Monty Don's Spanish Gardens episode 2 - Monty Don embarks on a captivating journey through the southern regions of Spain, starting from the enchanting island of Mallorca and making his way to Seville, the vibrant capital of Andalusia. This expedition is not merely a tour; it is a deep dive into the heart of the Mediterranean's warmth and the rugged beauty that defines this landscape.
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00:00 Like many people, my experience of Spain has come from going on holiday,
00:04 mainly in the sun-soaked south.
00:06 But that's only a very small part of this huge country.
00:10 Spain's history is deep and complicated,
00:17 and its landscapes, climates and cultures have huge diversity.
00:23 And in this series, I want to get under the skin of the country,
00:29 by visiting as many gardens in Spain as I can.
00:33 So I can shed light on this nation's past, its future and its people.
00:39 Wow, that's a whopper.
00:42 I've seen gardens that are public, as well as gardens that are very private.
00:48 I've seen gardens made for unlikely clients.
00:51 Now, show me the garden.
00:52 I've also found inspiring gardens in unlikely places.
00:57 It's a surprise inside a building, it's a surprise inside a school.
01:01 And as I've travelled over 4,000 kilometres,
01:05 I've seen modern masterpieces,
01:08 as well as lovingly tended historical jewels.
01:12 This is a complex and vast country.
01:18 There is so much to see and so much to learn.
01:23 (GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC)
01:26 I've decided to begin here on the island of Mallorca,
01:40 in fact, right up on the northern tip of the island.
01:43 Because although a lot of British people I know think of Mallorca
01:47 primarily as a holiday destination,
01:49 it's also rich in gardens, very varied and completely fascinating.
01:55 While I'm here on the island, I'm going to visit four very different gardens.
02:01 I'll then make for the mainland and drive right across the south of the country,
02:12 visiting a modern garden packed with plants.
02:15 An extraordinary place built for an extraordinary owner.
02:19 And an ambitious project to bring old-world charm back to the coast.
02:25 How many pots are there in all in the city?
02:28 More than 16,000.
02:30 Wow. Wow, wow, wow.
02:33 And I'm starting here in this garden, overlooking Porto Palenza,
02:39 which is almost impossibly glamorous,
02:42 but actually also has a deep and rich history.
02:46 This is La Fortaleza.
02:52 Which was originally built as a fort set high above the bay and port.
03:00 It's now a wedding venue, an occasional film set.
03:08 (PORTALESCENSE)
03:11 The garden is still dominated by its original defensive fort,
03:17 which was begun in 1623.
03:20 And it defended then the important port of Puerto Palenza,
03:24 which was at the trading crossroads of the Mediterranean
03:27 and, in consequence, often raided by pirates.
03:34 In 1919, the wealthy Argentinian painter Roberto Romage
03:39 bought and converted the fort.
03:42 Making an extravagant yet elegant 1920s garden
03:47 with its topiary and cypresses
03:50 that captures the full romance of the location.
03:53 This was where Romage would invite his artistic friends,
03:59 such as Pablo Picasso, to stay
04:02 and enjoy famously wild parties.
04:05 And it included this swimming pool
04:11 in all its glorious theatrical excess.
04:14 What I really like about this garden
04:27 is the way that each layer of history remains.
04:30 It hasn't been erased or sort of trodden over
04:33 with the heavy feet of its successors.
04:36 So you have the 1620s tower and the 1920s garden all around it
04:40 with these now mature planting,
04:42 which hosted these rather extraordinary parties.
04:46 But it all came to an abrupt end with the Spanish Civil War.
04:56 And in 1936, the fortress was confiscated by the Spanish Air Force.
05:01 It was subsequently abandoned and fell into disrepair
05:08 until the house and garden were lovingly restored
05:12 and then sold in 2008 as the most expensive property
05:16 in the whole of Spain at that time.
05:20 (BIRDS CHIRPING)
05:22 Mallorca's position in the Mediterranean
05:41 has meant it's always been a key strategic stronghold
05:45 and an important centre of trade,
05:48 so it has had an influx of visitors and invaders for millennia.
05:53 The reason why there are defensive positions like Fortaleza
06:06 and others around the island
06:08 is because throughout its long history
06:10 it has been occupied, invaded, defended,
06:14 from the Romans through the Visigoths
06:17 who had Islamic occupation for over 300 years
06:20 as part of Islamic Spain,
06:22 and then the Bourbon Empire, with its main centre in Naples,
06:26 trading influences from Northern Europe.
06:28 And all these people, all these different cultures,
06:31 left their mark on its gardens.
06:34 So I'm now off to see
06:41 one of Mallorca's most significant historic gardens.
06:46 The Alfabia Gardens are situated inland, north of Parma,
06:49 beneath the Tramuntana Mountains.
06:52 Alfabia is a large manor house...
06:56 ..with elaborate gardens that flow seamlessly
07:02 into the surrounding orchards and farmland.
