November doings

I've had to creep back over here as there's so much going on. Some have asked for an update on the Greek urn mosaic....here it is. Slow going but getting there. We were trying to figure out how to do the rim and pourer without spoiling the shape and we may have to grout and paint. More news and pics when it's finished.



There's a lot blooming in the garden after the heavy rains: lantana, daisies and osteospurmum going mad, lilies coming up again, also dame de noche, portalacas and I see the Bird of Paradise is putting out its buds. We spent 12 hours between us weeding last week and, boy, do my knees know it.


Colin at blog Mediterranean Garden Spain was mentioning how impossible it is in Spain to have a greenhouse: they get too hot. Usually, oceans of ugly plastic can be seen. I can't say that this looks much better, but we've made use of an old metallic car port, sunk it in the ground and clad it in green mesh to let in light and rain. It will provide some shade and protection from the wind for our seeds and cuttings . We're cossetting a banana plant recently give to us by friends.

On the right hand side we are planting some shrubs just to break up the eye line. The snails love climbing up it, so it makes it easy to pick them off and feed them to the ducks, hens and turkeys next door.

Gonzalo was not happy with our largely-empty veg plot so leapt over the fence as usual with some goodies from his favourite nursery - over 200 fledgling onions, lettuce, more broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. Not content with that, he appeared later with broad beans, then beetroot seeds. We have two small strips bare now ready for tomatoes and runner beans next year. The whole plot has been rotivated twice and fed with rotted cow and horse manure. Honestly, you'd think we were feeding the whole of Chiclana so we've warned our friends to be ready for the surplus produce

The extra guttering went up about 10 days ago to fill our 4th 1000 litre tank and, waddyaknow.....no rain since then.