A very dry spring

I mentioned the very beginning that we didn't have secure water, but failed to mention that we have now acquired our neighbour's unused 2 hours of the spring, which is distributed throughout the week. Autumn rainfall was below average, and there has been no significant rain since January, so this is just as well. At the moment the flow of our 2 hours is in the region of 30 cubic metres a week. It will be interesting to see how much actually comes out in summer, but even a third of this would be ample.

Spring work has been a mixture of planting more trees, getting the veg garden going for summer and the endless task of dragging cut pine branches a safe distance from the house. The latter is far from over, but doing it poc a poc will hopefully have it well away by the time the real fire danger time begins.

In terms of trees, the lower terrace is more than half planted up. There are 2 avocadoes, a hass and a bacon, which are supposed to be good pollinators for each other and also have different seasons. They have the shadiest spots, with the hass also well protected from the westerly wind by cypress trees (it's the W and NW winds that really strike here; the northerly, or tramuntana, seems to get deflected upwards by the land to the north and we don't feel it much). Of the citrus, I've put in the valette

lemon (tastes like a lime) and makloud, which have lived for 3 years in pots in France, a cumquat and a navel orange. I hope to get 2 more oranges this week, their holes are

already dug - almost. The technique I am using now for digging tree holes is to leave the pick in place and every time I walk past, dig for a couple of minutes. It gets done, poc a poc, without really feeling like a huge effort. The trees planted earlier all seem to be alive. Fortunately they had not started to put out leaves when we had a hail storm at the end of February which left the loquat and citrus looking a bit distressed, but they seem to have got over it.

In previous photos of the veg garden the messy stuff somehow seems to have been out of the picture, so here is one with all the clutter visible. Some more digging was needed, as the beds nearest the house were shaded and unused

over the winter so had not been dug yet. Others needed much weeding and digging over - the ones in the foreground are waiting to be prepared for the toms, pepper and aubergines. Over the last 6 weeks have got these started from seed, at first in a heated propagator but for the last 3 weeks in the open. Some are almost ready to plant out after a very warm spell with lots of sun. Beans are growing, both bush runners (hestia) and 2 varieties of flat pole bean (evita and hunter). Sweet corn earlibird seeded a week ago is now emerging. Also just seeded are cucumbers, basil and water convolvulus or kangkung. I've put in some artichokes and the strawberry plants which have

looked a bit sad all winter are now looking healthier and have quite a few flowers. I'm hoping to actually eat some strawberries off them, but I know that these little fruit are very popular with all sorts of other critters. As for crops now, its not very big on variety - salad, spinach and havas.

The havas are cropping really well and we are eating them almost every day. Some sown in mid-October, a bit early by local standards, have lots of beans but also lots of plant and are flopping. Those seeded in November have just as much bean but less plant.

Some attempts also to plant decorative plants, all of which are drought-tolerant. I've tended to favour plants which are native to Mallorca but don't necesarily grow right here, such as dwarf palm and tree spurge (Chaemerops humilis and Euphorbia dendroides), but can't resist some non-natives as well. Despite the dryness there is much growth of wild vegetation, and new surprises coming up with flowers to brighten things up.

Under some encinas this mysterious plant is sprouting like a giant purple asparagus. It will be intriguing to see what it turns into.

Mainly trees

Such work as has been done since the last posting has involved some very old olive trees, medium-sized pines and very small fruit trees. Also taking stock of more shifting terraces and fire hazards. The first pic shows an olive from which decades-old suckers have just been removed. It needs pruning too, but that will have to wait until next year. In this case the terrace collapse seems to be due to the tree, which is also stopping it from going further. Some other walls are showing the bulge which means real collapse is in the offing. They can go on for a very long time looking bulgy, but at least one moved disconcertingly after a

recent heavy rain. There is a slight bulge just to the right of the beautiful steps which lead to the lowest terrace. These are all angled inward, giving you a much greater feeling of security than the narrow steps would otherwise.

Several olives were very overgrown with suckers. Unfortunately a pine just above one of these fell the way it wanted to rather than the way I tried to get it to fall, and broke one of the two remaining good branches. The older suckers are up to 15cm in diameter, and are the preferred material for fence-posts.

