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.