Gardening November & December

Get outside and do it now......

November has now past and we are getting well into the festive season, I hope you managed to do your gardening chores!?

You will notice a chilly nip in the air in November which acts as a reminder to get the garden tidy-up underway before the weather turns too cold. Make a few forays into the garden and you'll be set up for a blooming spring.

Get your greenhouse gleaming to make the most of the winter light. Put in a good bit of elbow grease to clean off grime and algae that have accumulated on the glass over the summer. It helps if you have a high pressure jet wash, but be careful! Also clean garden pots and containers.

Pot up fuschias and other tender plants that you'll be wintering in your greenhouse and water sparingly. If you are still lucky to have bedding plants in flower, protect them overnight with a fleece. Whip this off in the morning, this way you can enjoy your cheery blooms for a while longer :)

If you have a good crop of apples, store them wrapped in newspaper in the garden shed, that way they won't rot so easily and you'll have supplies for months.

There's still time to plant out spring-flowering bulbs in containers and borders. Group tulips and daffodils together and plant snowdrops and lily of the valley (first signs of spring) around trees or in window boxes.

December Gardening

Robins not only provide a pretty diversion in your garden, but will carry out essential pest patrol. They scoff up soil grubs and take away caterpillars and a host of other nuisances. To attract birds into your garden this winter, give them a free lunch. They are partial to seeds, peanuts and fat. Serve them on a bird table as this is high enough off the ground from any predators - such as my cats! They will also require a clean supply of water to drink or use as a bath. It also helps if you have a supply of shrubs with berries and plants that provide seed heads for them to eat.

Use a fleece to cover plants susceptible to frost, but if you are blessed with borders of evergreens, you're in for a real treat and they look wonderful with a light covering of frost.

Plant A Tree
If your garden is looking bare, now's the ideal time to plant a tree so its roots can establish before spring. You won't have leaves on it in winter, but it will still provide colour, height and interest.

1) Cut a circle of turf from your lawn, making the centre. Dig a hole deep enough for the root section and break up the hard soil around so the roots can work their way into it more easily and establish.
2) Hammer in a stout wooden stake to the base of the hole. Position the tree next to it and sprinkle in granular fertiliser. Cover with soil and water well.
3) Attach the tree to the stake with a tree tie so it is well supported. Lastly spread a layer of mulch around it to stop weeds competing for water and nutrients.

Tornado hits Malaga!!!

Yep you heard me right, there was a Tornado that hit Malaga on the 2nd February, 2009, what is happening to our weather? We had disasters across France and Northen Spain from the Hurricane, which killed numerous people and now a Tornado follows injuring 25!

Hurricane in Spain

We are a bit late blogging about this I have to be honest but I wanted to blog anyway as I was so shocked with all the strange weather we have been having, before we know it this blog will be about Spanish weather! LOL

The Tornado ripped through Malaga causing damage to property, trees and vehicles, the injured people were cut by flying glass from the 180 kilometres an hour winds!

The tornado also affected the area of Estepona where a circus tent and a number of trees were blown down by the winds, injuring 5 people.

The video below is taken from YouTube

Growing Fruit in Spain

Come and join us on our gardening forum and chat with other members, share tips and ask for advice, we look forward to enjoying your garden with you.

Spains climate lends itself perfectly to cultivating and harvesting a wide range of fruit, with March and April representing the key times of the year for cultivating and managing fruit trees.

Spain’s climate is determined by its curious world location, on the south western edge of Eurasia and just thirteen kilometres from Africa at its narrowest point. Spain’s infrastructure includes an ocean on its western front and a sea to the east. It's continental land mass and high mountainous terrain means that Spain can produce a myriad of various climates and micro-climates which are one of the most varied in Europe.

Due to this climactic variety, Spain has a history of producing a wide range of fruit that may be harvested throughout the year.

It is possible to cultivate fresh Spanish fruit all year round, including Lemons, Oranges, Raspberries, Strawberries, Apricots, Figs, Apples, Almonds, Grapes, Pomegranates, Bananas and Avocados.

When embarking upon the cultivation of Spanish fruit it is worth considering that it is not essential to have a great deal of space or land at your disposal, with the majority of fruits able to be cultivated in containers on a terrace, on a house patio garden as well as in the garden or orchard.

