Algarve Country Garden 13th. to 21st. December 2007

Well, it had to arrive, and it has. The rain. It started on Tuesday afternoon, 18th December and since then we have had some torrential rain, thunder and lightning and it has been windy. The average night-time temperature has been 10 degrees, with a low on Sunday of 4 degrees. The average day-time temperature has been 16 degrees. We have had five inches of rain ( 125mms), so you can see it has been quite damp.

Whilst I was out getting some logs from the woodshed this morning, there was also a brief visit from a very unwanted visitor, a Heron, however it saw me and took off again immediately.

We did have a brief respite from the rain during this morning so I did manage to get one or two pictures, however the colour is disappearing from the garden, but I am sure that when the sun returns the rain will bring lots of flowers etc on.

The Clementines are now ready to eat and I am giving bags of them away. Also we have plenty of Lemons coming on the tree. We have only been without lemons for about a couple of weeks in the 10 years we have been here.

There are still some roses in bloom, which do add some colour to the garden.

I also noticed in my trip round the garden that the dwarf Bottlebrush ( Callistemon Little John ) has started to flower.

There are were also numerous puddles of rainwater in different parts of the garden, however many have now disappeared. There is also quite a lot of tidying to be done following the high winds, especially pine needles. My next door neighbour had one of his ornamental trees blown down, but I think I have been lucky.

Anyway I wish all my readers a very Happy Christmas and hope you continue to follow the happenings here in Portugal.

Algarve Country Garden December 7th to 12th 2007

Weather has continued to be mainly sunny, although the temperatures are dropping at night. Sunday 9th. was cloudy with some drizzle, however since then the sun has been shining. I had an email from a friend in Canada, and whilst we we having temperatures of 20 degrees, they were having temperatures of minus 20 degrees, with 4 feet of snow. You see the Algarve does have it's benefits. Anyway average day-time temperatures here have been 18 degrees, and average night-time temperatures 10 degrees.

No unusual birds in the garden this week, just azure wing magpies, hoopoos, robin,blackbird and a passing group of redstarts.

The cooler weather is starting to have effect however,with some plants starting to die off. The tops of the Japanese blood grass (Imperata.cylindrica "Rubra") have died back at last and I have started to cut them down. Also the Angels hair (Stipa.tenuissima ) need thinning out. Both these grasses and the Festca .glauca have been very successful, the latter two reseeding themselves each year, and the former increasing by sending out underground runners.

The banana is also dying off, however it usually lasts until we get a frost. I took off the fruit recently, and will have to cut down the fruit bearing stalks. Because it is mainly ornamental I leave more stalks on the plants than I would if using them for fruit alone.

We still have quite a lot of colour in the garden, and things like Gazanias, amaze me with thier almost constant flowers. They also self seed and seem to cross pollinate, for I am always finding different variations.

Another plant which is prouving to be invaluable as ground cover is the Cotoneaster.horizontalis. It seems to be able to cope with the heat and what cold we have and is thriving.

Another success have been the box (buxus). I bought 4 small plants about 6 years ago, and have been training them into balls. although they are slow growing I am very pleased with their progress.

When I was at the top of the garden this morning I noticed that the Prickly Pear (Opuntia.robusta ) had a couple of flowers on it. They are at least a month early, along with many other plants.

Another success have been my Bay ( Laurus.noblis ) hedges. The hedges are all from cuttings which I took from the Bay balls, mentioned in a previous post.

I have two ornamental pools and a spring with a small rill in the back garden. They have quite a lot of fish in them, however some time ago they were discovered by a Heron, so I have to have them netted. They do however attract all kinds of wildlife and insects to the garden.

Finally this week a number of roses continue to produce flowers. The one featured is a Tom Robinson rose. Tom used to be my neighbour, and gave me many of his roses. It sits not far from our back door and is called Woodlands Lady.

Algarve Country Garden 30th November to 6th December 2007

The good weather continues. The average night-time temperature has been 10 degrees, the lowest temperature being 7 degrees, and the average day-time temperature has been 18 degrees, the highest temperature being 20 degrees. There has been no rain, however we have had very heavy dews each night, so most plants are still thriving. Most of the week we have had full sun, however it has clouded over today (Thursday).

Things are starting to change in the garden, however there is still quite a lot of colour. Plants like the Cape Honeysuckle ( Tecomaria capensis ) are still in bloom, their scarlet flowers standing out even on dull and cloudy days. The large Umbrella Pine ( Pinus pinea ) is renewing its needles and provides ample shade which enables many plants to thrive during the hot summers which we have.
Elsewhere in the garden Cannas, roses and even Cosmos, continue to add their colours to the garden.

Near the ornamental ponds the Teucrium friticans is now in full flower. The pale blue flowers attract bees which are still very active within the garden once the sun gets up. In late spring and summer red and purple Verbena climb through it's foliage adding to the charm of the bed.

In another bed Ophiopogen planiscapus Nigrescens spread quite happily. My son brought me one plant from England a few years ago and they have multiplied well. They seem to be equally happy in our varied temperatures, as in England. I have found that they go well with plants such as Senecio cineraria whos silver foliage really compliment the almost black colour of the Ophiopogen.

All the images in this weeks blog were taken this afternoon in cloudy conditions.