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I think I may have been in the sun too long today as I have started imagining a type of Miss World competition; but, for compost. I mean I know I’m biased but don’t you think the compost in the photo below is good looking?

24 May. Things I have been doing today.

🗑 Emptying one of my compost bins and mulching plants. If you have a compost bin, and if not why not? Then it is time to take the last lot of compost out to make room for the summer green stuff you will be cutting down. When you take the compost out be sure to leave a 4cm layer of the old compost. This will ensure that the micro fungal elements in the old compost will help to kick start the new compost heap.

Now for those of you don’t have a compost heap the photo below shows you why you should have. This is one of over 20 barrow loads of compost that I have taken out this summer from just one bin. Each barrow load is the equivalent to an 80k bag of compost from a garden centre. But more importantly you are not just saving money, you are recycling all your garden waste and any vegetables fruits etc from the house.    What you get out the other end is a nutrient rich compost full of micro organisms that are an ideal planting medium. You do of course get a few giant blood oozing maggots, but we have already discussed this.

🌯 Cutting a Californian False Pepper tree. The Californian (or sometimes Peruvian) False Pepper is a common tree here in Spain. Its drooping trailing leaves make it look like a poor man’s weeping willow. This tree can be cut back really hard in the winter when the sap has stopped rising. When I say really hard I mean really hard, you can chop off big mature branches and leave more or less a single trunk. The benefit of this approach which I favour, is that the tree very quickly starts growing again in the Spring and has a lovely weeping willow look. In a year or so large thick branches will form again and you need to start the whole process over. The only drawback of this approach is that the trunk will sprout suckers like crazy and you will need to trim these with a hedge trimmer, but it is worth it. See the photo below of the fruits of my labour. An added benefit of this tree is that it produces garlands of small red berries which are the size of pepper corns and which when dried can be used in a similar way to pepper – hence false pepper.

This blog is now becoming officially X rated and my garden is gradually turning into something from the Island of Dr Moreau (look it up, this is both a blog and a literary tour de force).

22 May: Things I have been working on today.

🐛 Begin mulching under your plants but beware giant maggots. I have been emptying one of my compost bins ready to provide mulch for placing around plants. At this time of the year the sun starts to become very intense and plants need help to retain moisture. Start by weeding round the stems of the plants you are going to mulch. Once the area is weed free, water profusely and really soak around the plant. Then apply a heavy mulch around the stem and area close to each plant, you don’t have to do the whole flower bed just around each plant. You can mulch with compost as I do or you can buy shredded tree bark from a garden centre.

Now the scary bit. Every year when I begin to empty compost bins I find giant maggots lurking in the compost. Now when I say giant, I mean giant. Not only that if you touch them they ooze dark blood. I can get around a hundred or so from a compost bin. In the past I have tried leaving them out for the birds, but so far no bird will touch them, they are too scared. I don’t blame them see picture below.

👿 Still weeding under my roses. As you know I have been weeding under my roses for the past week or so; and this is a job I detest as it means massive loss of blood as the ungrateful plants punish me for helping them. Anyway, I forgot to mention that what ever you do, do not place the weeds on your compost heap. Especially if they are the ones that I dramatically name the Devil’s pearl seeds. These have a bulb at the end of the stem which contains a number of pearl like seeds and each seed can form a new weed bulb. If you place these on your compost heap they will happily wait until you spread mulch next year and off they go again. See the photo below you have been warned.

🌼 Pinch out the lead flowers of Marigolds. If you grow Marigolds then it is time to pinch out the lead flowers on each plant; and if you don’t grow Marigolds! What’s the matter with you they are so lovely. By pinching out the lead flower you will encourage a bushy multi flowered plant; if you don’t you will get one flower only. Look down into the top of the plant and you will see a small flower bud just appearing (see photo below). Using your thumb nail (which I told you to grow this time of year) and your forefinger just pinch the bud out. It will try and grow again within the next week or so and just do it again. After this leave it, twice is enough or the League Against Cruelty to Marigolds will come round your house.

🛏 Time to put your bulbs to bed. If you have followed instructions (and I hope you have) you should have chopped the seed head off your bulbs and then tied the stem up with string or elastic bands (see photo) This process allows all the goodness to go back down into the bulb ready for next year. Now it is time to cut the whole stem off. Taking your secateurs cut the stem off as close to the soil as you can. Once you have done this carefully weed around the area where the bulbs are planted and then water profusely. Finish this process by then putting a layer of well rotted compost about 4cm thick over the area. This serves three functions, it locks in the moisture, it suppresses weeds and it also provides a source of nutrients for the bulbs for next year. Don’t forget to say goodnight to the bulbs and tell them you will see them next year – God willing.

One last thing don’t forget to compost the stems, but also remember to remove the elastic bands as they won’t compost. Mind you I am thinking of telling my granddaughter Florence that I am growing her a bouncy castle.

 

 

I have been putting this job off for weeks but it is time for me to weed under the roses and give them their summer feed. Unfortunately this involves massive loss of blood on my part.

17th May: Things I have been doing today.