As with any cultivation of fruit it is important to follow a few simple guidelines to maximise the chances of a succesful crop.

1. Cultivate the types of fruit that you are familiar with and that you enjoy eating an a regular basis.

2. Make sure that the fruit that you intend to cultivate is right for the type of climate of your garden or patio, remembering that each area has its own 'micro-climate'.

3. Ensure that all the frosts of the seaon have finished before planting new fruit trees.

4. Where possible buy trees that have been hardened.

5. Ensure that your soil is well cultivated with manure and compost prior to any planting.

6. It is essential to properly support new trees with stakes to prevent damage, especially to the roots.

7. Do not prune trees before their roots have had the opportunity to develop into the soil successfully.

8. Ensure that trees are planted where there is adequate run-off so that the roots do not rot from excessive water damage.

9. Maintain your trees correctly annaully by pruning back at least twenty percent.

10. Stimulate healthy growth by pruning out bad or affected growth.

The following list illustrates the harvesting season for Spanish fruit trees:

January - February | Olives, oranges and lemons

March - April | Oranges and lemons

April - May | Loquats oranges and lemons

May - June | Cherries

July - August | Peaches, plums and pears

August - September | Apples, grapes, figs

September - October | Grapes, figs, almonds, pomegranate

November - December | Persimmons, quinces, oranges, lemons

No Spanish garden is complete without its very own fruit trees. There is a huge variety available to every Spanish gardener from the complete novice to the experienced, whether owning a house, villa, town house, finca, penthouse or apartment.

Choosing Trees

Create a balance
Trees surrounding a country garden, give shelter and privacy. Choose your forms and colours with great care, mix evergreens and deciduous to give your garden balance.

Planting Trees
When you buy young trees you may need to support them, as they may bend out of shape in wind. Hammer a stake into the base of the planting hole before putting the tree in and tie the tree to your stake (avoid the roots!). When you come to fill the hole look for the soil mark on the base of the trunk and plant at the same depth as it was before transplanting.

Hedging
We all plant for screening or hedging at some point in the garden. Fast growing, upright trees are useful for the former, and those with a dense, twiggy habit are ideal. Try to be patient when planting for hedging purposes, we can be impatient and go for fast growing poplars or Leyland Cypress. Both of these can grow rapidly and take over the garden, shading your garden and your neighbours, robbing your other plants of moisture, nutrients and light! Therefore, you should be patient and stick to less agressive, slower growing alternatives. Hedges are often a useful backdrop against which borders and groups of containers can be displayed.

Yew (Taxus baccata) is slow growing but is ideal for sheltering other plants as it forms a thick, impenetrable hedge that does not require a huge amount of attention.

Trees and Shrubs for colour!
Trees that flower are very popular and understandly so - cherries and plums are amongst the most widely planted. Ornamental apples (Malus spp) and rowans and white beams (Sorbus spp) are well adored too - they have a dual season and flower in Spring and Autumn. Autumn colour is a good basis on which to select trees; after all, at its best it can rival flowers for sheer impact. You will do well to remember that good autumn colour largely depends on there being sharp frosts at the right time in autumn, so areas with mild climates rarely see a good show of colour. Many of the best trees are large but you can get smaller ones, such as Bonzai, Amelanchiers and several shrubs, like Euonymus alatus and species of rhus.

Foliage Colour:
For dramatic colour in autumn, Japanese maples are hard to beat, they have a beautiful filigree leaves which turn from tones of scarlett to burnt orange - lush!

Creating a structure

Informal Design
This simple garden has all the ingredients for success; an enclosing structure of trees and hedges, space for relaxation and an impeded view so that the garden appears larger, and more inviting

It is the larger or more upright plants that do most to develop the garden framework, dividing it into sections and serving as a guide as you walk or look round. Trees or shrubs with a narrow, vertical, columnar habit have lots of impact, but are useful in that they take up little space.

Trees, under whose branches you can walk, hedges that act as green walls, or plants with strong shapes, all provide the visual 'bones' for the garden. The softer, more formless shrubs and flowering perennials are the 'flesh'. Some of the most successful gardens are those that balance the formality of clearly designed shapes, such as clipped hedges and topiary, with the informality of burgeoning borders of flowers and shrubs.