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.

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.

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:

Best of the garden

It's no Chelsea medal-winner, but these are my favourite views in my garden at the moment:

Estos son mis rincones favoritos en el jardin este mes:

Last of the raised beds and first of the beans

Today I finally finished making the "raised beds" at the allotment. It's really just a few recycled low boards around the soil, but I really find it easier to plant in boxes and I like the look. These two at the back that I did today are the last. In the bigger one I'm going to plant the cauliflowers and cabbages, and a row of of borlotti beans:

In the strip by the fence I've planted some bulbs (iris and gladioli) at the front, and behind (in front of the peas) I'm going to put the cucumbers, currently growing in pots in the shed, when the weather warms up:

The beans were growing too long and floppy in their pots, so I had to plant them out. I thought the weather was warm enough, but almost all the plants show damage on their leaves. I'm going to sow fresh seed along the line, in case these plants don't survive. I'm happy with the structure, though, and in between the beans I've planted seedlings of lollo rossa lettuce (barely visible, as they're dark red):

The courgette plants were getting too big in their pots too, so I had to plant two of them out. These plastic covers don't look great but hopefully won't need to stay very long. However, I kept the two smallest in the shed, should these not survive the cold!

And the last thing I did this morning: I've planted up the last corner of my proper raised bed with lettuce and some herbs that don't mind a bit of shade (this bed is next to a big fence and is the shadiest of my allotment spaces): rocket, parsley, rosemary and chives.

Flowers opened last week

The past two weekends have been relatively sunny, dry(ish) and mild, so I’ve been working quite a lot in the garden and the allotment. I’ll post photos of the allotment later this week, but at the moment the garden is looking much better, with perennial plants that come in bloom much earlier.

Los ultimos dos fines de semana ha hecho bueno (relativamente) y el jardin y la huerta lo notan, sobre todo el jardin porque tengo estas plantas perennes que florecen mucho antes. Hace una semana me llegaron unas bolsas de compost y rellene las macetas que estaban a medio llenar desde que me mude el ano pasado, asi que ahora esta todo listo para plantar, pero estas plantas de las fotos estan en su mejor momento ahora.

I got a delivery of multipurpose compost to fill up the rest of the pots in the garden, which have been half-empty since I moved in last June, and they’re all now ready for growing. But before I sow and transplant any new stuff, here’s some perennial plants that are looking good at the moment:

I’ve had this viburnum for a few years now, and I absolutely love it. It reminds me of my dad, he loves viburnums too. This is right in front of my kitchen window, and it looks (and smells!) its best at this time of the year. I can smell it when I open my bedroom window.

Tengo el viburnum delante de la ventana de la cocina, y es una de mis plantas favoritas de todo el jardin. Me recuerda a mi padre, y huele de maravilla, incluso cuando abro la ventana de mi habitacion.

My one plant of dog’s tooth violet (the yellow flowers) produces a few more flowers every year. I had to transplant it so I cut all the flowers first, and they make this beautiful handful with some bluebells.

La planta amarilla (erythronium dens-canins en latin) tiene unas flores preciosas, y de una sola planta cada ano salen mas flores. Tuve que transplantarla a otra maceta, asi que corte todas las flores e hice este ramito con unas campanillas (que huelen que es una gloria).

This nemesia has survived from last year, and it started flowering already. Most people treat them as annual bedding plants, but I find they tend to survive in my patio garden (perhaps being so close to the house offers some extra weather protection?).

La nemesia aqui la suelen tartar como anual, pero a mi he visto que se me suele conserver todo el invierno (puede ser que esta protegida de las inclemencias por estar al lado de la casa?), asi que ya ha empezado a florecer.

And finally, I love this dicentra (dicentra spectabilis alba). It does not smell, but it looks gorgeous with all the leaves and hanging flowers, it is bushy yet delicate and I really like it, also it does very well in shade (this strip of the garden barely gets any direct sunlight, at least not this time of year).

Y por ultimo, la dicentra. Esta planta no huele, pero me encantan las hojas y flores, y a demas se da muy bien en sombre (a esta parte del jardin, al menos estos meses, no le da el sol directo).

First lettuce seedlings planted out - under cloche

This is something I did last weekend. I had some lettuce plants that I sowed at the end of February and were ready to be moved to a bigger pot. You can see in the photo the root system was developed (you can see little white roots), and the plants had a few leaves each:

Tenia estas plantitas de lechuga que sembre a finales de febrero y ya estaban listas para el transplante. En la foto se ve que las raices estaban desarrolladas y cada planta tenia varias hojitas. Las he puesto en la huerta, pero como todavia hace frio (y viento) las he cubierto con estas campanas de plastico. Lo del viento puede ser un problema - el otro dia me encontre las campanas en la otra punta de la huerta - asi que las sujete con unos ganchos de metal. Estan plantadas muy juntas, pero voy a usar las hojas individuales en vez de la planta entera asi que espero que se den bien:

I planted them outside, taking advantage of the improved weather, but it can still get cold at night so I've put them under these plastic cloches. I had to peg down the cloches because it can get quite windy at the allotment - the other day, pre-pegging down, I found them at the other end of the plot! I'm going to pick the leaves individually as the plant grows, so I've planted them quite close together and I hope they will grow well: