Just Garden

A minimum of effort has gone into growing things which are not of any immediate value (how much rosemary can you actually use?), but which nonetheless have a purpose.  If every element should have at least two functions, then the decorative gardens have at least four: erosion control, supression of grass, attracting pollinating insects, and looking good.  Yes, why not?  I would never put effort and resources into something that just looks good, but aesthetics do count.  These plants also have the great advantage, unlike most edible plants, of not being palatable to sheep and goats.  Many are there already, such as Cistus albidus and Arbutus unedo, and it's just a case of encouraging seedlings by weeding around them and maybe a little mulching.  Others, like Lavandula dentata and Hypericum balearicum, are native (H. balearicum is endemic) but do not grow naturally on-site.

Most of these I've propagated from cuttings, a few I've bought from garden centres.  Some, like the lavendars, I trim to get them to grow dense and in the process produce some cut and drop mulch.  Here are a few pics of the outside the fence garden in February.

Chasmanthe, which forms large corms and dies down completely int the summer.  Helps control the spread of grass.

Santolina, lavendar and Artemesia.  All are mediterranean natives and of course tolerant of summer drought.

In the foreground, the amazing giant bulb Urginia maritima which dies down in summer, also helping to control grass.  In the dryness of late summer it sends up a great spike of white flowers.  When I started "gardening" here I did not realise it was present because it was all hidden by a tangle of grass.  Since clearing some of the grass it has thrived.  The clump of grass in the background is Ampelodesmus mauretanicus, which is ubiquitous in this part of Mallorca.  It is traditionally used for basket work and improvised bedding if you sleep rough.

Winter 2012-13

Another tree-planting push, this time almost all figs.  Fortunately several of the places were prepared last year, so didn't have to dig all of them.  Mostly they went in along a rocky ridge, using natural pockets in the rock, building mini-terraces where necessary.  The hard part was protecting them against sheep - proved very necessary last summer.  In most places there was not enough depth of soil to simply drive the stakes into the gound, so I ended up with some rather crazy staying, using lengths of wire attached to rocks, pine trees or anything else reasonably solid.

Also put in a couple more oranges: a canoneta, originally from Soller, and a de la sang (blood orange), plus another hass avocado to replace one that died.  The blood orange is supposed to be a Balearic variety but, according to the label, this one comes from Sicily.  I'm having another go with that cyprus-lined lower terrace, and will try to give the trees extra food and water and just see what happens.  I suspect that my problem with citrus there might have something to do with not watering frequently enough, not feeding enough, and sheep attack.  I hope they are now properly protected against the latter.

The veg garden was this autumn was an interesting experiment in just leaving it, as I was away for most of October and the whole of November.  Rainfall was good; frequent but not torrential, and temperatures mild. In December I still had cherry tomatoes and chillies, nice fat leeks, salads and lots of bok choi.  The bok choi is amazing.  Some was planted where it gets no more than an hour and a half of sun, and it still grew back from cutting to a re-cuttable size in five weeks.  Admittedly the temperatures continued to be higher than average right through December, but I was really surprised at the growth rate given the lack of sun.  Havas also coming along nicely, seeded before departure in October and left to their own devices.

The amazing bok choi

As mentioned in the previous post, the veg garden, which is usually the scene of rather more activity, was pretty much left alone this winter.  Star of the show really has to be the bok choi; I had not realised just how much of this vegetable you can get from just one sowing.  The trick is to cut it off above the main growing point, about 5cm above the ground.  If you cut lower, it will grow multiple heads instead of one new head.  In this case it was sown in September, first cut five to six weeks later, then again in December.  To my amazement, despite being in a spot where it received barely a couple of hours direct sun at that time, it grew again in a few weeks.  A third cut in January was just as tasty as the first two.  Then, on a brief visit in February it was all flowering: lovely, tender, broccoli-like flower heads.  The stems have a rather fibrous skin, but once is removed, it is similar to stem lettuce or water chestnut.  So, four harvests from one lot of plants.

In this particular instance, I think the success is due to giving the plants a nitrogen-rich feed after each cut, repeated after heavy rains may have leached out the nitrogen.  The fertiliser in question involves zero carbon footprint, minimal effort and is sterile: human urine, diluted about 1:5 in a watering can.  Application about 1 litre (urine) per square metre.  I follow it with some plain water, but don't know if this is necessary.  I always made sure that the soil was already moist, as a potential disadvantage of urine is that it contains some salt.  It has to be less than 24 hours old, otherwise it acquires an unpeasant ammonia smell.  I never noticed any odour after using urine, either on plants or on the compost heap (it acts as a compost accelerator).

I must confess that the variety in question here is mei qing, which is an F1.  Another F1, joi choi, was far less successful and anyway less tasty (I think this one does better if it's really cold).  For this year I have a couple of open-pollinated varieties to try, bought from the Real Seed Company.  If you're curious about what to do with bok choi in the kitchen, I'll be posting some recipes on the companion blog over the next day or so.