Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!

If you are not American, you may not be familiar with the story of 8-year-old Virginia, who wrote a letter to the editor of The Sun newspaper in 1897 asking whether there was a Santa Claus.  And the Editor's reply?  A resounding "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."

What neither I nor Virginia had never known was that Santa Claus lives in Tarragona, Spain!  Yes, it's true, and I have proof:

Who else but Santa could have sent me such a lovely package?

The only thing it was missing was a big, red bow!

All organized with plant name markers and seed envelopes.

Thank you, thank you Santa!

Bloom Day, April 2013

Apparently, on the 15th of each month, many gardening bloggers publish photos of what plants are in bloom in their gardens on that specific day, known as Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.  While I do not consider myself strictly a garden blogger (more like a garden don't-I-wisher), I find it interesting to compare what's blooming here in La Mancha compared to, say, Texas or Sweden.

Here's what's happening in my garden today:

Lavandula stoechas   

Lavender is one of my favorite spring-time flowers because of it's color, shape, disease-resistance and scented leaves.  Today, however, the wild Spanish lavender is still not in bloom, but this garden-center variety is really spectacular.  I love the transparency of the upper crown of petals.

 

Daffodils

 

The daffodils are doing very well this year since we've had so much rain.  I have no idea what varieties these are, but the ones in the bottom photo are minis.  You can see they are smaller than a salvia bud.

 

   My pear tree.  I planted this 7 years ago and we've only gotten 3 pears out of it.  Our hot summer winds seem to dry the fruit up, but I don't have the heart to cut it down... yet.   

Durillo

 

Remember the raspberry-pink buds on the Tinus?  Well, now they've open to tiny white flowers.

 

 





       

On the kitchen porch, there's a mixed pot with snapdragons and purple freesia in bloom.

 

 

 Brassica napus and Anchusa

... and the rest of my garden is run amuck with, um, wildflowers.

 

Happy Easter!

 

  

Although it is not a Spanish tradition, my kids paint Easter eggs every year, and the Easter Bunny somehow does manage to find us.

 

Did you know that the word Hispania, which is what the Romans called Spain, is derived from a Phoenician word meaning "land of rabbits".  In La Mancha, they're everywhere!

They keep Luna entertained, but she's afraid to go after them because they're as big as she is!

 

My garden is slowly awakening.  Luckily, the rabbits don't like eating daffodils....

 

 

 ...nor do they care for iris.

 

The rabbits are also completely oblivious to weeds (I mean, wildflowers).

 

 

Most likely, many of you back home will be having a ham for Easter dinner.  Here in this little corner of pork-loving Spain, we usually have a cookout down by the reservoir...

  with seafood paella for 50 people!

 

 

 Happy Easter!

 

Sage cuttings

Well, while I may have had luck with hands-off rose propagation techniques this winter, I have found that the same lazybones approach has definitely not worked with my sage (salvia officinalis).  Sage does exceedingly well in La Mancha, or at least it does in my garden.  It withstands extreme sun and cold, provides healthy green color all winter long, blooms with pretty blue flowers in spring and is drought resistant but can also tolerate soaking wet clay soil (it kicks lavender's butt in this department).  To top it all off, rabbits can't stand it (although they might take a nap under it!).

So, my careless sage cutting scheme entailed simply shoving a 30cm sage branch into the ground.  The result was this:

 

Not one of the cuttings rooted.  Luckily,  I had so many cuttings that I also had planted some in pots with amended soil, et voilà!

Here you can see our lighter clay dirt layered with nutrient-rich potting soil.

 

Much better!

 

Painless Propagation

If you have ever tried propagating roses from cuttings, it can be frustrating business.  You can, of course, find all sorts of information online about different techniques and theories.  Some sites recommend using rose rooting hormones, while others recommend using plastic bags, greenhouses, cold rooms or even styrofoam ice chests to keep the cuttings from drying out, which is a big factor here in sunny Spain.  I can honestly say I've tried almost everything and have found no clear advantages of any technique over another.  In addition, the added expense and time consumed while following some of these propagation techniques make failures all the more frustrating.

My personal preference is called the "Fly by the Seat of Your Pants" technique, also known as the "Waste Not, Want Not" or the "Shove It In and Forget It" technique (developed, needless to say, by yours truly).  My theory is that the least time-consuming and costly system is most effective, even if percentage-wise the outcome may not excellent, because it provides a Frustration Factor of 0 (if you are unfamiliar with the Frustration Factor, in my world it's a big deal).

In this propagation system, the materials needed are: 1) dirt; 2) cuttings. 

Step 1: cut pencil-sized rose canes into 25-30cm section, and remove any leaves.
Step 2: shove into a pot of dirt moist dirt in a shady area and forget about it.

In about a year, you may be pleasantly surprised with new rose plants, but, if not, you will have invested no money and only about 10 seconds of your time.

Funny thing is, this winter I was so lazy that I didn't even get around to Step 2.  I simply brought home a branch from a friend's red climbing rose in early December, and left it in a bottle of water behind another plant on the porch, to be later cut and planted.  Then came the holidays (which is a 2-week affair in Spain), and I forgot all about it until cleaning a few days ago.

 My forgotten rose cutting

 

It's huge!

 

It now has roots...

 

... and rosebuds!

Now, how's that for painless propagation? 

Barn swallows

When the sun comes up in the morning, I often have 5 tiny visitors outside the kitchen window.  These little barn swallows primp themselves up on the fence while watching the world go by.   

 

We have quite a few around here, and in the summer time swarms of them come out at sunset to compete with the bats for their mosquito dinners down by the pond. It's amazing to see them all swerving around each other, never crashing into each other, although coming hair-razingly close.

 

I especially love their blue and copper coloring, which, when I think about it, are exactly the same colors as my kitchen curtains. Oh, am I being too matchy-matchy again?

 



Spring is coming!

Even though it is still a month away, the garden is showing definite signs that spring is just around the corner.

Here in La Mancha, these are the first little wildflowers to spring up.  Yes, the locals call them weeds, but I think they're sweet.

           

 

Next up are the almond trees.  Our little tree is three years old and still hasn't given us any almonds yet, but this year I'm hopeful.  It smells wonderful!  In other parts of the country, the almond blossoms are pinker, but here they are usually whiter. 

 

 

Another native plant that provides late winter color is Viburnum tinus, also known in Spanish as durillo, or "tough little one".  Right now, it's full of tiny raspberry-colored buds that later open up to miniscule white flowers.  This toughie is also extremely drought resistant.

 

Viburnum tinus, surrounded by vinca.



 

While taking these photos, I was accompanied by this pretty butterfly/moth...

... and my partner in crime (when she sees me digging holes, she starts digging, too!).