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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Travel
Matt Collins

Why I love Europe’s hidden gardens

SPAIN Salamanca Flowers and shrubs in garden near cathedral Huerto de Calixto y Melibea near iglesia<br>B2F966 SPAIN Salamanca Flowers and shrubs in garden near cathedral Huerto de Calixto y Melibea near iglesia
Stumbling across these gardens in Salamanca was a highlight of Matt Collins’s European road trip. Photograph: Kim Karpeles/Alamy

Last spring, my wife and I embarked on an extended family holiday through Spain, taking our two young children on a month-long road trip around a country we didn’t know well but quickly came to love, for its ancient walled cities and diverse landscapes, its full-bodied wine and its warm-hearted people.

As a gardener, however, the other great incentive was to tick off some of Spain’s signature gardens – the grand Moorish courtyards of the south and the drought-tolerant Mediterranean plantings of the country’s rugged interior and coast.

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