Spain - part II

So as I said in my last post, I was in Spain for my Spanish, but the gardener in me kept his eye peeled for interesting things. One of the more interesting things I saw were fruit trees used in unusual ways (at least compared to here.) Here in California there are all sorts of ornamental plums or pears used as street trees and in gardens, but in Spain there were a lot of fruit trees used in this way. They were actually producing fruit. Oranges were the main ones, but I also saw pomegranates. I can't imagine a city here planting trees that are going to drop softball sized oranges after a while. A friend living in Barcelona told me she hadn't tried them, but was told they were too sour to eat.
This was expecially interesting. These, as far as I could tell, were citrus trees trained up a wall to form a hedge-like facade to the stone wall. Anyone ever see anything like this?

In Andalucia the houses have inner courtyards that are full of green growing things. I found this old take on a green wall kind of interesting.

Some of the public gardens in Andalucia were not so inspiring. Low box hedges and roses. This was the main theme at the Alhambra. Seriously. Here is a pic that is a little more inspiring a giant California coastal redwood towering over hedges and roses near the summer palace in the Alhambra.