🌹 Feed and weed your roses. Now is the time to get under your roses and pull out all the grass and weeds that are taking goodness from the soil. There is no easy way to do this get on your hands and knees and manually ease out all the bad guys with your trowel. Because I take aspirin every day this means my blood is thin. Consequently,  no matter that I am wearing my best gardening gloves I still end up bleeding everywhere. (See photo below)

But working through the pain, make sure you get all the weed and grass roots out. Once the area is clear under each rose apply a granular rose feed then cover over with well rotted compost (or some from a bag if necessary). Water this in well with a big watering can for each rose. This should be your second rose feed of the year, and is the most important one as it will ensure your next flush of flowers in late August/September. (See photo below of a nicely dressed rose).

I managed six roses today, only another twenty to go; I may end up looking like the famous Thomas Chatterton portrait ( look it up).

🌿 Finish pruning all Marguerites. I have been pruning Marguerite daisies over the past month or so depending on the type. The colourful ones are now coming to the end of their first flush and you now have to make a crucial decision. When I explained the importance of this to my wife she called me the Donald Trump of gardening; which I think might be a compliment. Anyway the decision is this; if the plant has gone dry and brown right down the lower stem then dig it up and consign it to your compost heap. But don’t worry because just below the plant you have wrenched from its home in the soil will be lots of little seedlings waiting for you to transplant them. If however the plant is not brown and dry all the way down, but instead has new leaves sprouting on the dry stem then all you have to do is cut back to leave five to ten of these little sproutlings on each stem and you will grow a new plant. The photo below shows a plant that can just be cut back as it has sprouting stems.

🍋 Take suckers off your citrus trees. By now all the fruit should be off your citrus trees apart from a few lemons that will be lingering to add flavour to summer gin and tonics and cocktails (at which my son James excels). However, you need to look carefully at the trunk and leading branches of all your trees to make sure they are not suckering. Suckers will appear (especially on older trees) as bright green little shoots of a few leaves. Wearing your gardening gloves you need to gently pull downwards on each sucker and break it off; they will come away quite easily. This will ensure that all the goodness goes into next year’s fruit. As we say never give.a sucker and even break.

Early summer is a lovely time of year when things really get going and before high summer sun comes along to make me have the highest water bill in Spain.

11th May: Things I have been doing today.

🦇 Harvesting Autumn planted garlic. Garlic is so simple to grow and good fun. All you have to do is in late Autumn take some cloves of garlic – the stuff from the supermarket is fine – then push an individual clove into the soil, about 4 inches, then leave it. I plant mine under my citrus trees because they will get watered with the tree. It also helps to plant them in a pattern to stop you hoeing them out as weeds in there early stages.

You harvest garlic when the upper leaves start to yellow and bend over. Lift the whole plant out of the soil using a spade or trowel, it is best not to use a fork as you may damage the bulbs see (photo below). Once you have it out of the ground then you need to dry it for a couple of weeks still with the top growth on; I try and steal my wife’s baking cooling racks but she has started hiding them. I now dry them on a mesh tray see (photo below). We will come back to them in a few weeks, but in the meantime we are safe from Vampires in my house – I don’t know about you though, I think I just saw a bat fly past!

🛁 Getting bulbs ready for bed. If you were paying attention you may remember that I lifted some flag Iris bulbs the other week to make way for new roses. I have carefully dried these over a few weeks so that I can get them ready for autumn planting. Now it is time to clean them up and get them ready for bed. However, unlike mucky kids you cannot wash the dirt off them. If you do all you will be left with in the autumn is a mess of mildew mush. Instead you have to carefully peel off all the soil and muck and take them back to the bulb hiding underneath ( see photo below).

Once you have all the muck off, just like children after a bath they are lovely, clean and shining ready for bed (see photo below). Store them safely in a trug or similar till late autumn in a cool dry space; your shed is ideal but watch out for mice – say goodnight and tell them you will see them in the autumn.

🌿 Take cuttings from strongly growing plants. Now is the ideal time for taking cuttings from your plants. They should all be growing strongly now and this is the ideal time. Remember, when you take cuttings you get a free plant and possibly bankrupt your local garden centre. Cuttings are very easy to do if you follow the following three steps:

1. Select a strongly growing non flowering stem. Cut off about 20cm using a sharp knife.

2. Take off all the lower leaves so that only the top 2/4 remain.

3. If you have hormone rooting powder dip the stem in, if not, just make a hole in well watered compost in 4 in pot and then plant up to four cuttings around the edge

Resist the temptation to over water, or to try and pot them on too soon. Patience is a virtue in gardening, leave it about 4 weeks before you even think about it.

The picture below shows a wide range of cuttings I have taken over the last month or so. These are now hardy enough to sit out on my potting bench. The more delicate younger ones are still in my little mini greenhouse. Some of these will be planted in my garden, but most will be sold at our Open Garden Day on 27th May to support our Church – see you there!

When I finish cutting the lawn I always stroll around the garden with a self satisfied smile on my face as I proprietorialy inspect the plants. And there they were again Sawfly caterpillars, but it gets worse, there was also greenfly and Rust. My garden is the equivalent of North Korea a potential war zone.

9th April: Things I have been doing today.

🌾 Cut the lawn. The grass is now into its growing stride and you need to cut it at least weekly. Keep the blades quite high otherwise you may get scorching. It is also good to feed once a month with a high Nitrogen feed. This not only feeds the grass, but the weeds hate it.

