The soil at the very top of La Corolla is truly appalling. Other gardeners might complain of heavy, wet clay or perhaps free-draining alkaline soil on top of solid chalk.
What we have here is highly acidic powder. Sand would be a flattering description. Rain runs straight through it in winter and runs straight off it in the summer. Until we started planting here, there was no shade at all.
For plants to survive up here, they don’t just need to be resilient, they need to be bomb-proof. Come the apocalypse, what we’ve planted here will be keeping the cockroaches company.
Through trial and error, all the plants have proven that they’ve got what it takes to survive whatever the elements and the soil conditions can throw at them. Mostly evergreen trees and shrubs, there’s a contrasting mix of Mediterranean staples (holm oaks, cork oaks, strawberry trees) and more exotic fare (cedars, pines, firs).