Having finally cleared the space, doing a spot of pruning of carobs as well, it was time to dig a few holes. These were not too hard after some rain, and could pretty much all be done with the two-handled fork. I worked an area of about 2m in diameter. working the soil first from the outside in, making a mound, then from the inside out to make a crater. I tried to dig the middle a bit deeper, but the ground becomes extremely stony below about 40cm. As there is have no really composted compost to hand I used some bagged stuff to condition the soil. From the verges of the Alconasser road can be scraped some nice encina semi-compost which was applied as mulch, but it is full of not yet decomposed acorns and leaves, so I thought best not to dig it into the soil. First to go in were 3 nectarines, all new-ish varieties: fantasia, snow queen and red glover. Also a kaki fuyu, a loquat (argelino) and one fig, coll de dama blanca. I'm hoping to put in quite a few more figs next year, sourcing them from among the 40-odd old Mallorquin varieties distrubuted by Slow Food Baleares in collaboration with Vivers Llabres in Manacor. You have to order them now for next year, which I've done along with 3 apricots, 3 apples and a plum, all old varieties from Mallorca or Menorca. The standard apricots on offer are commercial varieties grown in inland areas of the peninsula, which makes me suspect the chill-hours here may be insufficient.

Veg garden somewhat neglected, but some greens to be had. At mid-winter all but the inside ends of the beds got 4 hours of sun, now it's up to 5. With mostly mild as well as some chilly weather, bok choi and komatsuna seeded mid-November now ready to eat. Broccoli is still going, the hybrid green spear producing best. September sown peas still producing a few, while November sown ones have a first flowers. Havas have lots of leaf and flower, but pod-set has not been great - hopefully it will improve now that more sunshine has brought out some bees.

The creation of any sort of aesthetic garden has been small and slow, but clearing has revealed some nice plants that were hidden by the tangle of wire-grass. The sea-quill, Urginea maritima, was growing right along the edges of a couple of terraces. The leaves dry up in summer and it forms an enormous bulb, up to 1kg in weight, from which a spike of white flowers bursts at the end of summer when all around is dry. There is also an abundance of the beautiful heather Erica multiflora. Having enjoyed the mauve flowers until the year's end they are now a rust-red. Much of it is leaning outwards from growing under pines, but I have noticed it grows back vigorously after being cut. Also discovered some bee orchids at the edge of another terrace, mow in flower. There's lots of lentisc, Rhamnus and Cistus, and a few Arbutus, all nice plants to have around. The only things I am trying to get rid of completely are bramble (one small plant found) and spiny broom. Smilax aspera is too prevalent to hope to eliminate, so will probably just have to keep pulling up (or down) this hook-spined climber from time to time.

December - dealing with flammable stuff

So far fortunately much cushioned from the early cold that's hit pretty much all of Europe to some degree. Having finished with the pines for the time being, and strimmed a mess of tall grass and various spiny things fro the terraces, there is now the problem of a huge amount of material that is highly combustible and will be even more so in the heat of summer. The trad thing to do is burn it, but this turning of organic matter into air pollution and alkaline residue is rather anathema. However it will take years to decompose and I don't have a shredder and cannot afford one now, so some burning is just going to have to be done to get rid of the fire hazard. Most flammable is the strimmed stuff, which is also nasty and spiny, and full of grass seed, so this seems like the thing to burn. It's also light and easy to move. The pine branches are another matter - the plan is to divide into the cut branches into stuff big enough to burn in the

stove, and the twigs and needles. The latter could be spread around as long-term mulch or path surfacing (for which I've been using carritx, but have a limited amount). There's an enormous amount of this pine , so it will have to be done a little at a time. No pics of strimming and sawing, so here are a few from a walk a few hours from the house on the way to the Gap Gros lighthouse

November: wind

Since the deluge of early October it's been a pretty dry month with just the odd shower but quite a lot of wind, mostly westerly. Temperatures now down to about 10C at night, up to between 12 and 14 by day. The centre of the island, by contrast, has a range more in the region of 7 - 16, with clearer skies and without the moderating effect of the sea.

Most of the time I've had to work on the land has been clearing of one sort or another. My uphill neighbour, or rather his tenant, has given me

permission to clear pines on his land, and I've

been trying to get as much done as possible in case his landlord doesn't agree. It's a strip of olive groves all along above the house, getting colonised by pines which are now up to 25cm trunk diameter. They can be cut easily now, but if allowed to get bigger there's the danger of damaging terraces when they are felled. The olive trees are very neglected, but there is also other vegetation growing up: encinas, arbutus, mastic and lots of giant heather. By removing the pines the encinas have a chance to take over, rather than getting yet another pine wood, in this case one that would eventually overhang the house

and much of the land.

Veg doing OK, but discovered the peas I have grow much taller than indicated and flopping all over the carrots. Zuccola wins on taste and not a bad cropper either, on a par with the regon and way ahead of norli. Cut a few reeds for the next lot to try and keep them upright. Broccoli, all varieties, heading up, but the green spear and gai laan more productive than the regular calabrese. Chinese cabbages turning out mostly OK but a bit slug and caterpillar mauled. Daikon are huge and un-mauled, and cos lettuce sprouting back nicely after being cut. In the past I had followed advice of an older gardening book and always pulled up whole lettuce, but the cut and come again approach seems to work fine on this variety (Batle lechuga rubonea).