🐛 Check your Plants we are under attack. I am about to set up the equivalent of Neighbourhood Watch only for plants; if anyone would like to join I will develop a coat of arms and a motto; we may even get t-shirts. Anyway, despite my constant patrolling – and wearing my glasses. The Sawfly caterpillars are back despite me picking all of the last lot off by hand and humanely disposing of them!!! Not only that they have brought their smaller but just as unwelcome cousins the Aphids and the farmer ants.

🐜 I not only have greenfly on some of my roses but I have discovered them on my Dame de Noche as well – to misquote Lady Bracknell “to have one set of Aphids is unfortunate, but to have two is carelessness” It was only whilst looking closely at the Dame de Noche stems that I noticed some very small ants and instantly I knew we had a problem. Ants would not normally be found this high up a plant unless they were up to no good. And sure enough there were the Aphids being happily milked by the ants. This is a symbiotic relationship whereby the ants protect the Aphids who in turn, when stroked by the ants antennae release a sticky honeydew like substance. Unfortunately the Aphids paid the wrong gang protection money – their days of being milked are over.

🔴 Just to add to the insect war, my roses have developed Rust. If you have roses then you will be familiar with rust. It is a form of mildew that leaves a “rust” like coating over leaves, stems and flowers. It is very damaging to plants and extremely difficult to get rid of. Spray with a proprietary brand and follow this up twice a week for about three weeks. Do not under any circumstances compost leaves or cuttings that have rust. Instead pick them all up from underneath the plant and dispose of separately.

 

 

It has been a busy time on many fronts in the past week; not only in the garden but in our Church and life generally. Anyway here is a litany of the triumphs and disasters I have been dealing with all of which are I believe of significant importance to humanity. My wife still thinks I am a deluded idiot with compost for brains.

1st – 7th May, or thereabouts: Things I Have been doing.

🌺 How not to treat Orchids. About a year ago some very nice friends were moving house and gave me an Orchid that they could not take with them. When the flower went I decided to completely renovate the plant rather than just opting to cut off the flower and hope that it would renew. The basic idea with Orchids is if you want to reshape and renew the plant, then after flowering cut the flower stem right back to the base. With care and attention, about a year later you should be rewarded with new flowering stems. I have duly spent almost the last year carefully watering the Orchid from the base weekly and lately feeding only the finest foods that only a royal Orchid would deserve.

The outcome is that I have been rewarded with two strong budding stems. What normally happens is that these stems will come outside sideways from under the leaves, and if you want upright traditional Japanese Orchids you need to train them up sticks. If you are patient what you should do is tie soft gardening twine to the stems and gradually over a few weeks pull them towards the sticks before securing them with ties. If you are an idiot with compost for brains and deludedly believe you can bend them in one go then what happens is they snap and you have wasted a year.

The photos (below) show that I fall into the latter category. From this you will see that I successfully bent one stem and then like an idiot managed to break the other. Learn lessons from idiocy, gardening takes time and we need patience, otherwise we end up with wasting a year.

🌲 Making paths in the wild places in your garden. Many of us in Spain have quite large wild areas in our garden. You have two choices with these. You can either try and reshape these into part of your formal garden, or, you can leave them as they are with minimal changes. I prefer the latter approach as I like to see wild flowers growing in informal areas. However, you do need paths through the wild area to allow you to move around, and rather than paving these with slabs or gravel, I prefer a more natural approach of shredding tree and branch cuttings. Once shredded this makes an ideal and naturalistic setting for your wild garden. See photos below of some my shredded labour and then forming a pathway.

🌴 Pull up Palm seedlings. If you have palm trees, and most of us do in Spain, then the likelihood is that they are growing on soil areas or more likely stone gravel. This is not a problem with Phoenix Palms (the ones with the long serrated branches) as the fruit from these palms are dates. However, if you have Washingtonian Palms (the ones with the fan type leaves at the end of the branch), then the fruit from these is a small dark round and sweet kernel type seed; which my Labradors look forward to as they supplement their diet by hoovering them up like currants.

From a gardening point of views theses seeds are tenacious at setting seed in your gravel, and once underway, unless you catch them quickly, will become as difficult to remove as Lonnie Donnegan’s dustman old mans boots. To detect them before they get underway, lookout for what looks like an innocuous, but well shaped blade of grass happily growing in your gravel. Beneath this innocuous exterior lurks an undercover operation that makes the Mafia look like sissies. The small kernel seed will quickly throw out pathway roots that will drive down into your soil to form a tap root, this supported by peripheral roots will take a Velociraptor type grip on your soil that will give you a hernia trying to remove it unless you get it quickly. See the photo below. You have been warned get out there and inspect under your palm trees.

🌹 Reshaping roses. Regular readers of this blog will know that I have developed a love for roses and I am now growing quite a few of them. However, all roses need reshaping and sometimes you cannot leave it until the annual prune. One of my roses in particular “Blythe Spirit” is so prolific that at this time of year I have to deadhead it twice a day, and the branches are so heavy with flowers they bend to the ground. To bring the branches back up and reshape you need to make a cut to an upward facing leaf area, (see photo below). If you don’t do this it will continually head South and all you will see is the underside of your roses.

Since our Labradors appeared in this blog they have started attempting to appear in any photos I take and there is talk of their own Facebook page and possibly an Agent!

1st May: Things I have been doing today.

