Filling every corner with colour..

We have had the benefit of inheriting over thirty large, varied terracotta planters and pots from a friend downsizing from a house with an enormous garden to an apartment. Those with plants that could be saved have been given lots of TLC, trimmed and watered…those beyond saving have been repotted with our newly grown plants from cuttings and seeds.

The beauty of pots is that you can transport colour and life to any part of the garden or house – and if the shade or sunshine is too much … change the location. Here’s a collage of our latest additions to every corner of the garden:

 

Catching up on the last month’s activity

Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun – I can’t believe it’s been over a month since my last post. Much of the time has been devoted to the garden as well as Sant Blai the hotel, to prepare everything for all our clients who will be arriving “en mass” in the coming days..

So what have we been up to? Well here’s a brief summary with more detailed posts for each section afterwards:

1. Reclaiming all the garden limits from the weeds and plant growth brought on through the consistent rainfall over the last few months

2. Potting and planting out all our flowers and veggies grown from seed. Over 25 new terracotta planters distributed throughout the garden.

3. Installing a new ecological vegetable garden system (actually 3 vegetable gardens) following the system of Gaspar Caballero de Segovia – The official title of this system is:  ” Parades en Crestall” or colloquially: Edible Gardens!

4. Installing our very own compost generating system (with a little help from our chickens and donkeys!!)

5. Creating new sections of the garden, reclaimed from waste or overgrown areas.

6. Upgrading and extending the watering system to give total irrigation from our wells (free watering this year – we spent thousands of euros on water last year)

7. Setting up seed incubators following great tips from Joe Lamp’s (Joe Gardener): $25 Victory Garden – (follow Joe at Twitter @joegardener)

8. Organising and sytemising my tool shed and workshop ready for all the repairs and gardening ahead this year…
Phew! have I done all that in a month – no wonder there was no time to update the blog!! Well hopefully over the next few days I will fill in a bit more detail and fotos for each of the above topics – meanwhile here’s some great fotos of the latest flowery arrivals in the garden at Sant Blai

 

Processionaries on the march..

I mentioned in my January blog about the processionary caterpillars that plague our pine trees here. Every year I spray and watch carefully for any nests that may appear in the branches. These need to be destroyed as soon as possible (preferably by burning – after cutting out of the tree!!). If the nest and the hundreds of caterpillars remain in the tree – firstly they move around the tree eating all the leaves and secondly they will leave the tree when fat enough and seek out some nice soft soil to dig into and hibernate ready to reappear as a moth to relay hundreds of new caterpillar eggs.

Below you can see a photograph of a whole file of caterpillars heading off to find their new home – luckily I saw them first and they were quickly dealt with..

 

Rustic BBQ Ikea Style

We needed a new BBQ area for ourselves and our guests at Sant Blai this year – closer to the pool and the summer kitchen to give easy access to drinks and snacks as well. It needed to be a “rustic” design as the rest of Sant Blai’s buildings, so I set about finding all the needed materials and set them up Ikea fashion to assemble -

Using nice heavy mares blocks and mallorquin quick drying cement piece by piece I have assembled a counter/ sink area, complete with hand made tiles and running water. Alongside the new BBQ creation supported with iron bars as the base slab measures 1 meter x 50cm x 30cm – that was fun lifting and sliding into place!!

Last but not least was the need to try it all out – so last Saturday to celebrate my 50th birthday and our eighth anniversary – we invited along 20 friends for the inauguration. You can see how successful it was below!!

 

New Spring Flowers

Here’s a collage of our latest Spring flowers braving the last if the frosty mornings. We have had some very cold mornings (by our standards – nit snow like the rest of Europe) – but the last few days has seen some glorious sunny days – good gardening weather!!

 

The magic of a Rose

I never tire of seeing a blossoming rose unfold all those delicate petals into a radiant beauty

 

Darling buds of… February

Here’s the first of our trees new growth – buds from the fig trees already pushing through

 

More spring flowers bursting through

Here’s another collage of the latest floral arrivals this Spring

 

More plant movement…

After moving Marta’s monster succulent the other day, transplanting seems to be the current theme. Last year when we completed the two new cottages, we planted several small plants behind the houses to give some colour and aroma when looking out of the windows. Two of the plants that have grown incredibly are lantanas (sometimes called Spanish flag) and Galan de Noche which has an aroma as wonderful as Jasmin.

The Lantanas had grown so abundantly they needed to be moved to give enough space to the other plants. Five were taken out to place around the garden – providing colour throughout the summer and early autumn. They were placed in two borders; underneath our antique cart (pictured) and two either side of the main entrance.

 

Our new babies

Further to the earlier blog about growing our own plants and flowers this year, here are some photos of the babies as we transplant them into bigger pots. Since my green fingered Mum was here in October helping me collect and plant the tiny cuttings from our day trips around Mallorca, they have steadily grown and produced new roots for adapting on their own now.

Not content with showing off this miraculous and “cost free” new plant life we are now exploiting to the full, here are some close-ups of these little miracle growths simply plucked from beautiful flowers and bushes as we found them.

 

Wait for the next installment for when they are moved to their own spaces in the garden!