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2 - 8 november 2012
Saving water by Jack Troughton TOP COSTA Blanca gardener Dick Handscombe aims to help save water, cut utility bills, and beat hose pipe bans with a new book packed with ideas. “Making Waterless Gardens” has advice for gardeners around the globe and should help reduce the need for watering by half. Triggered by the drought earlier this year – southern England faced hosepipe bans as early as March before receiving a lengthy soaking – Dick believes people “overuse” water because of the bad design of their gardens and allotments. “They are using thirsty plants and not improving the water retention of the compost and not realising that most plants would benefit from a bit of shade during the hot months of the year,” he told RTN. And he said many gardeners did nothing to collect rain water and simply watched a free resource drain away without benefiting plants. The book – which is subtitled ‘A Practical Reality Worldwide’ - calls upon Dick’s quarter of a century gardening in Spain and was inspired by a trip back to the UK in March.
DROUGHT He said on the train journey through the north of Spain and France he noticed how gardens had been hit by frost and drought, while in England garden centres were using irrigation systems – and people were already “moaning about having to survive another hosepipe ban.” He added: “This book has about 300 ideas to make sure you can use less water to get a much better garden in terms of beauty, interest, more productivity and low maintenance.” Dick’s top tips are to stop “watering shallow” every day and instead water “deep” every four to seven days, depending on the maturity of the plant and after three or four years stop watering trees and shrubs.
book has about 300 ideas “ This to make sure you can use less water to get a much better garden in terms of beauty, interest, more productivity and low maintenance
Cash for cancer charity
“There are probably more plants killed on the Costa Blanca by over watering than not watering,” he said. “And most cases of fungal and insect attacks are because of the high humidity caused by over watering.” Making Waterless Gardens is published electronically on Kindle via Amazon and hard copies are available by contacting Dick@ gardeninginspain. com or visiting the website By Jack Troughton www. MONEY RAISED during Xabia International College’s gardeninginspain. successful Breast Cancer Awareness Day was donated to com popular Costa Blanca charity MABS this week. President of the MABS Cancer Support Group Jacqui Phillips MBE visited the school to accept 205€ which will help those ill with cancer in the area and support their family and friends. Pictured (left to right) are Heads of College Hilary Fernandez, Head Girl Laura Warren, Jacqui, Head Boy Conor Scott and Fiona Phillips, Deputy Head of the secondary school.
A warm and wet October THE METEOROLOGICAL Agency has reported that Spain’s average temperature throughout October was 16.6 degrees 0.8 degrees above normal, making this the warmest October in 42 years. Warmest days were 8th and 9th October, when it reached 34º degrees. In towns like Pinoso Alicante, Rojales, Novelda, Elche, Benidorm, Crevillent and Madrid, the cumulative month has seen between 30 and 40 litres per square meter of rain. October 2012 ranks thirteenth among the wettest since 1971, and is the wettest since October 2008.
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