Mediterranean Garden Society
Mediterranean Garden Society
A Garden in the Spanish Countryside
by José Pedro Alba García
Photographs by José Pedro Alba García
Photographs to illustrate the article published in The Mediterranean Garden No. 120, April 2025
The photo at the top of this page shows the lake at El Jardin del Rosario (photo José Pedro Alba García)
José Pedro Alba García writes: Andalucía is famous for its beaches, white villages, flamenco, delicious tapas and generous people. Yet it is less well known for its gardens. There are old Moorish palace gardens, colourful patios full of pots, and the modern, often species-poor, gardens of expatriates. My family and I have created our own garden, which we regard as a paradise, called El Jardin del Rosario. Over the past 45 years we have developed eight hectares of bare land to be home to over 30,000 trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants. Some visitors describe it as a park rather than a garden. I would like to share with you how our special garden came into being, what is there now and a little on its future.
The beginning
We were living in Málaga, where I designed infrastructures as a civil engineer. At the beginning of 1979, my wife, Maria José, and I decided to find somewhere to emphasise our love of nature and where our children could spend as much time as possible in an environment which was healthy for body and spirit. The landscape of the upper valley of the Guadalhorce and the northern slopes of the Sierra de Camarolos attracted us with its grandeur and its simplicity. The climate, though more extreme than in Málaga, was never an obstacle to us; rather it was a welcome contrast to Málaga’s seaside climate. Until then our sole relationship with this area and its population had consisted of driving along its poorly maintained roads en route to Loja, the town of María José’s childhood.
We found a plot of barren land not far from Villanueva del Rosario. Nowadays this town can be reached in about 40 minutes from Málaga, but 45 years ago access took much longer along unsurfaced roads. The area lacked drinking water, electricity and a telephone connection. However, with faith, enthusiasm and some technical knowledge we collaborated with the town council of Villanueva del Rosario and our neighbours to solve these infrastructure problems; before long, all the homes in the neighbourhood had these services including a paved road – an extraordinary achievement. We built a house there, a sanctuary where we could connect with nature and escape the stresses of city life.
Out of sheer ignorance I never considered the unsuitability of the land for agriculture or why it was barren wasteland. Since I wasn’t planning to farm, I wasn’t concerned about the soil profile, which was poor, consisting of clay, gypsum and gravel, none of which help with drainage and root oxygenation. Over the years we have substantially improved the soil through cultivating deeply, adding around 40cm of good-quality topsoil and organic matter, especially manure. A small stream borders the area to the north whose leafy banks we took particular care to preserve. The natural vegetation consisted of ash trees (Fraxinus excelsior), kermes oaks (Quercus coccifera), holm oaks (Quercus ilex), poplars (Populus nigra) and medlars (Mespilus germanica), which we care for with the same affection as the plants we introduced.
Our property is in an area where the surrounding mountains significantly affect the climate. At 640-680 metres above sea level it is situated to the north of the natural mountain barrier that separates the coastal strip of Andalucía from its interior. The plot offers a variety of opportunities for positioning plants as it extends over an elongated hill in an east-west direction. The climatic conditions are very different on the two slopes making up the terrain. The south-facing slope is dedicated to the cultivation of olive trees and those plants that require less humidity and more sunshine. The north-facing land has proved more suitable for the plants which would otherwise have suffered from the heat and strong winds.
The climate is mediterranean-continental: the summers are very long and dry with temperatures reaching 36 to 38 C, while the winters are humid but with low temperatures that at times have reached minus 13 C, an important aspect to consider when selecting plants. Annual rainfall averages 550mm, with most rain occurring during autumn. The lack of any rainfall for at least four months each year makes watering essential. It is also necessary to take into account the significant solar radiation for a good part of the year, as well as the strong south winds which have a drying effect and are harmful to some species we have planted. For these reasons we designed the garden to take advantage of groundwater catchments and run-off from the property itself. We also constructed a large pond of 30,000 cubic metres to store water drawn from two wells we built on the property. The average water distribution is over 1,400 cubic metres per hectare per year, which is much less than the common provision for agricultural irrigation in Andalucía. This feeds into more than 25 kilometres of tubes for drip irrigation.
A network of paths of more than four kilometres was laid, suitable both for walking around the garden in a leisurely manner as well as for the small vehicles necessary for garden maintenance. These pedestrian paths are periodically treated with shredded pruning waste. My professional background as a civil engineer has certainly proved to be useful for the planning and execution of the large amount of structural work we undertook.
