According to the Spanish Office for Climate Change and the Biodiversity Foundation through Adaptecca, the Platform for Climate Change Adaptation, Spain has warmed so much that by August 2050, cities like Lugo could regularly reach 45°C. This would mean sustained summer temperatures of 45–50°C in Andalusia, with lower annual rainfall, and in large cities surrounded by concrete and brick, temperatures could rise up to 7°C higher at times.

For example, in Andalusia where I live, rainfall is expected to decrease by up to 7%. Water will be considered a luxury, this time for real. We’ll have to irrigate intelligently, or not at all. Gardens must evolve.

Parks, gardens, green spaces, streets, green belts… All of them, and us along with them, must shift toward a different gardening model: more efficient, more sustainable, more diverse, and ultimately, more interesting.

Tree death caused by continued irrigation, just to give one example.

In many public parks, trees are planted in lawns or surrounded by shrubs with drip irrigation systems that water them every single day throughout the summer. With climate change intensifying, it’s likely these trees won’t survive many summers without irrigation. And one day, they’ll simply die and we’ll be surprised, without wanting to understand why.

The reason lies in their upbringing: when trees are watered on the surface day in, day out, throughout their lives, and the soil isn’t loosened or cultivated during their first years, their roots become spoiled, in almost 100% of cases. They live happily, pampered with surface fertilizer and their daily ration of water delivered drop by drop right at their feet. They don’t work, don’t dig deep, don’t seek out their own food or water… They’re like the rose from The Little Prince, living in a beautiful glass dome.

In a private garden, they may survive like pampered museum specimens, until the water gets cut off. In public gardens, however, it’s a scandal in the making: something that will go viral on social media like wildfire, especially if not just one, but all the trees in a lush, green lawn of a beloved city park start dying off.

But this catastrophe has a solution. It just takes time. Throwing down some mulch, plastic, or mesh and then forgetting about it won’t work. This is why the gardener’s role must be truly valued. Digging and weeding the plantings every week or every other week in the first year, reducing the frequency in the second, and ensuring that the garden becomes nearly self-sufficient by the third, that is a wonderful job well done. But let’s be clear, it must be appreciated accordingly.Think about the back pain it would cause you every Monday, the struggle to even get out of bed during that long first year. How much would you pay for that work during that first year? And most importantly, remember: that investment, that patience, will reward you with immense pride when, in the heat of summer, you only need to water once a month, and still enjoy, if that’s your style, a garden full of flowers.