Re: Plants for a Garden in southern Portugal.

At 04:35 AM 7/15/2003, you wrote:

Hi Sean
I am also living in Southern Portugal. I studied the Mediterranean climates
and the climate in Southern Portugal, along the coast, called the Algarve,
is similar to San Diego. The differance is that here the average summer
temperature is 1-2 degrees celcius higher, while the average winter
temperature is 1-2 degrees celcius lower.During the summer seabreezes from
the Atlantic temper the heat. The big differance with San Diego is the the
average rainfall in the winter, which is twice the amount in San Diego. On
the coast we have very rarely a little frost only in the low lying parts due
to cold air drainage.

Welcome also!  I am now so interested in the Algarve (sorry for taking time to
respond - I was lost in researching how wonderful you place in the world is!).

I wonder if I might compare the Algarve to our Santa Barbara area (north of Los
Angeles).  It's coastline also runs east-west, similar to yours.
Ten to twenty kilometers inland the mountains go up to
600-900 meters. The highest tops catching three times the coastal rainfall.
This water is collected in dams and fills underground reservoirs (Aquafers)
along the coast. So we have no shortage of water.
We have the best climate of Europe
Bom Dia
Wim van Putten
Santa Barbara is also backup by dramatic mountains, as this artist's depiction
would indicate:
http://www.elmspuzzles.com/gallery/Chen/santa%20barbara.jpg

California has many reservoirs through its length, making water plentiful and
perhaps deceptively a non-problem. But we regularly have drought years and
our population continues to grow (most people come here from climates with
lots of summer rain and winter snow!). People often say that "you can grow
anything in California - just add water"! Every Water District in the state has
a water conservation office, all singing the same song - use it wisely!! It is
hard to get people to listen when there is no generally no penalty to wasting
this precious resource. Perhaps they are starting to hear us . . .

Meanwhile, back to dreaming about visiting the Algarve!
Regards,
Seán O.

h o r t u l u s a p t u s - 'a garden suited to its purpose'
Seán A. O'Hara fax (707) 667-1173 sean@support.net
1034A Virginia Street, Berkeley, California 94710-1853, U.S.A.

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