PLANT
IDENTIFICATION.

I've posted this on the Garden Web, but no luck yet. We call this the "Michele" tree as we got a cutting from her garden. In two years and with pruning at the base, it's about 3M tall. I have other cuttings on the go.

It has pointy, glossy, evergreen leaves, tiny white flowers in Spring and Autumn, no smell. Anyone know the name of it? I've searched all my Mediterranean gardening books and find nothing to fit.

FROST!! Unheard of to this degree. It had to be scraped off the car. Luckily, we were forewarned and wrapped the bourganvillea in a fleece and brought the succulents and cacti under the pergola. This was last Thursday and Friday. Nothing like my blogging mate, Nature Girl's snow in Canada, though.

Since then, rain.....and more rain.
After around 5 weeks of abnormally high temperatures in December and early January, this is very welcome to top up the wells, reservoirs and lakes in Spain.

AVOCADO....

I must show you this - and hope you can see it properly. It's been over 20 years since I last rooted an avocado. I put the pip in a narrow plastic, sherry-sampling glass with enough water to touch the base of the pip. Two cocktail sticks were balanced on either side and the whole lot put in a dark, warm cupboard for several weeks. In fact, I forgot about it until I was having a bit of a clean. Roots had formed and a tiny shoot showing from the side. It's now out in the light, awaiting re-potting.

Mr Brown Thumb

Mr Brown Thumb

I am taking Mr. Brown Thumb's advice and playing with my Blogger Button. Where this ends up is anyone's guess. My blog, his blog.....what fun.

If it's you, Mr. Thumb, thank you for your lovely site, your tips, your pics.

GIANT BROCCOLI.

Here it is, 3 weeks on since the last picture......delicious. There are more like that and I'm told broccoli soup with stilton, or some other blue cheese, goes down well. Here are also two jars of marmalade of the 14 I made today. That was 3 kgs. of oranges - only another 9 kgs. to go so I've frozen some to do later.

And here they are. Ying and Yang. They love to show us who's boss, by occupying the study chairs. We sit back to back at our computers and if we're unlucky, the cats get there first.

If we want to print, this is what Yang does....

For all you lovely gardening bloggers who are also animal (especially cat) lovers, here are my beautiful, daft Siamese brother and sister, Yin and Yang.

Well, I've kept trying to upload but errors keep occurring. Watch this space cos I'm going to master it.......

Well, I've had a lovely time in the garden centres lately. Very surprisingly, there were many plants in stock, unlike previous Januarys when there's been nothing - a sign of the warmer times. I understand that many of the varieties are grown and imported from Holland and Belgium, so care needed in acclimatising our plants to this area.

I've taken the plunge again and bought another hibiscus with beautiful glazed yellow and orange pot. About 1 m. high, with buds on. I just have to make sure I don't kill it with too much water. It'll stay on the patio for a while as we are expecting a cold snap this week.

Here it is, next to my gardinia, whose buds have been waiting to pop for 2 months - what's keeping 'em?! In front, with the celery type leaves, is the herb Lovage. I had great difficulty ever finding this in UK, so was over the moon to see it here, called Apio de montaña. Just 2-3 leaves chopped into salad gives a really great zing to it. Coriander (cilantro) is sitting behind the lovage. This was non-existent here when we arrived but can now be found in little bags in the supermarkets. It doesn't last long in a pot, well at least I can't keep it for long - it bolts in warmer weather.

We had rain today, after 5-6 weeks so the peas will swell a bit more and the radishes off to a good start. We've covered the lettuces with a blanket: something new for Yang to investigate and hide under.

I've had four carrier bags of Seville oranges given to me, so bought the sugar today and a new huge pot and will get started on the marmalade this week. I might be gone for a while......!

GRAPEFRUIT RIPENING..... I almost forgot - there are about 8 in this first year of fruiting.

I hope I haven't ruined the almond tree in the background with too vigorous a pruning. In about 2-3 weeks, the lovely pink blossom will appear.

WONDERFUL BROCCOLI.

It has given me enormous pleasure this week to be able to give Gonzalo a huge broccoli - he loves them and he didn't plant any. Instead he put loads of cauliflower in, and they are not doing well. We heard his rotivator working overtime today: he is getting ready to put in 300 potatoes!! That's my cue, I guess, to get ready to do the same but with a modest little bag of about 36.

It's been Springlike weather here - daytime temperature around 21C - perfect for mucking about in the garden, lighting a bonfire (we're allowed now on Tuesdays and Thursdays) and attacking the weeds. Such a satisfying feeling of being on top of it at the end of the day.

PEAS......

in January! Here's a selection of what's growing. Amazing, peas in flower. I only know peas in June in UK. The broccoli had to be de-caterpillarised after the rains and now I see a miniature fruit in each plant. And as for those onions - would you look at 'em go!










No rain for around 3 weeks now so will have to give everything a good drink, especially the citrus as we have fruit and blossom simultaneously. Well, fruit - one lemon as the Levante blew the last lot of blossom off, and 5 grapefruit!

I was examining the orange trees for leaf miner bugs and saw grey, whispy gossamer-like material and thought there was another disease. Then it moved! And there was another little chameleon, bright green and shuffling off some skin. I had a little chat and left him to go about his business.