07:05 Dating from the 11th century,
07:13 the roots of the Alfabia are Moorish.
07:16 Water is the absolute key to these Mallorcan gardens.
07:25 The rain is very erratic
07:27 and often doesn't rain for months in summer,
07:30 but the water collects down to the water table,
07:34 and the Moorish gardeners learnt
07:37 that if you tunnel down to the water table,
07:40 and this meant going at an angle,
07:42 the pressure would drive back up...
07:45 ..to the ground level,
07:48 and then it could be channelled down to wherever it was needed.
07:51 So this system was developed and used by the Islamic gardeners
07:56 and then was passed on in 1230,
07:59 when the Catalans took over, and was used then.
08:03 The gardens at Alfabia are a clear example
08:09 of how every culture that's come into contact with Mallorca
08:12 has found its way into its gardens.
08:15 In the 17th century,
08:21 there was a very strong Italian influence here in Mallorca,
08:24 and, of course, the Baroque gardens used water for play.
08:36 These jets were designed to be operated by a pressure switch,
08:40 triggered unwittingly by visitors,
08:42 who subsequently got a soaking to general hilarity.
08:46 And to keep the water pressure constant,
08:54 they built tanks and reservoirs,
08:56 including this exquisitely beautiful one.
09:01 (BIRDS CHIRP)
09:03 This part of the garden was the latest to be added.
09:15 It's called the Romantic garden,
09:17 and it features plants that were gathered from all over the world.
09:21 In fact, this was a trend of the 19th century happening in Europe.
09:25 So we see, for example,
09:27 growing in this very dry Mediterranean climate.
09:30 There are cedars, there are pines, there are strelitzias.
09:34 And only existing, by and large,
09:38 because of this incredibly efficient irrigation system.
09:42 It certainly brings home to me
09:50 just how much we take water for granted in the UK.
09:54 Yes, we complain about it a lot,
09:56 but it's pretty constant, and we can depend upon it.
10:00 But here, the gardens wouldn't exist at all
10:04 without an ancient system of irrigation
10:07 that has seamlessly gone from the Moorish occupation,
10:11 which lasted for over 300 years,
10:13 to the Christian one in medieval times.
10:15 And seeing how that works is another piece of the jigsaw
10:19 that makes up the gardens of this island.
10:22 (BIRDS CHIRPING)
10:24 It's early on a Sunday morning
10:33 in the hill town of Sinew, right in the centre of the island.
10:37 The mountainous interior
10:48 has long been where people from overseas come to settle.
10:51 Attracted by the beauty of the landscape and the architecture,
10:56 as well as the Mediterranean lifestyle and climate.
11:00 And I'm now going to visit a garden made by a Swiss expatriate,
11:13 who has influenced gardens
11:15 dealing with an increasingly dry climate the world over.
11:20 (PIANO MUSIC)
11:22 Torre d'Ariant is up a steep five-kilometre track
11:27 on the north of the island,
11:29 set in spectacular but extremely rough, stony land.
11:34 When Heidi Gildermeister bought this old farmhouse
11:44 and the ten-hectare plot in the early 1980s,
11:47 she had originally envisaged creating a garden here
11:50 that would be a kind of tropical jungle.
11:53 So, that first winter, she planted accordingly,
12:00 and initially everything looked green and lush.
12:03 But as soon as the heat and drought of spring and summer came,
12:08 everything she planted withered and died.
12:15 Is this a natural hillside here? Yes.
12:18 So, this is what it looked like.
12:20 Faced with this reality, Heidi spent the next 25 years
12:28 experimenting and adapting her plans.
12:31 And as I'm guided through the garden in the late afternoon
12:41 by Susanna Quintanilla, who now looks after it,
12:44 the results of Heidi's meticulous experimentation and creativity
12:49 unfolds before me in all its glory.
12:53 I love these stones. It's beautiful.
12:57 I know it's about plants, but the rocks are just amazing.
13:01 How many gardeners working in the garden?
13:06 Only me. Only you?
13:11 This is all looking to me very green and healthy.
13:15 Do you water all this?
13:17 To create a garden with so little need for water,
13:31 Heidi carefully selected plants
13:33 from all the Mediterranean regions of the world
13:36 that would thrive in these conditions
13:39 and then brilliantly combined them.
13:42 So, African plants like cossonia and areocephalus
13:47 are happy growing here because they are planted in a way
13:50 that allows them to help each other
13:52 through creating shade or shelter from the wind.
13:56 How is the garden divided up?
14:06 There are five different zones.
14:09 Now we are in the African zone,
14:12 because it has the most sun during the day.
14:16 We are in Australia.
14:22 So it's really a question of choosing the right plants
14:31 and the result is incredibly beautiful.
14:35 Oh, thank you.
14:37 It's a tribute to your skill and your work.
14:40 The effects of climate change have made Heidi's work
14:47 at Torre d'Ariant increasingly relevant.
14:51 And now people from all over the world make their way
14:54 up that long, steep road to this garden
14:58 to learn and to pay homage.
