Dry Gardening in the Algarve

WORDS Tamsin Varley

As a result of this year’s poor rainfall, the government announced in March that 95.5% of the country was in severe or extreme drought. A recent report by the European Commission predicted southern Europe will get warmer and drier due to climate change, which means that we all need to start thinking about how we use water responsibly. 

Olivier Filippi is known as the dry gardening guru. He is a pioneer of drought-tolerant planting, having written several books on the topic. His book The Dry Gardening Handbook is an inspiration on how to have a beautiful garden using minimal water.

Recently, I visited a local friend’s house and was utterly amazed by the transformation of part of her garden, which looked absolutely stunning. Chatting to her, it transpired that she had bought Olivier’s book and this had inspired her planting plan. Jacqui Beer, along with partner Dave Cash, have completely renovated a property near Silves. Their dry garden is approximately seven by eleven metres with heavy, stony clay. Armed with a hammer drill, they dug out about one hundred holes and planted them with a mixture of grasses, lavenders, sea lavenders (Limonium sinuatum), Euphorbias, and Santolinas. 

As recommended in the book, they dug water basins which can hold up to thirty litres of water and then soaked the plants once every two or three weeks in summer to promote deep and healthy root growth. Now in its second summer, Jacqui plans to cut down on the watering and has also added a gravel mulch to minimise evaporation. The effect of the purple flowers and the grass leaves and flowers swaying in the wind was really mesmerising and looked like a miniature prairie.


Jacqui Beer’s Garden

When I planted my gravel gardens over ten years ago, I was also heavily influenced by Oliver Filippi. I used a different set of plants from Jacqui and sourced them directly from his nursery in France. I used more shrubs such as Phlomis, California lilac (Ceanothus), Spanish broom (Spartium junceum), Mock orange (Choisya), Germander (Teucrium) and Buddleia plus perennials such as catmint (Nepeta), Santolinas, Lavenders, Epilobium, Euphorbias, Russian sage (Perovskia) and Salvias. It looked fantastic for about eight years, but then some of the shrubs died and many of the perennials were past their best. 

Disaster struck in 2019 when I suddenly lost a huge Ceanothus, which was not unexpected as they are short-lived plants. It left a huge gap in this area, so I had a rectangular raised bed built from sleepers that I planted with succulents. I planned to build an L-shaped bed, but the other side of the “L” was put on hold whilst I tried unsuccessfully to propagate a Sambac Jasmine, which I adore as it has such a strong perfume. 

In the end, I took a risk and had the second raised bed built, buried the jasmine, and hoped it would shoot again above the new soil level – which it did, much to my relief. However, I was still unsatisfied with this area and decided to completely clear the rest of it and commissioned Dee Southey, a master at designing with rocks, to create an illusion of a dry pool and some raised beds supported by rocks. I then planted it mainly with succulents, including my new passion for Mangaves and softened them with some Phlomis, miniature pomegranates, grasses and Jupiter’s Beard (Anthyllis barba-jovis). I am now thrilled with the result, which is only two years old but looks really established, and requires minimal maintenance and virtually no water.


Tamsin Varley’s Garden

Tamsin Varley’s Garden

Tamsin Varley’s Garden

Tamsin Varley is a member of Clube Dos Bons Jardins, a small, friendly multi-national garden club that meets at different locations around the Algarve on the 2nd Tuesday every month except over the summer, with an optional lunch afterwards.

algarvecbj@gmail.com

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