To help you do the same on your apartment terrace as well as in a garden or orchard they wrote ‘ Growing Healthy Fruit in Spain – From strawberries to oranges and water melons’.

By Clodagh and Dick Handscombe active gardeners and gardening authors living in Spain for twenty five years.

Why bother? There are several very good reasons why you should.

1. Many coastal and inland orchard areas have been and are still being abandoned and the importation of fruit is on the increase - even for citrus fruits from China!
2. Most commercial fruit is picked before it is fully ripe to ensure that it is not damaged during packaging, transportation and on display in sales outlets.
3. Some fruits, including oranges, lemons, apples and pears are treated with chemical fungicides, and waxes to increase their storage and shelf life.
4. If you grow your own you can harvest them when at there very best for eating, storing or processing into jams, chutneys and drinks.
5. By growing them ecologically and organically you know that the fruit is not tainted by chemical insecticides, fungicides, waxes or skin hardeners.
6. There are a large number of fruits that grow well in Spain provided you select those suited to the microclimate of your garden. We describe some seventy including the subtropical fruits best suited for a hot coastal garden and the more temperate fruits most likely to do well in frosty inland situations in ‘Grow healthy fruit in Spain –From strawberries to oranges and water melons’.
7. It does not require many trees to be able to harvest fresh fruit daily 365 days a year as illustrated below.