15:01 Having read about the harshness of the conditions,
15:09 I think I was expecting something much wilder and much rougher,
15:13 but actually what I'm seeing is a garden that is beautifully balanced
15:17 and really sophisticated and rich.
15:20 It is just stunning.
15:24 (BIRDS CHIRP)
15:27 The next morning I'm up early to cross to the other side of the island
15:39 to visit a private garden that I've admired for years,
15:42 but only from pictures,
15:44 so the chance to visit it at last is a treat.
15:49 (BIRDS CHIRP)
15:52 The garden is the Cottonet Garden
15:56 and it has become hugely influential.
15:59 Its designer, Fernando Carancho,
16:01 is now regarded as one of the world's leading garden designers.
16:06 But when he created this garden, it was one of his early works
16:11 and I've managed to persuade him to meet me here
16:14 to explain its genesis and to show me around.
16:18 Fernando now works with his son Pedro, who's joining us on this visit.
16:24 Fernando, it's lovely to see you again, and Pedro,
16:27 and I have to say that I first met Pedro when I think you were 12?
16:32 I was 12, yes. Yes.
16:34 Undulating rows of clipped hedges lap around the veranda
16:41 like waves emerging from the pond.
16:44 I really hadn't realised from the pictures
16:49 is how the garden comes right up to the building.
16:52 The important part of the house was the veranda
16:56 and the veranda is exactly in contact with the garden immediately.
16:59 Can we walk around? I don't want to stand here looking at it,
17:02 I want to be in it with you.
17:04 Lead on. Show me your garden.
17:07 MUSIC PLAYS
17:10 The garden is set in a symmetrical grid around a central square pond,
17:18 creating separate areas with the rhythmic punctuation of cypresses,
17:23 rising like green pillars.
17:26 It struck me, walking in here and looking at it,
17:31 there's something Islamic about it.
17:33 Was that deliberate? No.
17:35 It's really very natural, but geometry, light, water,
17:41 is so important in the Islamic garden also.
17:45 And this garden is inside my memory and my tradition.
17:50 Fernando Carancho's gardens are inspired
17:55 both by the southern Spanish landscapes of his childhood
17:59 and the 18th-century English landscape movement,
18:03 where the gardens and surrounding landscape merge into one.
18:07 And this garden was the first time that he used an agricultural crop
18:13 as an integral part of the design.
18:16 The wheat, we're here in April, that'll be harvested in weeks, May?
18:23 Yeah. What about the rest of the year?
18:26 Now this is beginning to be green and gold.
18:29 After it's gold, we cut, and it's really a brilliant moment.
18:36 The birds arrive to take the seeds, and it's full of life.
18:40 Do you think there is such a thing as a Spanish garden?
18:43 I think there's two key factors that identify the Spanish garden.
18:47 One is the light and the climate, so particular and so harsh,
18:51 it really strikes you.
18:53 And then I think the other factor is this mix of influences, you know,
18:57 because you see some parts of the Italian garden,
18:59 you see as well the Portuguese garden, how it's blending,
19:02 and also the heritage, of course, of the Islamic garden.
19:04 It's so important in Spain.
19:06 To be shown round a mature, large garden by its designer and creator
19:20 was an extraordinary opportunity and privilege.
19:25 How connected the design was from inception right through every day of the year
19:31 to the rhythms of the agricultural year.
19:35 Mallorca has been a really good starting point
19:40 for my exploration of southern Spanish gardens,
19:43 but there is much more to see, and I need to move on now to the mainland.
19:48 And an extraordinary UNESCO site in the Alicante region.
19:54 And from there, along the coast, and then north,
19:58 up to the capital of Andalusia, Seville.
20:02 And as I make my way southwards through Alicante,
20:06 the landscape changes, and one plant starts to leap to the fore.
20:15 It's very arid, very dry and parched, but palm trees everywhere.
20:21 Obviously, I knew there were palm trees here,
20:23 but there are tens of thousands of them.
20:26 It's absolutely not just the dominant tree, but the dominant plant.
20:30 This is Elche, the home of El Pamaral,
20:40 which is a huge expanse of date palms that dominate the city,
20:44 which is unsurprisingly the self-styled world capital of palm trees.
20:50 Date palms have been cultivated in huge plantations here
21:01 continuously since Roman times,
21:03 and there are still around 200,000 palms growing here today.
21:09 (GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC)
21:12 Elche has parks and gardens where people can stroll
21:23 under the shade of these giant palms.
21:26 But the real story is here,
21:29 because this is where the invading Arabs brought with them
21:36 the technique and the knowledge of how to grow these plants,
21:40 and that hasn't changed since the 4th century.
21:44 What can look like a simple plantation or block of trees
21:51 is in fact a series of very sophisticated palm orchards.
21:56 The palm orchards were divided into units,
22:01 and each owner had about ten of these small plots,
22:06 and that was enough for a family to live off.
