anyone's garden struggling with drought?!

[gavilan]

It's mid December ... here in Axarquia Alta we haven't had any good rain for months ... occasional drizzle but not anything more substantial ... can't burn any cuttings/leaves as surroundings far too dry/combustible ... having to bag it all up and take to punto limpio once a week ... even the succulants are wilting! ... havent known an Autumn as dry as this for years ... anyone's garden suffering similarly?

[El Cid]

Don’t you own a hosepipe to water them?

Our garden is irrigated continuously.

The rain will arrive next week.

Sid

[gavilan]

El Cid ... you wrote that your garden is irrigated continuously ... ?throughout the whole year? ... and yes I do own a hosepipe but have never had to water succulants before ... and in this area where water levels are at a critical stage, I prefer to recycle my washing up water into the garden ...and have prioritised vegetables and similar edible things ... good to hear that rain will arrive next week!

[Wicksey]

We're still irrigating but usually stop when the rains come .... this year they haven't!

[El Cid]

It’s irrigated as and when it needs it. Every day in summer and as it needs it in winter depending on whether it rains.

Sid

[Lavanda]

Gosh! We must be getting your rain and not sending any further eastwards. Sorry.

[costakid]

just checked weather forecast for Malaga city and no rain for next ten days.

[El Cid]

Still plenty of time for it to arrive. Nature seems to have a way of balancing it out. It will probably rain continuously for the whole of March and April!

The small amount of rain we had at Xmas is still in the ground. I test it with a moisture meter and it’s still pretty damp. We can survive a few more weeks before I need to turn on the irrigation. Everything has just been heavily pruned and is pretty dormant so it doesn’t need any water.

Sid

[Pamela1]

Will probably rain at Easter time when we go over, it usually does.

[El Cid]

It’s a bit later this year so you might be lucky!

Sid

[Pamela1]

Hope so Sid although the last time i was there at Easter was 2019, it was in April also, only 4 days earlier than this upcoming one.. It was freezing while the Uk basked in sunshine. People were walking around with woolly hats and scarfs on and i remember it was the topic of conversation amongst the Spanish, they kept saying when the weather changes it will go from freezing to constant every day heat.When we first bought the property the first few Easters were really good, then one year that changed and they don't seem to have been that good since.My sis in law said it always rains at Easter, that was news to me and so after that i thought those first few years of good Easters were probably lucky.
Having said that people may disagree and say that they always get good weather at Easter, no doubt it depends on where you are located.

[olive]

Just been talking with my neighbours. Inevitably the conversation turned to rain or lack of it. Unusually they were pretty unanimous that we probably aren’t going to get much more. “ It doesn’t rain like it used to”

Not surprising , desertification is the new normal.

[El Cid]

The Spanish don’t normaly change into their summer clothes until mid June. After23 years living here, I go along with that.

It’s only the tourists that wander around in shorts and tee shirts in May!

At the moment I live in at least 3 layers with the heating on almost all day!

Sid

[Wicksey]

I have found that Easter is usually horrible weather. In the UK it is often the start of nice warm spring weather but not here.

[costakid]

We have seen it rain on many easter parades in malaga. We need rain so cant really complain if its a wet march or april.

[Pamela1]

Out of eight Easter visits we have had two where the weather was lovely. We used to visit in Feb before Covid and always had a good week with t shirt temps..Fingers crossed for this year..
Was last summer slow to start Wicksey? i was talking to a lady in Granada who told me that last Summer was late, she said it was cold on the Granada coast at the beginning of July,i found it hard to believe.This was a Spanish woman, not an English one so i don't know if i understood her correctly or was it cold to her but not to a brit.
Sorry it has all gone off topic, however i can answer the question..."anyone's garden struggling with drought" Yes all the time because BIL doesn't water the flowers, shrubs etc, he doesn't care about them and he defiantly doesn't view them as important.His interest is the grape vines, Olives, fruit trees and all the veg he grows.He says he can't eat the flowers not much i can do but rely on the rain and there is never enough of that.

[Lavanda]

If possible use mulch. We make mulch by my OH running slender olive watershoots and saplings through a shredder. The end result tops flowerpots and parts of the garden where I do not want weeds and where it is hard to water. It looks nice, same as using bark but for us, it's free.There is a wonderful book by a woman called, Heidi Gildemeister,

"Gardening the Mediterranean Way. Practical Solutions for Summer-dry Climates". ISBN0-500-51183-7 Thames & Hudson.

The summer-dry bit should not put you off getting the book and studying it and putting in to practice what she advises as her system can cope with year-round droughts. She is a HUGE fan of mulch — whereas I had never heard of it before I read her book.

A tip of my own is to cover pots or areas with small pebbles or stones. It can look very attractive and it lets water through yet keeps the soil wet for longer as the sun does not strike the earth and dry it out. It also absorbs the hottest rays of the sun and helps keep the earth cool. Also, of course, never use plastic pots, ever. Use terracotta.

[Pamela1]

That seems like a realy good idea Lavanda .
I do have a few areas where there are some small raised beds with pebbles covering the soil, the plants do well.
I have lost count of how much money i have wasted replacing plants because the garden was being neglected..Mostly i have learnt roses are my best bet, i still have them all...

[Wicksey]

Yes last summer was late arriving. We have refilled our pool and used it in late May in the past, but then recent years it's been early June, but last summer we didn't refill until July. The water has to be around 27/8 before we'll dip our big toes in. I did have friends using their pools in April when the temp was only 19! Not for us though. We were using the pool into early October though which is late for us, and I didn't take the sunshade down over the cars until mid-November when the first bad winds were forecast. We have usually taken it down much earlier, so the summer seemed to start late but then went on well into autumn.

We are irrigating still. I think we had a day of rain on Christmas day but nothing more, and do hope we get a wet spring as we've had barely any rain at our house. The rain clouds seem to go up the valley at Velez or Algarrobo then go behind us and the mountains to drop back down on Nerja, so bypasses us altogether.

[gavilan]

here in Axarquia Alta. the stream is just a trickle, the reservoir merely a puddle ... and a friend who lives in the hills to the north of Velez, has almond trees dying from the drought ... until they stop planting and watering avocado and mango saplings, it will only get worse ... reminds of the early 2000s when local people were selling their land for development of urbanisations/blocks of flats etc ... that went on until the market imploded ... only when trees start dying will people get the message