MAGICAL GARDEN CENTRE:

Take a mini tour with me - we only popped in for veg seedings, but ....

Here's the statuary yard . There are two abstract ones in the centre, black and white, which I've always fancied. We keep our eye open here for unusual pots for mosaicing.
This is their Aladin's cave of ceramics - all colours, all styles, matching tableware and souvenirs for visitors.
This is the half-hardy corridor. Right now there are dozens of gardenias, ferns, kalachoe, azalea and cyclamen.
Indoor plants on the left, full of peace lilies, flamingo plants, begonias with fabulous multi-coloured leaves.
And then the enormous vista of colour opens out. Bourganvilleas galore,
chrysanthemums, asters, gerberas, giant pots with a mixture of different coloured asters in one pot - what a good idea, never thought of that.

This is a good time to plant new trees, shrubs and climbers and this viveros stocks a great variety. Spanish shops and supermarkets do not open on a Sunday. The exception - introduced in the last three years - is the garden centre and even during the sancrosanct siesta period you will find all nationalities pottering around the viveros to find beautiful things for their gardens.

S.W. SPANISH GARDENING is a constant surprise. Just as I think I've got things sussed and sorted, conditions change and up pops new growth that I wouldn't have expected until the Spring.

Mathilde gave us some bits and pieces, we knew not what in English....an old succulent leaf, that turns out to be an aloe vera; a few bulbs which are burgeoning into Fleur de Lys (have yet to look those up) and just when I thought hacking down the Clematis last month had put it to bed for winter, here it is blooming again.

So it's a delight rambling round the garden and seeing what's happening. 10 a.m. and it's 20C, rain yesterday has moistened the soil so it's a day for putting in swede, parsnip and carrot seeds and having a monster burnup again. We missed potato planting in August, so will have to wait until February now. I could try the peas again as we did get a small crop in early Spring - much to my surprise.

A friend lifted two mature buddleia for us from her garden here and they're waiting to be planted, a deep purple and a yellowy/orange. El jefe is over the moon because our existing white buddleia (which is flowering again this year) has not attracted butterlies. These new ones might do the trick.

I love it when friends give us bits from their garden: it's a regular reminder of our friendship and good times together. Earlier, a dear friend in UK sent us Euphorbia seeds. I put them "somewhere safe" and couldn't find them. They've now turned up so it'll great to have these beautiful plants early next year.

Time to round up the tools and get cracking.....

OCTOBER HEAT.

After a month of regular storms and heavy rain in September, here we are, a third through October, with temperatures around 29C and needing the fans on at night in the study and bedroom. So winter seems a long way away.

All flowers and shrubs are enjoying a second lease of life, while the fruit trees are losing their leaves and it's a constant battle to clear up after the winds. We've been having a new drive laid, preparing new things for the garden in the coming months, so I haven't been paying much attention to the blog. And here's part of the new drive. All the greenery on the left hand terrace is the hardenbergia we put in in the Spring. No lovely purple flowers yet though.


Sue in Milan has asked me to join the GARDEN BLOGGERS RETRO CARNIVAL,
i.e. to repeat a post I'm fond of, and I can think of nothing better than one in February this year when the temperatures were climbing, Spring had arrived and I was just recovering from shingles. It's a comforting thought, facing winter (whenever it arrives in Spain) that it will be short-lived and the February post reminds me of that.

We've had a grand burn-up today, as this month is the first we've been allowed to since end May. Tuesday and Thursdays are the officially approved days so I opened the door this morning to the smell of bonfires all around. What a wonderful aroma.