22:09 And they all produced them in exactly the same way.
22:12 So in the middle of each square was a cereal crop, often wheat.
22:17 And then in amongst them was a mid-story of fruit -
22:21 citrus, pomegranates, really important, olives.
22:25 And around the outside were the date palms,
22:28 which were used for shade in summer and protection in winter.
22:32 But by the 1960s,
22:40 the owners found that they couldn't make a living this way
22:43 and moved away to bigger farms in the countryside.
22:47 So the local council then bought up 70% of the land,
22:53 which they now use as a nursery
22:56 for trees destined for the streets and parks.
22:59 In the Arab world, dates were the most prized of all crops.
23:06 And it's only the female date palm that bears the fruit.
23:11 And you can see here the upright, very yellow-green fronds
23:16 with little bubbles on them are next year's dates.
23:19 And then you have this year's dates, very visible.
23:22 Well, in fact, they haven't ripened properly
23:25 because the harvest is from October to April.
23:28 But there's just one there that is ripe,
23:31 and I think if I'm careful, I can pick it.
23:33 If I go in here...
23:35 There we are.
23:37 Um...
23:39 There it goes.
23:41 OK.
23:46 You can see it's quite an amber colour.
23:49 Mm, that's good.
23:52 But you can't have any dates at all
23:55 if you don't have a male tree as well as a female one.
23:58 This is a male tree with its flower,
24:03 and if I knock it, you can see...
24:06 ..there's plenty of pollen on there.
24:10 And that pollen will fertilise the female tree so it bears fruit.
24:21 All this growth depends upon a system of irrigation,
24:25 and it was brought over from North Africa by the Arabs,
24:29 who took the water from the River Vinaloku, channelled it down,
24:34 and then once it reached the city, it became a web of channels
24:37 coming to all of these orchards.
24:39 And within the orchards, by using sluices,
24:42 they could direct the water to particular fields.
24:46 And this is exactly how it remains today.
24:50 (WATER SPLASHES)
24:52 A long drive takes me across the Sierra Nevada...
25:08 ..to my next garden, which is in the city of Malaga.
25:15 (MUSIC PLAYS)
25:17 Malaga is now best known as a holiday resort,
25:26 but away from the beaches and the hills behind the city
25:29 is a fine garden.
25:31 This is the Concepcion Botanic Garden,
25:40 created by the Marques and Marquesa de Cazaloring in the 1850s
25:45 in the grounds of what had been the family farm.
25:48 They set about acquiring exotic plants from all over the world
25:54 to create their own private botanical garden,
25:57 naming it after their youngest daughter, Concepcion.
26:01 And despite the dry Andalusian climate,
26:07 its paths now wind up through lush, semi-tropical vegetation
26:12 and magnificent mature trees.
26:14 But the beauty of the plants is now accompanied by something else.
26:35 This mirror door was built in 1911,
26:39 and the photos of the early 1920s
26:43 show the family enjoying the uninterrupted vista to the sea.
26:48 That view has changed utterly.
26:52 Well, now, now you have the noise of not just one motorway,
27:00 but other roads crisscrossing across the whole of the landscape.
27:04 Houses as far as the eye can see.
27:06 Factories.
27:08 There are cranes on the horizon and just beyond them,
27:11 there's a faintest smudge which I suppose is the sea.
27:15 So this is the view of modern Spain.
27:19 However, not all of the coast of southern Spain
27:30 has been polluted by buildings, traffic and noise.
27:34 I've come along the coast to Estepona
27:39 to see a project instigated by the local council.
27:42 It's designed to counter this trend
27:49 and restore some of the former charm of this part of the coast
27:54 and make it a better place for the modern inhabitants to live in.
28:00 The Esplanade in Estepona is now filled with families
28:04 strolling freely with dogs and children...
28:07 ..creating a safe and handsome link between the town and the sea.
28:15 But this is the result of a decade-long project
28:20 to rescue the city from being a traffic-filled, car-dominated chaos
28:25 to what amounts now to a huge communal garden.
28:29 The streets of the old town in Estepona
28:38 are lined with colourful pots draped with flowers.
28:42 And whilst it might conjure up traditional Spain,
28:45 in fact, it is all new.
28:47 I would like to show you this street
28:51 because this is like an example of what we did in the city.
28:56 What was it like before?
28:59 Well, you had cars going through and we didn't have all these plants.
29:04 So it was just completely bare.
29:07 Ines Paris-Fevera is a landscape designer
29:11 who was on the committee that greened up Estepona.
29:14 Sergio Rodriguez is head gardener at the city council.
29:19 (CHATTER)
29:21 To what extent did this involve the people that live here?
29:26 They get involved from the beginning
29:28 and they bought the colour of the pot
29:32 because every street has a colour.
29:35 And then decide, "I prefer this plant or I prefer that plant."
29:40 But what about maintenance?
29:43 I mean, this is very hot, it's very dry, do you have to water them?
29:46 In winter, we water once per week.