The concept of the garden
At first there was no detailed plan for the garden, but we always had one main goal: to create beauty through pleasant sensory effects, particularly scents and colours. We tried to develop the garden according to the ‘English Wild Garden’ style introduced by William Robinson in the mid-19th century, who advocated integrating new plants in a garden with the pre-existing flora to create a natural impression. The ideas of the contemporary garden designer Piet Oudolf also inspired us. So we have the overall theme of a natural rather than a formal garden layout. Working within this theme we chose to plant species with contrasting shapes and colours to create visual impact.
We learnt from our travel and reading that there are some extraordinary parks and gardens today, especially in Anglo-Saxon countries where there is a long tradition of gardening. These famous gardens were largely the result of individual and private initiative, rather than a governmental undertaking. Thus we knew that the creation and ensuing development of a garden of this type required commitment to devoting a lot of time and enthusiasm to the task, as well as the patience to persevere, whatever setbacks might arise.
Planning and planting
The garden currently covers about eight hectares and is the result of successive plantings. There were two basic stages of development. During the first stage, before 2003, we chose plants because we liked them, without a detailed plan. We planted cherry trees, almond trees, various fruit trees, olives and a small pine forest in the northern part of the land. We also incorporated some common species of ornamental trees to provide shade around the house we built. At the end of this period, we planted some more forest-type trees, as well as some smaller, purely ornamental plants near the house: low-growing conifers, rose bushes, irises and various other species.
As all gardeners know, one of the joys – as well as sometimes a frustration – of gardening is that it is a continual learning process. As we saw the results from our planting and learnt more about flora, we thought more about how to design and plant new areas. This led to the second stage of our garden’s development. This stage began 20 years ago and continues today. Our focus is on creating a garden dedicated to a collection that is interesting to gardeners and botanists, as well as important at the national level because of its botanical diversity and for the uniqueness of many of its plants.
Initially in this second stage our aim was to achieve quick results by planting trees of a certain size supplied by a friend who is the owner of a major nursery in Andalucía – Viveros Guzmán, He acquired many of these trees from nurseries in Pistoia, Italy. I took the opportunity to visit those Italian nurseries to select specimens of specific species that we transported back to Villanueva del Rosario in a truck and trailer. Those first trees were oaks, maples, lime trees and the occasional conifer, all common species and available without major difficulties.
At the same time, I started exploring specialised magazines, books and the internet, as well as visiting gardens. In fact, the creation and maintenance of this garden would not have been possible without this continuous study. Membership of several associations that bring together gardening enthusiasts, such as the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), the American Horticultural Society (AHS), the International Dendrology Society (IDS), the International Oak Society (IOS), the Mediterranean Garden Society (MGS), the Société d'Horticulture de France (SHF) and the Sociedad de Amigos del Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid (RJBMI) provided us with access to diverse and interesting information on which we based our decisions. I have compiled a specialised library of around 1,600 volumes and periodicals. Our visits to 50 gardens and parks were also an important source of inspiration. These memberships and visits have also been a great opportunity for making valuable personal contacts with fellow plant enthusiasts.
Using my growing knowledge I identified plants that might be suitable for our vision of the garden, learnt about their characteristics and cultivation requirements, then found a nursery which could supply them. The organisation for obtaining these plants was sometimes extremely complex. Plants were acquired from more than 30 nurseries in Spain, Italy, France, Holland, Belgium, England and Germany. I would choose a specific location in the garden for each plant only after an order was confirmed by a supplier. Plants that we could not find in European nurseries we grew from seeds acquired in Canada, the USA, Colombia and South Africa.
Other rare and unique genera present in the garden in smaller numbers include Torreya, Metasequoia, Cunninghamia, Sequoia and Sequoiadendron among the conifers, Styrax, Sapium, Idesia, Toona, Carya, Sycoparrotia, Emmenopterys and Pterocarya among the deciduous trees, and Fremontodendron, Garrya and Nerine among the lower-growing plants. We grow Larix coming from colder climates and Acacia of African origin. Other beautiful species for parts of the year include Taxodium distichum, Pinus devoniana and P. roxburghii, all of the Amelanchier and the majority of Acer.