😥 Dealing with sad Jasmine. Early flowering Jasmine has a habit of looking sad at this time of year (see photo). There is lots of die back and brown leaves and stems. Now normally all is well, you just have to get in there cut it back a little bit, thin it out, and with your hand pull out all the brown dead areas. However, sometimes and hopefully not now with this particular plant, you need to cut back to inspire new growth. If you do have to do this, then make sure you never cut more than two thirds; and if you do cut back you will have very sparse flowers that year.

One last word of warning, here in Spain there is a nice big spider that loves to hang around in Jasmine. Whilst cutting this one back I ended up with two falling into my t-shirt. My neighbours must have wondered why I was leaping round the garden throwing off my clothes.

🌴 Trimming Palms. In Spain trimming Palms is more or less an ongoing job. However, the important thing is to do it at the correct time. In our garden we have a number of very large Palms which are done professionally in January to ensure the Palm Weevil does not get in. But the smaller Palms I will tend to trim myself. Always cut the Palm just as the frond bends towards the ground and it is still green (see photo) If you leave it until the frond is hanging all the way down and has gone brown then the frond turns into a substance similar to iron and it is very difficult to cut unless you have a diamond tipped saw.

🍅 Planting tomatoes. I have never bothered to plant tomatoes in Spain because they are so cheap and plentiful. However, I was passing our local market the other day and I saw that a stall holder had some tomatoes seedlings. Upon enquiry it turned out they were only 10 cents each, it would have been rude not to buy some. I watered them well and left them to stand for an hour, then I planted them up in a large pot and again left them to stand in the shade for a whole day. This allows the small roots to draw up sufficient  moisture into the leaves  before putting them in the sun. If you don’t do this the sun will just desiccate them. I finished by mulching them with some pebbles I happened to have (see photo). This variety are large Beef type so I look forward to having them sliced on top of local Burgers – before you ask, no you can’t come round!

🌳 Trimming things up. I have been generally tidying things up as we have our annual Open Garden Day here in our village. Anyway, I thought you might like to see a nice photo of the trimmed up Mulberry tree and one of my new arches for climbing Roses. More information will be forthcoming over the next few weeks. However, keep Saturday 27th May free if you would like to visit the gardens – you can meet me, see the garden and my wife is doing cream teas – hooray!

It’s raining which is unusual in Spain hence the heading above reflects my activity in the garden today – it’s a bit like the Twilight Zone but without the spooky music.

28th April: Things I have been doing in the garden today.

🐕 Labradors grazing on Mulberries: OK let’s get it out the way; I knew if I introduced those dogs to my gardening blog they would just upstage me and the plants. The picture below shows Nero (black) and Tango (golden) grazing on Mulberries under our large Mulberry tree. Both dogs look forward to Mulberry time and assiduously harvest all the berries that the birds knock down. All that I get out of it is the pleasure of picking up red dog pooh!

👍 Why gardeners should grow their thumbnails long: I am an exponent of gardeners growing their thumbnails long between between the months of March and September. When people notice this my wife tells them I am part of an Eastern religion a bit like the Hari Krishnas only with more hair and without the dancing bit. The real answer is you should grow your thumbnails long at this time of the year because they provide you with the perfect set of secateurs without having to go to the shed every time you see something that needs trimming or deadheading. Just trim things up by catching them between your thumb and fore finger.

🕷 Take cuttings from Spiderwort: Spiderwort is a lovely colourful Naya or veranda plant that I would never be without. It’s trailing stems and leaves hang over the edge of pots and give character to any sitting area. And the fact they are happy in semi shade makes them ideal for this situation. (See picture below).

To take cuttings from Spiderwort, just take one of the stems trailing over the pot, cut it with a sharp knife just below a leaf node (remember never secateurs or you will crush the stem) using your thumbnail (I had to get this in) pinch out all the leaves on the stem to just leave the top two. Dip the stem in hormone rooting liquid – don’t worry if you don’t have this it will still be OK. Then use your dibber to make a small hole in the compost of a 4 inch pot and stick it in. It is as easy as that.

🌿 Tying in Jasmine: I know this sound like something from Fifty Shades of Grey but I promise you it is more innocent. If you have Jasmine, and we all love the smell, then it will by now be growing in tendrils longer than the snakes on Medusa’s head. Now is the ideal time to train them to where you want them to go rather than letting them boss you around. The picture below shows some Jasmine that I am just about to train over a gate arch. Ideally you should leave the tendrils till they’re long and whippy (I have invented a new gardening term – oh no! It’s Fifty Shades again). This is the ideal state for bending and weaving them. If you leave it much longer they become woody and snap when you try to bend them. Once you have finished bending and shaping them, cut off any growth that is growing straight up or down from the stems and this will give you a nice clean line and shape.

 

I have to confess that I’ve been practising hair dressing on Marguerites and they are not impressed. I’ve also neglected some grape vines to the extent that if the Spanish Society for the Protection of Grape Vines found out, they would be taken into care.

25th April: Things I have been doing today.