29:49 In summer, sometimes we even have to water three times.
29:54 And how many pots are there in all in the city?
29:57 More than 16,000 we have.
30:00 And each one watered individually? By hand?
30:03 Yes.
30:05 Wow. Wow, wow, wow.
30:07 So we're looking nearly 50,000 doses of water every week?
30:11 Twice. Well, OK.
30:13 (LAUGHS)
30:15 In pursuit of this greening process,
30:21 the whole geography of the town has been changed.
30:24 The council even bought houses so it can knock them down
30:29 and thus create more open planted spaces.
30:33 In all, 14km have been restored
30:37 and 135 streets renovated.
30:42 Now, I confess, I don't know what these trees are. What are they?
30:47 These trees are barwenia variegata.
30:50 That's what we call the orchid tree.
30:52 The orchid tree, barwenia.
30:54 Yes. Have you noticed in the base of the trees...
30:57 Now, what are these? What are they for?
30:59 Every child that gets born, the family wants,
31:02 they apply to the council and they say,
31:05 "We want to give father a tree for..."
31:08 So they adopt a tree. They adopt a tree.
31:11 How much does that cost? Does it cost a lot?
31:13 Nothing at all. It's free? It's free.
31:15 It's just... It's the spiritual connection. That's it.
31:19 It's a very beautiful idea. I like it.
31:21 The greening of the city hasn't just been a question
31:31 of putting in thousands of pots, it's an elaborate process.
31:34 This square, for example, was a car park.
31:37 But the car parking was put elsewhere and a garden made,
31:41 not just some pots but water features and trees in its place.
31:46 The whole thing is an elaborate grand scheme.
31:50 What has been achieved here in Estepona is deeply inspiring
31:57 and shows that where there is a will to improve the quality
32:00 of communal life, there can be a way,
32:03 even with all the complications of a city council.
32:07 Much of this part of the coast is the playground of the rich
32:22 and is full of luxury holiday homes.
32:30 I talked to Ines about the sort of gardens
32:33 these holidaymakers looked for.
32:35 And she said she'd designed one herself that was further down
32:39 the coast at Sotto Grandi, and she could show it to me.
32:42 Hi. Hello.
32:47 With its courtyards, use of water as a central feature
32:56 and numerous pots, this is a modern take
32:59 on the traditional Andalusian garden...
33:02 ..dressed with the trappings of wealth and luxury.
33:08 You have a swimming pool, palm trees, the sea beyond. Yeah.
33:15 This is a kind of holiday fantasy, isn't it?
33:18 Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.
33:22 You have a lot of grass.
33:24 Does that not create a problem for watering?
33:27 Well, yes, but we choose drought-resistant grass.
33:32 The property also has a well.
33:35 So it has its own water supply. Yes, yes.
33:39 Do you find that clients like this, demand lawns,
33:43 they like them for their gardens?
33:45 Yes, all, all, all the properties,
33:48 all the gardens here has a big lawns, big space of grass.
33:54 And do you think that's going to be sustainable,
33:58 that that will be able to, to continue?
34:01 Well, we try to use this drought-resistant grass,
34:07 limit it to, to the close areas to the house.
34:12 And does this stay green all the year?
34:15 It's depending of the species of grass you are using.
34:19 But some grasses came brown in, in winter.
34:23 Some of the garden centrepiece use like a tint to, to tint the grass.
34:30 Yes, yes.
34:31 It's too great.
34:32 In the winter, just to give the visual of a green grass.
34:37 MUSIC
34:40 I've come here down the coast, just outside Marbella,
34:52 because I've been told that behind these steel doors
34:56 is a brand-new, modern garden that I really ought to come and see.
35:02 MUSIC
35:05 This is a newly built house, and the designer of the garden,
35:14 Fernando Matos, was given a free hand to create a garden to complement it.
35:24 Sways of perennials sit amongst structural trees and clipped shrubs.
35:30 And the result looks loose and informal, and yet is meticulously crafted.
35:39 There is a lawn, but unusually it's out of sight of the house,
35:49 down at the bottom of the garden.
35:52 I asked Fernando what visitors make of his work.
35:56 They are surprised, because it's not common to have this variety of plants.
36:02 He's inspired in, very inspired in English gardens.
36:06 You're taking inspiration and then translating it.
36:09 Yes, I use the Mediterranean tradition, the use of shade, water,
36:14 a structure in the garden.
36:17 But I think with the right plants, you can have the effect of an English garden
36:23 with this variety of plants, different flowering in different seasons,
36:28 with only Mediterranean plants.
36:30 There are a lot of salvias from Mexico, because they flower in July and August,
36:36 so you can have flowers in the worst time of the year,
36:40 which is summer with 40 degrees.
36:45 The two gardeners, Paco and Roman,
36:48 make sure it looks as good as possible all the year round.
36:52 But Fernando is looking forward to seeing how the garden will be in ten years' time.
