What one should do in their garden-- ( i find i have little time to do in mine) READ

I'm now trying to tear into 'The Life of Cesare Borgia' by Rafael Sabitini. He's generous and looks at the family in a more sympathetic light than what is usually attributed to them. The times were corrupt, the church had the greatest wealth, and attracted ambition and greed. Hopefully as I sink deeper, interesting history will be dusted off and not just efforts to refute previous biographies of the family-- though he is probably right that stories of incest and murder were made more colorful by previous historians trying to sell a juicy story.

A terrace hillside on Av.Gabriel Roca in Palma

 

 

Standing at the crossroads

After an peeling 3lb of blanched almonds to be used for Spanish almond cakes (sugar-free), I poured the water used for blanching over almond skins cooled and poured around the orange tree. Probably a meaningless gesture but it was fun to use at least a little food waste for mulching. Of course, when gardening en terra, a pot by the sink would be de riguer :)

My live in chef

My sky garden has been pulled apart for 3 weeks now for the installation of the trellisses made for the space. the macho ferns need to be repotted; all of the bromeliad need to be unpotted and separated. The gorgeous stephanotis vine needs to be unwound from the wooden trellis it came on and fed through the squares of it's new home. The solanum macranthum which I love, becomes too large too quickly and needs frequent cut backs to stay a manageable size-- no blooms until new growth is ready. She's being given away to a friend who can put it in the ground. The bamboo palm has taken off, but it ain't my favorite. It can take 3-4 hours of morning sun which is surprising.. but's feathery leaves at least at this stage are packed tight and are messy. The palm is quite elegant when its trunks can grow to 7'. Don't think this is going to happen in a pot, but maybe. I'll have to cull shoots at the base.


Ever your,
Sky Gardener

The jasmine on the handrail has become leggy.. kind of feel like getting rid of about half of my inventory, take pause and do some planning. I'm a little loathe to take this on, it's just plain messy doing that work. I have a problem with dirt on the tiles.

I feel like I'm whining here. The truth be told, the weather has been fabulous, the plants are being pushed by the locomotion of summer sun and humidity. I'm lucky to have a 33' x 11' terrace to grow with unobstructed southern views. And, some freshly baked almond cake and strong coffee in front of me.



Classic Catalunyan almond cake sans sucre



You taught me to love again..

Begonias-- still have a few in the family. 

Big Mac, a very handsome fellow. Planted low in a gallon pot, the rhizomes seem happy at the challenge  of climbing out of confinement. 

A rambunctious Art Hodes (b. orococo?) dares a late season bloom. I need to learn how to propogate. Juicy, thick stems don't seem like they'd lend themselves to rooting..?

Tied to a terrace trellis

Looks like a splayed rose-- it's a Bougainvillea-- tied nice 'n flat on the new handsome trellis. Still a lost of cleaning up and reorganizing terrace. I'm looking forward to trying the small leaved monstera, cereus (which needs to have a good grip and be able to hang down to bloom). This magenta bougainvillea has larger thorns than the purple bougie. I was  able to carefully forced it into submission. I think a bougie likes some good orderly direction (a little disciplining never hurt anyone did it?) 

The Bitch has a mean prick

Bougie tied securely on it's new home, she did not submit to get tied up without a nasty fight. Tomorrow will include unraveling stephanotis and feeding it to the trellis. putting up the other 4x7' as seen above on the east wall. Handsome ironwork (aluminum) very well done by http://www.gardenmetalwork.com/

Stephanotis still knotted around it's wooden trellis. 

Lle treillis de jardin sont arrivés

Click on photos to enlarge

Taking pause to appreciate the coming work rearranging, cleaning, etc. 

And here they are. Square tube 1/2" mounted they will float out about 1" from the wall. Plenty of rooms for the squigglies and winders to do their thing. 

Summer time, this plumeria knows that the sun is moving overhead and is filling out nicely. Look at the bamboo palm next to her.. Not just for shade anymore.

In rememberance of things past

The trellis's ordered are to be delivered today. The trellis are square and the cross pieces are 6" apart. This will make for dense coverage. Going to have to cull the herd as this is installed. Need to keep the amount of pots down as much as possible, whilst maintaining a colorful, green mass around the walls.

Foliar fed again with a weak brew.. it won't hurt and I don't think the last spray had even a day before being rained on. Also, pounded the bougies with some Bougain and Bayers systemic fertilizer. Bucketed all these with water.

East wall a while back. This will soon be covered with trellis. Vines in the back: dense green, bougies and pals in front:color.

Goings on about town

What's the normal life expectancy of a blog? 2 - 3 years? Has this blog stumbled into it's final chapters?

We've had some sunny, hot days and a few nice bouts of rain. Still have to supplement water for the bamboo and orange. Sprayed everyone down on Saturday with MiracleGro (I have3gal sprayer). It rained the next day, hopefully it was on long enough to be ingested.

Not much to report, the bougainvillea are always coming in and out of bloom. The potato tree, stephanotis and the jasmine are all in bloom. The pandora vine, after putting up a fine display of flowers has gone to seed (pods) which I've tried to remove when I see them to try to get her blooming again. It hasn't worked.  The cereus is continuing to try to creep, upside-down, across the ceiling of the portico. As it's arms lengthen, it tends to sag, though the clinging roots earlier set down are quite strong and keep it from falling down.

The trellis delivery has been put off for a day. Now scheduled to arrive on Thursday. There will be a good deal of commotion with the installation.

 Jardines de Alfabia

A blogger gathering intel on a Spanish beach. 

A pretty bouquet

Euphorbia, caladium, begonia U402, begonia Arte Hodes, Burle Marx busting out in the warming weather

Stephin' out

Expecting delivery for custom trellis's 5/15 (see 4/4/2013 post). Real work will then begin. Trellis's will open a whole new world-- climbing vines. Speaking of which, I've been waiting 2 weeks now for this simple spray of buds to open on the stephanotis.. this vine needs (and deserves) support.

Look at them pure white flowers and thick green leaves after their morning bath

Stormy weather..

We've had significant rainfall for the past 3 afternoons. Tornado warnings were sent out over cell phones yesterday advising to duck and cover.  New green bursting out all over the terrace gracias a la juvia- Didn't get a chance to post pics. Will do so tommorrow. 


Looks like an old handpainted photo. A path in the Soller Botanic Garden-- through the looking glass. I love Mallorca.
[photo: me-- all rights reserved]

May Day

Back from tripping. The flora of the Meditteranean was a highlight. The date palm, set amidst olive trees and pines, etc, were even more handsome than usual.

Park Guell- looking kind of Moorish, a big influence on Guadi

Jardines d'Alfabia, one the most enchanting places I've ever been, Every orange tree seemed to be blooming and the air was more than heavenly.