💐 Cutting back Marguerite Daisies: Marguerites are the harbinger of Spanish Spring and the first welcome sign that the warm weather is on its way. However, all good things come to an end, and it is time to cut them back. Now there are two schools of thoughts on Marguerite trimming. One favours cutting back each of the individual flowers on the plant as they die, and as you know there are hundreds. The benefit of this approach is that the plant always looks tidy and you exercise your lower back muscles bending over with your scissors every day. The other school of thought, of which I am an arch exponent involves leaving the plant to flower right the way through so you end up with a plant that has both dead and new flowers at the same time. Eventually when you have a ratio of roughly 75% dead flowers to 25% live, then is the time to cut back (see photo). The benefit of this approach is that you are not interfering with the plant all the time. You give it a nice haircut all at once (but make sure you cut only the green do not cut into brown wood). The added bonus is that come late summer if you look underneath the plant you will see lots of young Marguerite seedlings happily growing away ready for you to transplant. Now, if you had followed the silly way of cutting back the flowers everyday, you would have had a nice tidy plant and a bad back, but you would probably be buying new Marguerites next year rather than getting them free.

💐 Taking care of neglected grapes: About three years ago my neighbour gave me some twig cuttings from his grapevine. Which I duly planted straight into the ground beside our swimming pool. The idea was that when we play table tennis in the pool area, we are so bad at the game that the ball constantly flies through the balustrades and someone then has to walk out and get the ball usually in bare feet over stones, which is painful.

I confess to neglecting these vines, mainly for the respectable horticultural reason that I have not played table tennis lately. But those days are gone, I intend to have a renewed interest in the game this summer, and to this end those grapevines have been spoiled. Grape vines can be planted in poor soil and really do not need much water apart from in a drought. They can be fed occasionally but never manured, and they will respond with good leaf and you can have grapes from year three. It is also important to tie them in otherwise they will flop. The photo below shows the vines in their new found vigour after my renewed self interest. I have taken a wire along the balustrades between the two plants with the intention of creating a cordon between them. This is a win win all round, the plants get fed and supported whilst my feet get saved from being lacerated by stones. By the way it is mainly my wife who knocks the ball out – I’m really quite good!

One moment I was happily mowing the lawn wandering up and down in a zen like trance when suddenly my happiness was taken from me.

24th April: Things I have been doing today. 

🌺 Lawn maintenance: By now your lawn should be growing fast and all that growth needs taking care of. You should be watering regularly (at least every third night). Apply another granulated feed now and make sure you water this in. Then of course you mow regularly, set your blades to a medium height to ensure you don’t let the lawn scorch. Then you can blissfully wander up and down in a zen like state of happiness; lawn mowing is like motorcycling only less dangerous and you don’t have to wear leathers. After I had finished mowing the lawn I sat on the tree seat under our Mulberry tree and took the picture below looking through the roses across the lawn in a perfect state of happiness. By chance I glanced to my left and saw a terrible sight that made my blood run cold, my cry of anguish I am reliably told was heard in the Canary Islands – it was only bloody Sawfly caterpillars – and with all due respect to Milton, my own paradise was lost!

🌺 Dealing with Rose pests: Sawfly are a deadly pest that specialise in eating roses; and they do it quickly. The adult female saws into a rose branch, lays her eggs and then when they hatch into caterpillars they eat in a pack and treat your roses like a Wok Buffet on an all you can eat night, see picture below. From the time they hatch in a morning they can easily strip a rose branch. Now the interesting thing about Sawfly caterpillars is that the eggs are laid right at the top of a branch and then the caterpillars eat their way down to the soil then pupate in the soil ready to breed next year’s devil spawn. They are built in such a way they can only climb down and never back up again’ when I first encountered them two years ago I would just pick them off me throw them away, safe in the knowledge that they could not climb up again. But sadly I was throwing them down to where they wanted to be and they happily pupated in the soil ably assisted by me; I was a sort of Sawfly taxi service home after a good meal. Last year I changed tactic and picked off every caterpillar and destroyed them humanely – yeah right! – they got what they deserved.

Now they are back I will spend every morning for the next few weeks inspecting each rose branch – with my glasses on – that’s how serious it is. The problem with Sawfly is they have perfected the trick of hatching at different times so that predators cannot take out a whole generation, so you have to be vigilant over a two to three week period. I am thinking of camping out overnight by the roses – my wife thinks I’m an idiot, but she just doesn’t understand that this time it’s personal.

This sort of heading appeals both to lovers of horror films and bleeding heart liberals both key target groups for this blog.

21st April: Things I have been doing today.

🥀 Fending off snails: If you are an avid and attentive follower of this blog – which all good gardeners are; and I count you as one of course! Then you will remember that I planted out Marigold seedlings the other day with a Nostradamus like prediction that as soon as they were planted all the slugs and snails in the vicinity would arrive to feast within 24 hours. I advised, again with amazing prescience, that if you surrounded your seedlings with slug pellets then all would be well. The photo (below) shows a slug tsunami battered against the wall of pellets surrounding a poor little seedling. There is a wailing and rending of garments in many snail households tonight; but the seedlings sleep safely.

🥀 Homeless bulbs: About five years ago I bought 4 Flag Iris bulbs. Over the years I have cultivated and encouraged their procreation, and in a Malthusian nightmare I now have over a hundred. Unfortunately, I have to relocate some, because I am putting in some new plants; and like a rogue landlord I am evicting them. However, all is not lost I am relocating them to the equivalent of a new town, but that comes later. First, I have to ensure that they survive. To achieve this I cut them down about a week ago ( I should have left them longer, but the new plant offered a higher rent). Anyway, to ensure their survival you need to dig them up and leave some of the stem foliage intact. Brush off any loose soil and then place the bulbs in a shaded dry area (never in the sun). Your garden shed is ideal, but only if you have a high shelf or mice will eat them quicker than you can say mouse trap. I would have used my shed but it is too full of other stuff, so the photo shows them stored in our utility room – I told my wife they are onions! Leave them to dry for a few weeks then cut off the stems and any old roots then store them or plant them – we will come back to this.