October - rain

After a little bit of rain in September the first serious deluge came in the first week of October after a week of warm, muggy weather. A front came through with electrics, wind and downpour, and the ensuing weather system spent the next week revolving more or less around the Balearics. So now the second spring is well under way, grass is growing almost fast enough to watch, insects are buzzing and all the other pests have woken up. Not just grasshoppers now, there are some rather destructive caterpillars that eat out the growing points of radishes and others eating the leaves (not cabbage whites). Also slugs, particularly on the chinese cabbages. Weeds: the main ones are wild asparagus and lords and ladies which are coming up everywhere from corms. Very decorative but still weeds when in the veg beds.

Things are growing and there has been more to harvest. The beans cropped well but now seem to be fading off, peas are going - norli turns out to be a miniature pea, tasty but a lot of work to pick. We have a good supply of lettuce, spinach, mizuna, bok choi, daikon, spring onions and coriander, with broccoli, chinese cabbage and stem lettuce looking close to ready. Trying to keep everything well mulched to protect soil from rain and wash in some organic matter, using a mix of pine needles and encina (holmoak) leaves.

Put in the first havas (broad beans) at the end of september, a bit earlier than traditionally done here. Will try some more in this month wherever there is space as they are good nitrogen fixers. With nice big seeds hopefully I can involve the kids in seeding them.

Sunlight beginning to get a bit short now. Having cleared a few of the big pines behind the house things are a bit better, and most of the beds get six hours or so of afternoon sun but the inside ends rather less. Temperatures dropping to a typical range of 14-20, but due to go a bit lower in the coming week.

first month

About 5 weeks now and some sort of start on the veg patch. Sheet mulch probably didn't have long enough to work properly, or rather process was cut off by onset of summer drought. Grass underneath seems to be dead but by no means decomposed, and wild asparagus very much alive and pushing through everywhere. Ground below is hard - loosening up the top 30cm or so involves first breaking it up with a pick-axe, then working over several times with the two-handled fork. Slow work, about one square meter an hour, including getting the masses of wiry roots and larger stones out. That leaves small stones and some reddish soil with a bit of organic matter from the sheet mulch. Much of the latter is undecomposed and re-used to mulch some of the beds not done in February. Roots, mainly of caritx (a tall clumping grass) and wild asparagus, piled up to use as mulch for perrenials. What to do with all those stones? The widespread answer in limestone country is to pile them up, so doing this at ends of beds. Started by edging beds with planks, then ran out of planks and just raked up a raised section. One bit edged with a pine log seems to work better than planking, maybe this is the way to neaten them up.

First things to go in were dwarf beans using some seed left-over from France, spring onions, carrots, and pots and trays of chinese cabbage, bok choi, lettuce and broccoli (centaur, green spear and gai laan). Followed a little later with direct sowing of daikon and beauty-heart radish, and 3 varieties of peas (oregon sugar pod, norli and zuccola). A bit more of the same over the following few weeks, plus some spinach, hon tsai tai, mizuna and a late try with parsley. Last in, today, trays of komatsuna and a few each of 2 tpes of mustard greens (green in snow and osaka purple). The green in snow was one of the few things to survive last winter in the Cevennes and was much appreciated, but a little goes a long way. With all of these I used some organic fertilizer (NPK 7-6-7) to kick start things, as such organic matter as I have added is not likely to have much food in it, being mostly leaf and pine-needle mold.

Most things grown quite well so far. Watered every day until recently when some things seemed OK with alternate days as it gets a little cooler and they get established. Using our metered water carefully, not so much involved just to get things started. Pests: no flea beetles so far, touch wood. A few grasshoppers can chomp quite a few seedlings to the ground, with a prediliction for spring onions and coriander, but that's really about all so far. Spotted one hoopoe in the patch, would love to have it as a regular but perhaps the pickings are not that great.

First thing edible was the bok choi (mei qing) ready after 35 days. Daikon thinnings nice in salad, rather like rocket, which was another one of the first things to be eaten. Basil too but that was seeded in June before moving from France. Meanwhile we've been feasting on superb tomatoes at around 70c a kilo, with peppers and aubergines at a euro odd per kilo. The standard for summer veg is a hard one to match.

Whole Carob Pods, wild, 300g £4.95

It seems one could do better than the co-op when it comes to selling carob beans. I came across this link when, after writing the last entry, I thought I should actually learn a bit more about this crop as there are a good half dozen carob trees on our land. Having tried eating them though, I suspect that they will be slow to catch on as a snack food. In Mallorca the only references I've heard to humans eating them were in the context of famine.

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