Plants that don’t require much water

Planted pots are a no no for a holiday home as they need regular watering. .every day in warm weather. 

Also if you don't want too many  mosquitos, then avoid any plants.near where you are going to be sitting outside.

Lemon trees once established do not need much water at all but they do need regular pruning about 3 times a year as they grow so fast and can get out of hand.

We have tried a number of plants in the gravel garden of our holiday home and by trial and error have removed some including a  large Yucca that needed no water and started off small but grew like a Triffid and started spreading and taking over the garden. Most plants in Spain grow so much quicker and bigger than any in the UK. 

We also removed a Bougainvillea that went over our gate arch and at first was lovely but then we were spending half our holiday time pruning it...eventually in a high wind it broke down the arch which had to be removed with the Bougainvillea. 

Now we wish we had not planted any plants and just put a few ornaments around the garden or a few pots with artificial plants in (like our neighbours have done).

Hope this helps. 

Cacti are the obvious answer. I never water ours, but make sure you get ones that are slow growing. In our earlier days we inherited a cactus only a few centimetres high, but in a few years it was higher than me and had three inch long hypodermic needles all over it.

Succulents are another option. Aloe vera can be left to itself, and you can strip off the outer covering of a leaf and use the gel inside to treat sunburn or just as a good moisturiser.

Jan's right about bougainvillea - it looks lovely in flower but it's far too vigorous. Unfortunately my wife won't let me get rid of it, but then it's not her who has to prune the damn thing.

Lantana is nice, and slow growing (at least in our garden).

There's nothing pretty about lemon trees. We had three but I got rid of one. I only prune them once a year, but that's a bit of a pain. They fruit twice a year, but they do need watering frequently if they're in pots. And anyway, you can always do a bit of 'rural shopping' if you want a few lemons.

Thank you for all the kind reply’s . 

Can’t wait to get back now and start looking for plants and enjoying the sunshine !

Jo