Hanging Gardens of Barcelona

I went to Barcelona and Lisbon during the last week of April and it was a fantastic vacation. While each city had a lot of great aspects (sun, sangria, sao giao cheese, amendoa) that made them unique and fun to be in, they had two things in common: great weather and great gardens.

Barcelona in particular had a lot of fantastic hanging gardens. People's balconies were crowded with succulents and cacti, including a ton of Ghost plants/Mother-of-pearl plants (Graptopetalum paraguayense) which are my favorite. Other notables (read: easily recognizable) were Jade plants and Burrow's Tail. Hanging gardens are a great way to capitalize on a limited amount of space and sunlight, and succulents lend themselves well to hanging gardens because of how a lot of them tend to grow. The forgiving climates of both Spain and Portugal make it easy for both succulents and non-succulents to survive winters and persist in summers. 

Two sun-bathed balcony gardens in the heart of Barcelona. Thought: does having a garden on your balcony make it hard to use the balcony for non-garden related things? Plants take up a lot of space, even on balconies.

A really nice, packed-in balcony garden. The Burrow's Tail and Tillandsia are impressive centerpieces for this hanging garden. I recognize the tallest non-succulent plant from one of my mom's houseplant collections but I can't remember the name. 

geekin'

Lisbon will be another post since so much ground was covered there.