That got your attention! But to be honest this posting doesn’t involve precious stones or adults being tied up. But it does involve roses and the end of flag irises.

17th April: Things I have been doing today.

🌹 Taking care of roses: If you think you can’t grow roses in Spain then think again. Given the correct start in life and proper care and attention then they will prosper like a rich boy at Eton. You will see in the photo above two beds of Roses I planted as bare root just under two years ago; and look at them now! Garden jewels. If you want roses, tough you can’t have them. Well, you can but just not now you will have to be patient and wait until the Autumn, then you can buy some lovely David Austin old English roses and have them delivered by post. Don’t be tempted by the many potted roses you may see, if you plant them they will not prosper in our heat, but you could plant them in October; but by then you might as well wait for bare roots.

But if you have roses you should be in full swing maintaining them at their best. You will need to deadhead every day, in my case the yellow rose in the photo “Blythe Spirit” needs deadheading twice a day. You will need to feed every week with liquid feed; or twice a year with slow release granulated (February and June). You must have irrigation in place as roses are very thirsty. Even with irrigation they benefit from a good soaking one evening a week.

🌹 The end of flag irises: Well not quite the end. All the flag irises in my garden have been deadheaded a couple of weeks ago to ensure they did not waste their strength on seed. I have left the foliage on to allow it to transfer all the suns energy down into the bulbs ready for next year. However, I cannot stand to have all that yellowing unkempt foliage hanging around for weeks like some forlorn summer visitor. So the answer is some quick garden bondage! Bend the tops of each foliage clump in two and then using an elastic band or twine tie the foliage in place. This keeps them neat and tidy and allows them to do their work without getting in the way (see photo). Where do you get those colourful elastic bands I can hear you asking. Well I have to confess that I steal them from the kitchen drawer where my wife stores them after removing them from vegetables she has bought from the supermarket. Now and again she asks where all the elastic bands have gone and I accuse mice. She now has the vision of a large band of rogue mice creating a huge elastic ball somewhere inside our walls; it’s the stuff of nightmares.

Spanish gardens are full of succulents, agaves and cacti. So this time of the year save yourself money and create new plants from old. I have been taking cuttings to sell at our annual “Open Garden Day” which is in aid of Campoverde Church.

16th April: Things I have been doing today.

🌻 Take cuttings of succulents. I have been taking cuttings from a range of plants today.

Aloe Vera; one of the many Aloes and one that has long been a standard music hall joke because of its name. These plants send under ground runners that hit the surface in small clusters. Use your trowel to lift a cluster then separate individual plants. Half fill a four inch pot with compost, then stand the plant in the middle and back fill around it with the compost then tamp down. This method allows you to avoid getting compost all over the leaves and lets you get your fingers down the side to tamp down.

Spider Plant; these are a standard in every British bathroom where they can normally be found covered with dust and dead flies. However in Spain they look lovely in your garden and are very prolific. The plants sends out miniature plants at the end of long shoots, given a chance these will root when they hit the ground. All you have to do is cut off the long shoots, then trim them off to leave the baby spiders. Fill a four inch pot to the top with compost and thoroughly soak it. Then with your dibber or a pencil if you are dibberless; make a shallow indent about quarter inch deep and push your mini spider into the compost – root side down of course. This process mimics what the plant will try to do naturally and should be successful.

Aeonium: I know this sounds like a German wind instrument, but it is a lovely succulent. Cut stems from the main plant with a sharp knife. Dip in hormone rooting liquid if you have it; don’t worry if you don’t it will probably work anyway. Fill a four inch pot with compost and water well. With your dibber make a deep central hole in the compost, push the plant well down and firm the compost around it.

Money Plant: Same process as the Aeonium, but you need to strip all the leaves off the stem leaving only four at the top. Unfortunately the name of the plant does not guarantee wealth otherwise I would be worth millions.

 

 

Well that’s what it seems like when you plant Marigold seedlings. Unless you protect them slugs and snails will happily make their way towards your precious seedlings, over a 24/48 hour period and feast on them leaving you only some unattractive slimed stalks.

15th April: Things I have been doing today.

🌻 Plant out Marigold seedlings: if you look back over old postings you will see that I planted a range of seeds on March 2nd. Some of these have already been planted out including Butternut Squash and Melons, but now it is the turn of the Marigolds. If you have not grown Marigolds before you are now too late, but next year give them a go. Marigolds are so “easy” they are literally plant trollops.

Because of the high temperatures at this time of year you have to make sure that your seedlings get off to a good start. First with your trowel dig a small hole about four inches deep. Fill this with water and let it drain into the soil. In advance you should have mixed some compost from your compost heap together with some shop bought compost to produce a loamy rich compost. Place about and inch of this into the bottom of your planting hole and then place the seedling on top of this fill in the remainder of the hole with the compost and mix a little soil that you dug from the hole. When this is complete water well. Marigolds like water so be sure to build them around your irrigation system. I tend to plant three or four marigolds around an irrigation point. (See photo).