36:58 The main thing will be that the trees will be mature,
37:03 and that changes completely the atmosphere of the garden.
37:07 I'd like to see it, that would be very good.
37:11 I think it's really interesting to see that the inspiration for this garden
37:15 has come from British gardens,
37:17 and then been applied using a completely different palette and range of plants.
37:22 It's not a parody or a copy, it is something that is suited to this spot.
37:27 The garden is a bit like a museum,
37:35 it's a place where you can see the whole world.
37:38 The hot, dry climate in this part of Spain makes it a magnet for tourists,
37:51 but it also puts it right on the front line of climate change.
37:55 And it's fascinating to see how it's adapting to this
37:59 through its gardens of all kinds.
38:03 Next I'm stopping off on the outskirts of Marbella
38:06 to visit a particular local project.
38:09 This is the Marbella Arboretum,
38:15 which is rather a grand name for what is a collection of allotments.
38:19 It covers an area of two hectares that is subdivided into 130 separate plots.
38:29 All of these are available free to local people.
38:33 And on a Sunday morning there's plenty of activity.
38:42 Is this your plot here?
38:48 Yes.
38:49 And what are you growing here?
38:51 We have tomatoes, onions, peppers and aubergines.
38:59 How often do you come here?
39:02 Do you share what you grow?
39:21 Yes, we share.
39:23 We give each other what we have and we share what the other has.
39:28 Me!
39:34 Thank you.
39:39 12 years ago, the site was a rubbish tip
39:46 and it took 60 large lorry loads to clear it.
39:50 The idea of turning this into a green space
39:55 was the brainchild of Alejandro Orioli,
39:58 who works here with his son, Ivo.
40:01 (Music)
40:04 So when people come here,
40:19 do they always know what they want to do or do they have to learn?
40:23 Most of the time they come without knowledge,
40:26 but they come with a lot of enthusiasm, which is the most important thing.
40:29 We give them support, we give them the opportunity.
40:32 Alejandro provides all the garden tools and seeds
40:38 and he and his son are always on hand to give advice
40:41 so that as many local people as possible have that opportunity to connect with nature.
40:51 Most people live in cities and that's why we have a tree garden in the city.
40:55 Because it is here that we have to make the change of consciousness.
40:59 So, what will happen in the future here?
41:05 The plan for the future is to be able to make many tree gardens,
41:09 to inspire many people and to generate many islands of consciousness in all cities.
41:14 It's a good plan.
41:16 Ambitious.
41:18 (Music)
41:21 Alejandro told me that he had thought long and hard and done lots of research
41:29 on how he could make the biggest impact.
41:31 And he came to the conclusion that it was letting people
41:35 and empowering people to do practical things.
41:38 So by coming here and giving them the opportunity,
41:42 he is achieving something dramatic.
41:45 If lots of us do small things, then we can make big change.
41:50 (Music)
41:54 I'm now going inland, going north and aiming for the city of Seville.
42:00 The drive takes me along a steep and windy road through dramatic mountains.
42:09 At the top of these is an historic city with a particular garden that I want to visit.
42:15 (Music)
42:18 I've stopped off on the road to Seville here at Rhonda.
42:26 Rhonda was a Moorish stronghold, in fact one of the last places to fall.
42:31 And one of the reasons why it remained held by the Moors for so long
42:37 was the gorge...
42:39 ..that in those days ran along one side of the town.
42:45 Well, now it runs right through the middle of the modern town.
42:53 This incredible deep crevice splitting the town in two.
42:59 (Music)
43:06 And sitting right on the edge of it is a garden which has a remarkable story.
43:12 (Music)
43:16 This building is Casa del Rey Moro, the house of the Moorish king.
43:34 Well, that is a bit of a misnomer because actually it was built in the 18th century,
43:39 three centuries after the Moors had left.
43:42 Then, in 1910, it was bought by one of the more remarkable figures in Rhonda's history,
43:49 the Duquesse de Passant, and she commissioned a garden.
44:00 The Duquesse had brought in the eminent French garden designer, Jean-Claude Forestier.
44:05 He designed a garden that was completely in keeping with the Moorish inheritance of Rhonda.
44:14 This is based upon the Islamic paradise garden principles.
44:29 So you have water coming from a fountain down this lovely long rill into a pond below.
44:35 There's symmetry, there's order and balance.
44:41 There's fragrance, even from just running my hands along the myrtle hedge,
44:47 you get this cloud of perfume rising up.
44:50 And one of the really interesting things, even though this is a small garden,
44:54 having these great big trees doesn't just create shade, which is important in this climate,
45:01 but also makes the garden seem bigger.
45:04 The property's agent is a businessman, Jochen Kennel.
45:13 I gather that the Duquesse de Passant was a rather extraordinary woman.
45:23 She has been a very impulsive and creative person,
45:28 because she bought this property, bought some houses who occupied this garden,
45:34 flew down the houses and created a romantic story here.
45:38 So she... Where the garden is now, there were houses,
45:41 and she pulled them down to make the garden.
