Spring is probably easy in just about any garden anywhere. It is definitely easy in our Mediterranean garden. The spring rains were plentiful again this year and so for once there are no water restrictions in force. The sun is getting stronger by the day and everything grows by leaps and bounds. Sometimes I just stand and bask in all the springtime glory. There is simply no color like the green of fresh new leaves, in itself, and as a backdrop for all the bright flowers: purple irises, orange and red poppies, yellow tulips, blue ceanothus… All the perennials and shrubs are growing and filling in just as planned. The garden is abuzz with flies, wasps, bees, and butterflies, and I am deeply grateful for this bounty.
Weeds & Mosquitoes
Of course weeds grow as fast as everything else, if not faster. This month I’ve spent lots of time pulling out geranium and fumaria where they were getting thuggish and crowded out other plants. And I need to cut the grass (and weeds) on the walkways at least once a week to avoid too much reseeding of the various dandelion-types.
With the moisture mosquitoes have grown very well too. This year they arrived very early in April, rising in clouds when I enter the garden, and they are really big – though slow and easy to catch.
Spring Resurrections from the Dead
Fall’s lunar landscape along the steep slope where the dried-up Atriplex halimus bushes had been cut down to the stub has filled in again. Almost all of the bushes came back lush and pretty. In my panic I had planted lots of additional plants there to cover the slope and Atriplex halimus doesn’t really get along too well with other plants because of the level of salinity its leaves add to the ground. So I will have to find some solution next fall. Either keep the Atriplex small or relocate some of the shrubs planted below them.
Among the additional plants for the slope re a bunch of vetiver grasses that supposedly grow roots 2-3 meters deep. One needs to trust as they haven’t done anything above ground so far. But with all the rain we’ve had there’s no reason for all of those plants to have died. Trust and patience are required. Also for the Albizia tree that once again looks deader than dead while the other trees are greening and flowering. I need to remind myself that it was the middle of last May before it began to show leaves… Another happy resurrection: the perovskia are coming back, at least two of them, after looking completely dead two months ago.
Also one of the goniolimons planted in November 2023 is now finally getting its first flowers. The other one is still only a rosette of leaves on the ground.
Polygonum aubertii is also finally taking off and scaring me a bit, reading about invasive polygonum varieties. Opinions vary on whether this one is really bad as well and after all it is being sold all over the place. Don’t know whether I should dig it out while there’s still time or not…
The Potager in April
In the potager the sugar snap peas I sowed in the fall worked out fantastically: At the height of the season they had to be picked through every second day to avoid the pods getting too large and stringy. If you have to eat sugar snaps every second day for three weeks it can become a bit much, but heck, what a first world problem. By last week they began to dry up from the bottom, there were fewer and more malformed pods, so it was good time to take them out and make room for summer veggies.
In the first week of April I sowed Marigolds and Nasturtium around the edges of the raised beds. I also sowed beans under the young trees, planning to put up growing nets around the wooden supports. I was worried that maybe I put them in to deeply – in German we say that “beans have to hear the churchbells ring”. But as of this week they have all come up.
As it was really warm and sunny and I’m not known for being patient I also planted melons and cucumbers at the beginning of April. I only covered them with a protective plastic cloche those very few times when really cold temperatures (under 8 degrees) were forecast. They are doing fine and are growing well.
The Grenaille potatoes I planted in March began showing up in the middle of April. I could have planted more yesterday since I found a bunch in the fridge with lots of sprouts on them but now space is beginning to become scarce. Especially since the Chayote plant has also decided to come back from the dead.
This week I remembered the tomato and melon seeds I dried last summer and put them out in the garden before it’s too late. It would be a pity to miss out on those wonderfully crunchy Piennolo and Barano tomatoes, the big and juice Orange Russians and that marvelous Piel de Sapo melon, especially since the seedling I planted beginning of April was eaten by snails.
Yesterday was the yearly plant sale in the Abbaye de Fontfroide. It was a bit frustrating since I don’t really need anything anymore but I fed my addiction by buying a few select tomato and chili plants, as well as dill and Stevia.
The Orchard in April
Although the pear tree was not really hit by codling moth last year, I hung up a pheromone trap just to be sure. So far only little flies have been caught. Mid-June a new trap goes up and then we should be able to tell if there is going to be a problem or not.
The Passiflora incarnata that I put in planters on the terrace looked dead for a long time but the supplier was right: they are finally showing up and growing.
The Venus wine is finally growing strong and showing lots of fruit sets, as is the plum tree, and even the blackberry has lots of flowers this spring. The Arbutus unedo as well is looking fabulous despite the gardener’s misgivings because I had again planted a relatively large specimen last fall.
Leave a Reply