Our largest collection is of Quercus, with 167 different species. Of these the most beautiful are: Quercus rubra, Q. alba, Q. shumardii, Q. marilandica, Q. acutifolia, Q. rysophylla, Q. buckleyi, Q. castaneifolia and many others. Visiting members of the International Oak Society in 2017 were particularly pleased to see healthy examples of Quercus cornelius-mulleri, Quercus dumosa, Quercus invaginata, Quercus ajoensis and Quercus canbyi (all originating from the Americas) as well as some Quercus species of Asian origin, such as Q. leucotrichophora and Q. variabilis.
I love all the trees we have planted, but my favourite tree of all on our land is the Quercus shumardii, which I planted 25 years ago. My appreciation of its beauty and structure grows each year as the tree does. I am a member of an international garden group that promotes and helps distribute seeds of Quercus worldwide, coordinated by Béatrice Chassé from the International Oak Society. This connection has led to new plants for the garden being raised in our modest nursery, such as Q. acutifolia, Q. berberidifolia, Q. cornelius-mulleri, Q. laceyi, Q. hypoxantha, Q. × basaseachicensis as well as a few others.
These trees and shrubs deserve mention for their scent: most Viburnum, Syringa, Philadelphus, Elaeagnus and Rosa (especially the English roses).
Management and maintenance
For ease of maintenance, the garden has been divided into 27 areas, typically marked by the paths and boundaries of the property. To support the day-to-day management of Jardín del Rosario, we created our own digital records 20 years ago. This contains the majority of woody plants in the collection, around 18,000 plants. Plants are identified by a five-digit code for monitoring and control: the first two digits correspond to the location area, while the remaining three are assigned individually to trees and shrubs, and by groups for most herbaceous plants. Trees and shrubs are entered into the system with their GPS position in the garden, date of planting, initial size, nursery of origin, and many other details such as their flowering period, fruit, scent and autumn colour as well as maintenance requirements. We try to update the entry with a photo of the plant every ten years. There is a search tool to find plants by genus, species or code, a photo gallery and references to outside sources. This database provides information not only for the maintenance of the garden but also for visitors. For example, you can plan a tour of the garden by following a route for a specific time of year, or even by a preferred colour of bloom. You can explore our website here, though, as you will see from the home page, you will need to register first to gain access. A few years ago, during a visit by a group from the USA, I had the opportunity to talk about our digital programme with Katherine Greenberg, former president of the MGS, who raised the possibility of moving forward with the University of Berkeley in the development of our ideas, a proposal that I was not able to accept at the time.
I try to walk through the garden every day. It is important to observe potential issues while also taking time to appreciate its beauty. I also appreciate seeing the numerous species of birds that are attracted to our ‘paradise’. There are two full-time gardeners, with up to eight extras brought in during spring and summer and of course our family helps at times as well. My motto is ‘The gardener’s work involves carrying out actions that can always be postponed to tomorrow – but never to the day after’. Generally it is pleasant and rewarding work, but the garden requires constant attention. Watering by drip irrigation is needed, fertilising – usually in the form of manure, working the soil for aeration and weeding, pruning – usually very limited but necessary when the tree is in the training period, recycling of garden waste and treating against pests and diseases – though we try to limit applying such treatments. Protecting the trunks of some young tree species, such as Prunus, Acer and others, from intense sunlight is also an issue that requires attention. Then there is the necessity to divide some herbaceous species to give them more space and thereby promote healthy growth. In addition there is the necessary seed propagation.
Conclusions
My wife Maria José and our children, as well as various collaborators, have shared my enthusiasm and energy in creating El Jardín del Rosario. We hope that, given further time and due care, the garden will reach the fullness that we envisaged all those years ago. It brings great satisfaction to have received recognition and awards at the regional and national levels: in 2018 from Club de Jardinería de la Costa del Sol y de la Diputación de Málaga and in 2023 from Socieded de Amigos del Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid – which is awarded each year to the garden, publicly or privately owned, that has distinguished itself for its botanical, historical or landscape values, as well as for its maintenance. There have been references to the garden in publications from AHS (‘A Spanish Garden Adventure’ by Lynne Hoffman) and IOS (‘El Jardin del Rosario, Spain, October 27-28 2017’ by Béatrce Chassé). Today we are happy to be able to share the beauty of the flora in El Jardín del Rosario with other plant lovers. We welcome visits to our garden from interested individuals, fellow members of the MGS for example, although it is not open to the public.
We hope to continue nurturing this special garden, enhancing biodiversity and protecting ornamental plant species. May God grant us all good health so that we can continue to enjoy El Jardín del Rosario.
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