Cruella (my wife) flew off to England the other day to visit our idiot son. She was a bit worried about the Russians but I explained they would never pick up her broomstick on their radar as she flies so low. But as a precaution she insisted on carrying a cage full of bats to decoy any incoming missiles.
She asked me to do some decorating whilst she was gone, but I refused as I said I would be too busy in the garden. She snorted “I think you will find that you won’t be”; and that dear reader is how we have ended up with days of endless rain – I can only apologise.
24th March 2022. Things I have been doing lately.
Wandering around disconsolate in the rain. The weather has been atrocious – and yes, I know we needed it, but just not this much. This has meant that all the stuff we should be doing now in the garden is delayed. Seeds have not been planted, lawns have not been cut, cuttings are drowning, citrus blossom is being damaged and that is just the start. The photos below sum up my gardening at the moment.
The first photo shows one of my two large water butts overflowing, The next shows what I now call my canal. Followed by my water storage area. Then some of my poor cuttings drowning. Finally, poor old Tango the lonely blind Labrador finding his dinner by the splashing sound in his bowl.
Things you should not be doing in your garden. I know its counter intuitive for a gardening blog to be telling you not to garden, but I am afraid at the moment, that’s how it has to be.
Lawns. don’t attempt to cut your grass whilst it is this wet you will only damage the grass and probably your mower. Similarly, don’t feed your grass, I know it is growing like Topsy, but any feed you try and put into it now will just be washed through before it can do any good. The photo below shows one of my lawns sulking in the rain.
Fruit trees. All of your citrus fruit trees will be in full blossom and they were looking and smelling lovely. However, whilst this rain will be good for growth, it may unfortunately damage our future crops for two reasons. Firstly, the force of the rain will have stripped off quite a lot of blossom which will lower yield. Secondly, most of the pollinators cannot fly in this weather so the opportunity to pollinate may be lost. Lastly, you should be feeding your citrus trees weekly whilst they are in blossom, but stop at the moment as the rain will just wash your feed straight through. Wait for a dry day before feeding again. The photo below shows one of my orange trees waiting forlornly for a pollinator.
Thwarting a bamboo escape. Tango the lonely blind Labrador and I wandered disconsolately round the garden today; me in full wet weather gear and Tango gamely following and painfully banging his head on every tree. Suddenly I saw that my green bamboo was setting up to make a jail break. Now bamboo are lovely, but they are notorious for invasive spreading. This means that if you decide to grow them, then you need to plant a barrier to stop them escaping. I had planted this particular plant inside a square of large tiles that I has inserted into the ground to act as a barrier to possible spreading. I had left the tiles sticking out of the ground by about an inch, as bamboo spread by ground runners which I would see as they tried to leap the tiles.
The crafty bamboo had opened up one side of my tile square and has just started sending out a runner. If I had not caught this then it would have rapidly sent out its runner, which in turn would have sent up a bamboo cane every six inches or so. I was nearly the owner of Campoverde’s first rain forest theme park. Anyway, I have caught it (hopefully) pulled it up out of the soil and will deal with it when it stops raining (if ever).
The first photo shows my discovery and preparation to dig up the escape tunnel. The second shows where it was off to. The third shows the extent of the escape I thwarted.
Thinking of better days to come. By now we should have been planting seeds, but the weather has just been too bad. The photo below shows the promise of happier days to come – I cant wait, and I still haven’t done that decorating.
Spanish Garden 
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