There is so much work to do at the moment and we're both at a low ebb with colds. The fruit trees need pruning and we're over-run with a kind of clover with yellow flower. It looks lovely in a big open field but when it's in your garden choking the trees and shrubs, and so much of it, I feel defeated before I begin. But begin we must. There's rotivating and manure spreading to do also. I wish I could find one of those wiry, little old Spanish men to come in and help, but they're all busy with their own gardens.

CHAMELEONS IN WINTER.

Isn't he cute. He was nestling in the green trellis amongst the pink trumpet vine, which is still flowering. He blended in so well, it was hard to see him as he was perfectly still. We had a big one during the heat of the summer when creating a rock garden. He appeared in his green suit, starting climbing up the brezo fence and turned brown.... fascinating little creatures - and feisty too.


Here's the picture of the fountain I tried to post earlier. When the stones, pebbles and papyrus in black pot are added, I'll post another.

FOUNTAIN THINGY.

The mosaiced bricks can be moved around, and they will be as we want to put some large flat stones and pebbles around and a papyrus plant. Need to get the sound just right too, so a bit of twiddling is necessary....

SPANISH TOOLS.

So here is the mattock on the left, a small one just for me. It's necessary to stand with legs apart and move the soil towards you with the blade.

I don't know what the hooked one on the right is called but it's brilliant for going between rows of seedlings and aerating the soil. Also it was just right for whacking the soil and popping in the onions.

Here's where we've been twiddling round the back of the green shed, fixing up another deposito and guttering. We'll have to paint it to prevent the water going green. The existing green one has a tap and hose and will be the overflow from the white one.





The black hole is a work in progress for a rocky fountain with some mosaic tiles around .

Well, that is odd. Blue underlined words above and my deposito picture has disappeared. Let's see what the final thing does......

WOO HOO....WOULD YOU LOOK AT WHAT I'VE GOT! A new Mediterranean gardening book, all the way from Oregon, full of great ideas. Here is a quote from Marcel Proust - on a card which my sister sent me - "Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom".

Thanks to Becky at myserenitygarden.blogspot for this garden gift and the warm glow you have given me. The sunflower and marigold seeds you included will be started end February-ish.

(See the bourganvillea blooming still, as are African daisies, honeysuckle, passion flower and pink trumpet vine. Oh, and the solanum is fantastic under the pergola).

FELIZ NAVIDAD to you all from Spain, where - when it's not raining - the daytime temperature is still around 18C.

Last month after harvesting the potatoes, I put in peas, celery, broccoli and onions. All are doing well. I tried brussel sprout seeds and, sadly, they've come to nothing so I wonder if it just doesn't cold enough here. I'd love to hear from anyone in southern Spain who's managed to grow these vegetables, which are traditionally English with Christmas dinner.

All has been quiet next door in Gonzalo's and I learned he'd had minor surgery and was recovering. It's evident now that he's better.....he's back to leaping over the fence, mattock and a bunch of seedlings in hand to put in immediately. More onions! I have shingles at the moment so poor D had to get stuck in immediately with a special tool Gonzalo has presented to him. This and the mattock which may not be familiar to gardeners outside the Mediterranean or the Middle East, are the most popular here. In fact, I read that mattocks were being imported to UK as gardeners had discovered the versality of them. Gonzalo laughs at my garden fork and hoe and shakes his head, brandishing his various sized mattocks. I'll take photos soon and post them.

CUBE POT FINISHED.

This has now had its black grout applied and I think it looks gorgeous. We shall paint the inside as it helps terracotta pots retain moisture.


This next one, using up bits 'n pieces with the odd coloured glass pebble, is a bit of a disappointment



because the tiles get lost in the red grout. We have been reading up on oil-based grout stains, so will find a black one and go over this pot after experimenting on a trial piece.












And for Colin's benefit on mediterraneangardening.blogspot, here's the same pot before the grout was cleaned off. See what I mean about the tiles disappearing and that black grout would have been much better.

The days are getting colder now so I think this might be the last bit of mosaic work until Spring. Ooo, will withdrawal symptoms set in!

I don't know the name of this lovely trailing or ground cover plant. I have it in pink and mauve and it just keeps expanding.

When we bought this Bird of Paradise plant 2 years ago, it was flowering. Since then, nada....there are now two thin, hard new shoots - may be two flowers.

This asparagus fern is very pot bound but I think they like it that way. I have never seen berries on them before.

We've had rain, rain and more rain and I'm glad we've got two depositos connected up behind the green shed to collect it. The big job to come is fixing up the guttering round the house.

It will soon be time to get the log fires going - we have a pile of olive and eucalyptus all ready. Concrete houses get so cold in the short winters that sometimes it's warmer to be outside when the sun is out. One Christmas we had brunch outside on the butterfly table.

Well, would you look at this .......in a house that tries to avoid cakes, biscuits and pastry I go and win the "guess the weight of the cake" competition at a Christmas Bazaar in aid of the dog refuge! Sods law, eh. It looks too beautiful to eat.

It's so full of booze, it'll keep until next Christmas but as D usually feels so deprived in the naughty foods department, I know it won't last long!

HERBS:

This is Rue, known since Roman times and referred to in Shakespeare's plays. Some say if it's placed by your front door, it will bring good fortune, others that it will keep away the evil spirits (rather like a Rowan tree to keep away the witches). Whichever, I think it's a pretty plant and have bought two.