Got to get ourselves back to the garden

Proverbial Spanish wisdom is that 'more grows in the garden than the gardener sows'. 

As the head of the seeds and weeds department on our Finca I have returned from an enforced absence accompanied by the recently retired Carol, who deals with the identified weeds and all the heavier and rougher work with relish. Our first week's work is beginning to show results and we are claiming back the garden from nature's grasp. Carol's war on the freely spreading Fenel is being won. 

Winter has seen the demise of  our young Mimmosa tree. The bougainvilla has died back to almost ground level but is producing new shoots. Everything else seems to be prospering.

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.  

Oxalis-a liitle pink to brighten up the area

This oxalis seems to have self seeded along the edge of one of the paths, I have since read that some oxalis are dificult to eradicate weeds now wouldn't that be just our luck!

Weed it and reap.

Having bought the house it was time to clear the land.Weed ridden and heavily compacted by the animals and vehicles of the previous owners, the soil was dry Spain was beginning to face it's worst ever drought


Our first thought was that we would allow the shepherds to graze their sheep or goats on the land keeping the weeds down as we turned our hands to the garden around the house.

The finca was now covered in a yellow coloured thistle known as 'pinchon'. This weed was harmful to the animals and would have to be removed.

We worked long hours pulling at the weed but to clear an area the size of three football pitches before the weed could set seed was impossible. The seeds would remain viable for years to come and if we could halt the plant today we would benefit for years to come.

The solution was to buy a strimmer. The new agricultural machine tore through the brush like thistles, wild fennel and other unidentified weeds. We still had to hand rake the cut material and gather all the rocks strewn across the land, so that the machine would not be damaged.