Monday 29 July 2013

Va por ellos. This is for them.



No es mucho, pero estas son las mejores flores que tenia en el jardin. Estas son en honor de las victimas del accidente de tren en Santiago, sus familias, y todos los que los ayudaron.

This is not much, but they're the best flowers I had in the garden. These are in honour of the victims of the train crash in Santiago, their families and all who helped them.

Sunday 21 July 2013

Plants that are doing well in the draught

We are having some lovely weather these past two weeks, and my pot plants in the garden at home are struggling with the unexpected heat (i.e. good weather) and lack of constant rain. And also the fact that I don't have a garden hose and I only water the pots once or twice a week if it doesn't rain. However, some plants are doing wonderfully and you can't even tell they notice the extra heat and dryness. The pelargonium is my favourite, it's positively thriving in its little pot, when everything around it is dying a slow death.



The rose is a nice surprise, it even has a second wave of buds about to open! The strawberry tree, azalea rosemary and helichrysum (Mediterranean type of plants, so no big surprise) are also looking healthier than anything else around.

The cornflower looks a bit leggy now but it's been flowering non-stop for weeks and the bees love it. Almost as much as they love lavender, which is also doing well in the sunny(ish) weather but is so small at the moment that it only feeds one bee...



The crocosmia is doing well in its big new pot (each year it gets better, three flowers this one!) and the kniphophia on the small pot on the floor, which isn't flowering yet (too small) but isn't drying up either. No surprises there, as they're both from South Africa.

Sunday 7 July 2013

June away: the aftermath

So, this year I broke a cardinal gardening rule and took a long holiday in the middle of June. Right when the weeds grow at their strongest. I had an amazing holiday in Peru, so I don't regret it, but coming home after three weeks away (we landed on a Sunday and I couldn't go to until the next weekend) I found this:

Asi estaba a la huerta despues de las vacaciones en Peru:



After two weekends of weeding, I have managed to pull most of the weeds and clear the good plants. Y asi esta tras dos fines de semana quitando malas hierbas:



But it's not all bad. The strawberries do better when protected by surrounding plants. Pero no todo son males. Las fresas se dan mejor con proteccion de otras plantas alrededor:



And the raspberries are too tall even for the weeds. A las frambuesas tampoco le afectan:



But the best thing are the lettuces, thanks to my plot neighbours thar watered them while I was away. Lo mejor, las lechugas, gracias a mis vecinos de parcela que las regaron estas semanas: