Winter flowering shrubs - Mediterranean Garden

The white linen like flowers of the Solanacae vine have persisted to the turn of the year. A sheltered position close to the front door has spared this climber from the harshest of the winter weather. The variegated leaves are a feature of  this specimen which helps brighten a shady corner of the house. As the plant climbs it benefits from discrete support wires which

the plant quickly clothes. The base of the vine can become a little bare over time so this is a plant that benefits from sympathetic underplanting.

Life Cycling

Autumn has arrived; its arrival is marked as usual by seasonal tints forming in the leaves on the trees and the ripening of their seeds, nuts and berries. A season bringing with it cool evenings but those bright sunshine days remain. 

Rainfall was abundant across Spain last week, when the south of the peninsular received over 137 litres per square meter, which fell in less than 40 minutes. Here as ever, clouds promised thunder storms but they were chased away by the, seemingly ever present, stronger afternoon winds blowing down from the mountains tops. The higher peaks have received their first snowfall and Ski resorts report 12” of snow on the slopes. The fields around us have been ploughed, enriched with farmyard manure which was in turn mixed into the rocky soil by the returning plough.

 Autumn in the northern hemisphere is the time for harvest, and industrious African boys are labouring in the orchards picking the fruit for which this region is famous. Likewise, the shepherds have now completed their years work and the flock has gone to slaughter. The sight of 500 sheep or Xai (as they are called locally) grazing our Finca never fails to impress visitors. The flock owned by Francisco, has in recent times been managed by Ubacca another African man and his three dogs. They led or guided the sheep across many kilometres of land each day grazing on grasses and fine weeds.

 

Spudulicious

Potatoes for this summer season are being container grown given the continuing water shortages. Anya a salad potato which has been derived by crossing Pink fir apple and Desiree is my chosen variety. It is a waxy potato with a mild and pleasant nutty taste the plants supposedly give a reasonably high yield of elongated tubers. 

I chitted my Anya tubers before planting to give them a head start.

 

The photograph shows the sprouts having appeared on the tubers. As the shoots grow I will top up the container with composted materials to earth up the young plants. Once the plants have bloomed I will wait for the flowers to fall before harvesting the crop. Although this variety is resistant to many common diseases it is easily damaged and is a little prone to greening.

A little light digging

Whenever those home based and armchair gardeners enquire about our activities and attempts to clean up the terrain; then invariably offer advice usually along the lines of 'why don't you just plant potatoes, they will do the work for you'.

The photograph above shows the cap of the compacted soil broken open with a pick. Even then you can see how shallow the excavation is and just how stony the soil is this is going to be tougher than we imagined and machinery may be the key to our problem plot.