The heavy winter rain arrived all at once this year. It settled into the terraces and just hung there instead of draining away. Water behaves differently here than it ever did on flat Irish ground. It moves, hesitates, then gathers in the corners you forgot were corners.
It’s been an unusual winter these past few years. Last year it felt like a wet Irish winter, seemingly never ending. This year we’ve had just as much rain, but it’s come in short sharp bursts. Long dry stretches, then sudden downpours that change the garden overnight.
The upper terrace drains pretty quickly. The soil there is lighter, mixed and forgiving. It darkens briefly, then returns to its usual pale surface within a day or two. Lower down, it’s different. There’s more weight in it. Clay runs through the looser soil, and after sustained rain the surface holds a dull sheen longer than you’d think.
What surprised me wasn’t the pooling, but the delay in draining. Two days after the rain stopped, the lower terrace still felt rather dense underfoot. Not flooded. Not dramatic. Just heavy. Irish. The citrus trees didn’t seem bothered, but the smaller herbs softened slightly. Not wilted. Just less sure of themselves.
On terraced ground, drainage isn’t only about soil type. The edges matter more than I thought. I didn’t consider that properly when I wrote Seeds of Hope: My First Spanish Garden Designs. Water slows where stone borders interrupt its path. It gathers where the slope eases off. The terraces look tidy in summer. In winter rain they reveal their weak points.
I used to assume Mediterranean gardens dried almost immediately after the rain. That isn’t quite true. The surface dries. The deeper soil keeps its coolness longer than it looks from above.
Yesterday morning I pressed my hand into the lower bed and the cold caught me off guard. For a moment it felt like February in Ireland, though the air was mild and the citrus leaves were still glossy.
The rain has cleared for now. The upper terraces look more like themselves again. But the lower level is still slower to recover. Water doesn’t leave all at once here.