CUBED POT.

Nearly finished. These shapes had to be exact for all four sides so templates were used and D. tried them on for size before sticking. The joins on the four corners will be a challenge. 

The big rain is here and has been relentless today. From temperatures up in the low 30sC ten days ago, we down to the low 20s. I saw Gonzalo spraying his potatoes after the last rain and subsequent hot sun and before you could "Jack Robinson" he'd leapt over the fence and did mine. I casually asked what he was doing you see and, apparently, he was guarding against potato blight caused by the humidity. The plants have quadrupled their size and I just hope the heavy rain today doesn't rot them.

The gravel garden was under water today - haven't seen this for the last two years. The soil in the orchard is like porridge: a short walk down there results in another 2" layer on my rubber gardening shoes, plus another inch of gravel as I walk across into the house!

A big bonus though: the pergola bourganvillea is blossoming for the first time and the pelogoniums have a second lease of life.

A friend has sent me some ornamental poppy seeds and I have some wild flower mix too, so as soon as we have a dry spell and can rotivate, these will be broadcast at the bottom of the garden.
Here are the mother poppies - well, they were, but they're at the top of the page now! Does anyone know the best time for seeds in this corner of Andalucia?

D. is busy with a cube pot but I'm not going to chance uploading the pic now only to have it stuck somewhere inappropriate, so will do through Picasa.

I wonder if these scanned pages will come out and if you can enlarge them to read the tips for jobs to do in a Mediterranean coastal garden.

It seems that times to do things, certainly in southern Andalucia, are nothing like northern European schedules. Many flowers and shrubs have a longer showing or return when the weather cools down. Many seeds can be started that would normally wait until Spring in northern Europe.

So, hope these two pages, if they can be read, are helpful. 

And here they are after 6 weeks plus this lovely little fellah, only 1" long, hiding in the trellis. 

I've been getting nagged by the neighbours to keep the potatoes watered so drip watered the other morning for 20 mins. and then, instead of switching off water, I turned it to full bore.....and walked away!! Oh dear - 2 hours later the water level in the well had sunk so low that our pump would not work. It has a safety interruptor to prevent burn-out (I could do with one of those myself!)

It took the rest of the day and all night for the level to be restored. So those pesky potatoes are going to have to fend for themselves for a while. Rain is forecast next week, so fingers crossed.....