Lastly, and this is the most important, today I have planted 60 Marigolds and I do not want to see my labour wasted. In our garden I protect Marigolds from two types of pests. The first is great gallumping Labradors who happily tear off across flower beds at the first hint of  strangers passing our house. To stop them I place cross canes over each group of  Marigolds. In the past I have tied string between each group of canes, but gave up when one or both of my dogs would leap around the garden wrapped up in canes and twine like dog Houdinis performing a trick badly.

The second and greatest pests are slugs and snails. Marigolds are like heroin to a junkie to snails. They just cannot get enough of them and will travel long distances to be at the feast. When you first plant your seedlings out, nothing tends to happen for 24 hours. This gives you a false sense of security. But in fact they are all making their way towards the feast you have provided. Unless you protect your seedlings within 48 hours every one will be eaten. The best and simplest way is slug pellets; sprinkle them around each plant and within 48 hours you will have massacred all potential feasters and ruined their party.

 

 

 

I don’t want to get too sentimental about this, but it is time to put your bulbs to bed so they will be nice and fresh ready for next spring.

14th April: Things I have been doing today.

🌻 Preparing bulbs: It is always a good idea to plant up pots with bulbs so that they can provide early colour on your veranda or naya. The benefit of doing this is that it provides you with portable colour that you can move around to your various sitting areas. But when they are finished flowering they can look unsightly. When this happens they have to go. Now normally bulbs planted in the ground can be left to die back naturally (more of this later in the month). But, bulbs in pots need to be handled differently. First deadhead them as soon as they stop flowering, so they don’t waste energy. Then leave them as long as you can stand it with them looking all yellows and upset. I confess that I don’t leave it very long, (See photo). Then cut the foliage back level with the soil of your pot. Water them well and cover with about half an inch of sieved compost (no lumps). Then put the pots away in an out of the way shady area of your garden and leave them, (See photo). It is important to be polite to your plants if you want the best from them – so say goodnight and promise to see them next year; God willing.

🌻  Bring on the replacements: Normally I do have replacement plants lined up that I have grown from seed or cuttings, but in this case I wanted two geraniums, but unfortunately all of ours were destroyed last year by the dreaded geranium moth; it is almost not worth growing geraniums anymore in Spain because of the moth. Anyway, I confess to buying two plants (see photo). But I promise to make amends by ensuring that I take lots of cuttings from these two once they are established. I will keep you up to date with progress.

🌻 General feeding: This may sound like a large dinner party, but it is not what I intended. This time of year, when everything is really getting going, it is worth wandering around and generally spreading some general purpose granulated feed across all your beds. I use the pelleted blue stuff that you can get anywhere. Scatter this thinly, and definitely not in clumps near plant stems. These feeds are rich in nitrogen and can shock plants if they get too much. It is a bit like us having too many Easter eggs; we love them but it is not good for us.

I bet you never thought you would hear such a call to action. But now that everything is growing, it needs cutting back, and what do you do with all those cuttings, you compost them of course.

11th April: Things I have been doing today.

🌻 You need to build a compost heap. Almost the first thing I did when we moved to this house was have a builder come in and construct me a twin bin compost heap (see photo). However you need not go to this expense, just start a pile somewhere out of the way in your garden. You need four things for a successful compost heap: air, water, nitrogen and carbon. Air is everywhere that is the easy one. Water is important because you have to keep the compost moist (not soaked). Nitrogen is all the green stuff you put on the heap all your grass cuttings, waste vegetables, plant cuttings and the labours of your deadheading. Carbon is the brown stuff (no pun intended) bits of wood, brown vegetables like Corn on the cob, old newspapers, napkins old packaging. If you do not have carbon then your compost will turn to green slime and smell awful.

If possible add the green stuff (nitrogen) and the brown stuff (carbon) in layers so that they stop one element dominating. Water occasionally to keep it moist and if possible cover the heap either by using a compost bin, or just throw an old bit of carpet over the top, this will help stop it drying out. Once you have got one heap going build it up for about six months then start your next. The idea of two heaps or bins is that one will be ready to use in six months to a year (depending on circumstances), whilst the other takes all the new stuff. It helps if you can turn the heap over every three months or so, but don’t worry if that’s too much, just make sure you start using the compost from the bottom of the heap.

One last word of vital advice. Never put food, oil, fat or bones etc on the compost heap as they will not compost properly and worse they attract rats and mice

Despite a damaged knee caused whilst planting roses in hard clay soil (which my wife has assured me is my own fault and self inflicted) I have managed to fight through the pain barrier and do some gardening.

April 7th: Things I have been doing today.

Plant out seedlings. You will remember that a few weeks ago I planted Butternut Squash and Gala Melon seeds. These were harvested from last summers Squash and Melon and is very easy to do. Both plants have shallow roots so I have discovered (purely by a self sowing chance) and are ideal for planting under citrus trees such as orange and lemon. They do not interfere with the roots of the tree, citrus trees are always in sun which suits them and the regular feeding of the Squash and Melon suits the tree.