45:43 Just to create the garden. Right.
45:45 A major commitment. A major commitment.
45:48 She also created a whole industry to restore the house, to create the house.
45:53 She created lots of jobs and did also bring welfare to Rwanda.
45:58 All the artefacts and decoration in the garden are thus locally produced.
46:05 Well, except for one.
46:07 The central Moorish fountain was brought by the Duquesse with her from Paris.
46:15 The story of the garden remained remarkable, not to say extraordinary,
46:19 right up to the time when Jochen himself came to own it.
46:23 It's magic. It's a magic place. I think you probably will agree.
46:28 So I had to buy it. I had to buy it.
46:31 I think a magic place, usually it's not for sale.
46:34 The owner was an old lady just living here in the corner of the same street.
46:40 So I visited her. We had a nice conversation.
46:44 We had been talking like six hours about Spanish civil war and stories.
46:52 And she wanted to talk.
46:54 And after I told her I want to buy a property, we agreed a price.
46:59 And I gave her a cheque.
47:02 And when she received the cheque, I asked her for a receipt.
47:06 And we just took the paper which is over her glass of water, like a napkin.
47:12 I took the napkin, did write the receipt, was a contract, the receipt.
47:17 And so the house has been sold.
47:20 And the deal was done. Yeah. Extraordinary story.
47:23 Continuing my journey, I'm bound for the final destination on this trip, Seville.
47:33 It sits 90 kilometres inland from the Atlantic coast,
47:37 on the banks of the river Guadalquivir,
47:40 and is the capital of Andalusia.
47:43 It feels like a big, thriving city.
47:53 It's got one of the biggest cathedrals in the world, royal and ducal palaces.
47:58 And all this is based upon the fact that in the 16th century,
48:03 Seville was one of the most important cities in the world
48:07 because it was here that the wealth from the Americas came in.
48:11 It all arrived at the port in Seville.
48:14 And as well as the silver that financed the expanding Spanish empire,
48:19 you had plants - potatoes, tomatoes, squashes, dahlias, sunflowers.
48:24 These new plants that we now take for granted came here to Seville
48:29 and then were spread out across the rest of Europe.
48:34 (TRAFFIC RUMBLES)
48:37 Seville is very well known for its royal gardens,
48:42 but on this trip, it was part of the process
48:45 of trying to get under the skin of Spain through its gardens
48:48 and visiting two privately owned palaces,
48:52 both with a long and entwined history.
48:59 The Casa de Pilatos was begun in 1483
49:04 by the nephew of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.
49:08 Now, the Moors were still here in Andalusia,
49:12 so their influence was absolutely dominant.
49:15 So even though he was a Christian,
49:17 this opening patio is completely Moorish.
49:21 And there's not a trace of a plant here.
49:23 This is certainly not a garden.
49:25 However, the reason why he chose this site
49:29 was because there was water,
49:31 and when you have water, you can have a garden.
49:34 The garden consists of two courtyards.
49:45 The smaller one is typically Andalusian.
49:51 It's bright, colourful,
49:53 and with pots crammed rim to rim alongside the basins,
49:58 the surface is constantly broken
50:01 by the fountains that spill gently into them.
50:04 What was unusual about this garden
50:11 was that the water supply didn't come
50:14 from the famous Moorish irrigation systems
50:17 that actually were spread all over Andalusia,
50:20 but from a Roman aqueduct.
50:22 And the right to take the water from the aqueduct
50:25 was very rare indeed.
50:26 It was a special privilege.
50:28 So, as a result, they could make a garden.
50:30 And in fact, the garden has been open from day one,
50:34 not to admire the garden,
50:36 but so people could come and collect water.
50:39 The Casa de Pelotos is one of a number of properties
50:46 owned by the Medina Seli Foundation,
50:49 which was formed by the last person to live here,
50:52 the Duquesa de Medina Seli.
50:54 But it still has very strong links to the family,
51:00 and the Duquesa's granddaughter Sol,
51:02 Condesa de Ampurias, still lives nearby.
51:06 Tell me, what's your earliest memory of here?
51:12 Earliest memory here?
51:14 Well, I guess I think I remember when, after school,
51:18 so we would go to school from 9 to 3,
51:20 and we would come to play in the gardens
51:22 and rollerblade in the patio.
51:24 It was the funnest thing.
51:25 Really? Yeah.
51:26 It must have been incredibly good on that hard floor,
51:28 just whizzing around.
51:29 Yeah.
51:30 And the gardens, which are obviously lovely at this time of year,
51:35 are they an important part of the Salon?
51:38 Do people come for the gardens?
51:40 They do, because these gardens kind of portray
51:44 how, in the 15th, 16th century, how Sevilla was built.
51:48 Since we had all this Muslim inheritance
51:51 from Oriental architecture,
51:53 in which the gardens look inwards,
51:56 so it's kind of, when you're outside from this house,
51:59 you don't know there's two big gardens,
52:01 you don't know what to expect when you come in.
