Take your pick!

A splash of rain and hail storm wet the ground enough to allow us to clean up the ‘hierbas malas’ (weeds), that were beginning to encroach into paths around our raised seed and cuttings beds. The recent moisture will invigorate the plants though not so much as it will stimulate the weeds. Even if you think of the weeds as ‘native plants’ or ‘plants that are simply growing in the wrong place’, as some would have it, they (the weeds) are still a pain in the neck and will quickly swamp your desperate efforts at cultivation. Here on previously uncultivated or compacted ground we have found that the most useful of gardening tools is the pick, a spade or fork will simply not cut the stony ground. Tree roots, buried water pipes and electrical cables all prevent the use of heavy excavators. So for now we will do it the hard way, by hand; ‘poco y poco’ (little by little) as the Spanish advise us.