I have already had the seedlings in coir pots which bio-degrade in the soil. Dig a hole about 6 inches deep, fill with well rotted compost, water the compost profusely and then push the seedling in its coir pot directly into the soil. If they are not in coir pots just place them directly into the compost. Then cover the area around the seedlings with dry compost as this will stop the leaves getting wet and possibly rotting. We will find out what happens over the next few weeks!

The above heading may sound like a firm of Solicitors but in fact but it is how I spent a bit of time today.

April 4th: Things I have been doing today.

🌻 Deadhead your bulbs. It is time to show no mercy to spent bulb flower heads’ so deadhead like The Queen of Hearts – off with their heads! As soon as bulbs flowers have died back, cut the heads off straight away to ensure they do not waste energy on making seeds. Leave the stems and leaves in place and let them die back over the next few weeks and water only sparingly. We will come back to sort them out in a few weeks.

🌻 Take cuttings. This is all getting a bit gruesome! Now that everything is springing into life, this is the ideal time to take cuttings either to expand your garden and get free plants, or, to give to friends and family who may have admired a particular plant. Today I have been taking cuttings of Dame de Noche and Spiderwort. The best time to take cuttings is in the early morning or evening. Take a sharp knife and cut just below a leaf node (secateurs tend to crush tender stems). Remove all the leafs from the stem leaving just 2/4 at the top. Then dip into rooting hormone – liquid or powder. Don’t worry if you don’t have this. Place into a pot of well watered compost’ place three or four cuttings around the edge of a four inch pot (this helps rooting – don’t ask me why, it just does). Place the cuttings in a light sheltered position – not in direct sun. Hopefully in 3 or 4 weeks we can look at these again.

This is the start of the various garden pests we have here in Spain. Now that the deadly processionary caterpillars are gone for another year, this is no time to relax otherwise you will be overwhelmed.

April 3: Things I have been doing today.

🌻 Spray Oleander Scale: If you look closely at the leaves of your Oleander you will see small orange or white dots that often run along the inner seam of the leaf. You will probably need your glasses on to see this properly. This is the Oleander Scale beetle; a tiny beetle that breeds profusely and will suck all the sap out of your plant, and in the worst cases will kill it. (See photo below). You need to spray this with a proprietary brand pest killer. Because the beetle is covered with a waxy coating it can be impervious to spray; but do it weekly till it all turns black; then keep an eye on it.

🌻 Spray Greenfly: This is getting a bit depressing! But just like Scale, Greenfly are very active at the moment. Tell tale signs are small flys flying around plants when you move them, leaves covered in a sticky coating and a sooty residue. If you see this – then get your glasses on again – and you will see small green eggs and young attached to the leaves of your plant. (See photo below). Greenfly are not fussy so it is not just roses they will go for; orange, lemon, pomegranate can all suffer from attacks. For best results spray in the evening or first thing in the morning when all the adults will be on the plant.

🌻 Flag Iris: Just to cheer you up after all that depressing stuff; here is a picture of my flag irises. More about them later in the month.

April is the month when the Spanish garden really begins to take off. If you have followed all my blog posts to date then you should have your garden in hand and ready for the joys of Summer. From now on I will try to make posts more frequent as there is lots to do at this time of year.

🌻 Prick out your seedlings: A few weeks ago I planted a range of seedlings in my mini 3 shelf greenhouse. Although there have been some failures – mainly my fault by sowing just as the weather went dull – but overall they have been very successful (see picture above). Now is the time to prick them out and plant them in trays with more space between them. I use a pencil to gently ease out clumps of seedlings, then picking them up by the leaves – never the stem- I replant them; 24 to a normal seed tray. Pick only the best and strongest seedlings and discard the rest on the compost heap; heartbreaking I know but necessary. Place the trays back in your mini greenhouse or place in a sheltered and not full sun area of your garden.

🌻 Plant new roses. This month is your last opportunity to plant roses in Spain. But these must be potted roses as bare root will not survive at this time of year. Dig a hole at least twice the size of the root ball. Fill the hole with water and leave to drain fully. In the meantime soak your rose in its pot and again let this drain over an hour or so. Start by placing some well rotted compost at the base of the hole then add some granular rose food. Place the rose root ball into the hole and then backfill with a mixture of soil and compost adding rose food as you go. When planting roses it is important that the bud union is at least two inches below the soil. Water the roses profusely and them mulch the top with compost or bark chipping to keep the moisture in. Keep well watered over the next few weeks.

🌻 Repair damaged lawn areas: I use the soil dug from the roses to repair areas of my lawn that have gone bare or have been damaged by our Labradors. First sieve the soil to get out any stones or plant debris that might damage your lawn. Then add some store bought compost to the soil and mix well. Using a trowel wander round your lawn spreading a light dusting of the mixture onto the damaged and bare areas’ then using a stiff broom sweep it into the lawn and between the blades of grass to ensure you don’t cover over healthy grass areas. Do not roller this or tramp the soil down as this will only create potential mud areas on your lawn; just leave it a few days and it will eventually all blend in and give your grass a chance to colonise the new areas.

🌻 Feed your plants and kill weeds:  By now you should be feeding your plants weekly, especially those in pots. I use liquid feed mainly, but I also sprinkle the blue granulated stuff on the borders at this time of the year as a “once a year feed”. I have already treated broad leaf weeds on my lawn, but it is now time for a second and final treatment to make sure they are all gone for the summer with no chance of seeding.