Iberia: Portugal and Spain”. In Cordoba, our local guide Lucia took us to visit a few local home patio gardens, which are basically enclosed courtyards or atriums. Annually, every May, Cordoba holds a competition for the best patio gardens. This year there will be 48 competitors. One garden reportedly won as a heritage garden, it was then sold and redone, and upon completion, promptly won the contemporary category. They are divided into heritage-style gardens, and newer contemporary-style gardens. There is even a category for window gardens (not shown here), and exhibition gardens are not included in the competition. At each home, the proud owners welcomed us into their gardens.
Lucia showed us the original way they water the hanging pots—with a small bucket attached to a long stick. Cork is used as a buffer between each pot and the wall, helping minimize water dripping on the wall and preventing staining. The gardens were often started by the host’s parents or grandparents. She said that some homes have since progressed to a drip irrigation system, but no drips were obvious to me.