52:04 The second Coyote Garden is the larger of the two
52:11 and consists of formal beds made into parterres
52:15 and filled with clipped topiary.
52:17 What I see is an Italian Renaissance garden.
52:26 It's not at all Spanish in any detail, really.
52:30 And that's because it was designed by an Italian.
52:34 The then-owner of the house was made Viceroy of the Kingdom of Naples,
52:38 which was part of the great 16th-century Spanish Empire.
52:43 And he imbued the culture of the Renaissance,
52:46 which, of course, was at its peak then, in the 1560s and 1570s,
52:50 and he hired a Neapolitan architect to come over
52:54 and transform what was then an orchard.
52:57 And he created this garden and built the buildings around it,
53:00 and that's how it remains today.
53:02 And, in fact, the family still has very strong links with Italy.
53:07 (HORSE GALLOPING)
53:09 Seville is a very green city.
53:15 Gardens that were once part of private palaces
53:21 are now public squares and parks.
53:24 These provide surprisingly verdant spaces
53:31 for the people of Seville to enjoy,
53:33 as well as much-needed shade.
53:36 This is the very lush Parque de Maria Luisa,
53:44 in the middle of the city.
53:46 One of the interesting facts about this park
53:49 is that it was made by the same man, Forestier,
53:53 who made the small garden in Ronda
53:57 belonging to the Casa del Rey Moro.
54:00 And he made them at the same time, in 1911.
54:02 So, on the one hand, he was fashioning
54:05 a rather exquisite sort of paradise garden,
54:08 and at the same time, this enormous, great, lush park.
54:13 The second privately-owned garden I want to visit
54:19 whilst I'm here in Seville is Palacio de las Dueñas.
54:23 The original architecture was identical to the Casa de Palatos,
54:30 just because the palaces were built for two brothers,
54:33 and their mother wanted to avoid any sibling rivalry.
54:36 But while the buildings may have been the same,
54:39 the gardens have evolved through time and different owners
54:42 to become quite different.
54:44 As soon as you walk in here,
54:47 the contrast to Casa de los Pilatos is immediate.
54:51 There, you have this grand, rather austere, empty space,
54:56 and here, you're confronted with richness and colour.
55:00 And also, one other factor -
55:04 you have in front of you, straightaway,
55:08 the hand of an individual, all over it.
55:11 Dueñas belonged to Caetana Fitzjames Stewart,
55:22 18th Duchess of Alba,
55:24 who, despite the Anglicisation of her name, was very Spanish.
55:28 And she was one of the richest women in Spain.
55:31 It was said she had more land than even the king of Spain.
55:35 This was her favourite home.
55:37 And she was a dramatic figure.
55:43 She was famous for her eccentricities, her lifestyle, her parties.
55:48 Everything she did was notable, grand,
55:52 and sometimes a little eccentric.
55:55 She died in 2014 at the age of 88,
56:04 but her presence is still very strongly felt in the garden.
56:08 Above all, the Duchess adored colour
56:12 and would plant her favourite bright plants
56:15 more or less at random throughout the garden.
56:18 And there are many seats dotted here and there,
56:21 so the Duchess could sit and entertain
56:24 and relish the garden that she loved so much.
56:27 And she shared that love with her gardeners.
56:30 Prospero worked as a gardener for the Duquesa for 25 years.
56:39 She loved it. It was what she loved most about the Duquesa, the gardens.
56:43 She loved Seville for its colour,
56:46 and she loved having gardens like Seville,
56:50 with lots of colour and lots of joy.
56:53 She loved it. It was her life. The gardens were her life.
57:07 I would feel a great emotion.
57:10 I would love it if she told me to think about it,
57:14 because it's as if she were with herself,
57:17 just as if she were there.
57:20 She was a special person. The Duquesa was a special person.
57:25 Few people like her are born.
57:27 Thank you. Thank you for talking to us.
57:30 I've come to the end of this trip.
57:38 I've been here in the very beginning of May,
57:43 and it's been boiling hot, much hotter than it gets in England.
57:47 And yet there are months of increasing heat ahead.
57:51 And what we know is that climate change
57:54 is just making these conditions more extreme.
57:57 What's happening here in Spain today
58:00 is almost certainly going to affect us in the north of Europe tomorrow.
58:04 And yet gardens are made, beautiful gardens.
58:07 And what's most inspiring for me
58:15 is to see the way that young gardeners and young garden designers
58:19 are coping with these harsh conditions
58:22 that are getting worse and yet still making beautiful and inspiring gardens.
58:28 The next programme takes me to the north of Spain.
58:33 Although perhaps less widely known than the south,
58:36 its cooler climate and stunning landscape
58:39 mean that it may well be the up-and-coming holiday destination.
58:44 (INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC)
58:47 (INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC CONTINUES)
58:51 (INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC CONTINUES)
58:54 (MUSIC FADES)
59:10 [ Music ]