Gardening in Fuerteventura

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Today I had earmarked for lifting and moving the banana pups (that's what they call the little plants that grow up alongside the main banana plant). There's no sign of a bloom spike on the main plant yet.



I've got 4 of these pups: 1 I will leave to take over from the main plant when it finishes and 3 I want to move to other locations in the garden. I loosened the soil around  the pup seen here front right, down about 6 inches and in a circle about 4 inches around the outer edge. Couldn't see the main root attaching it to the parent plant which I needed to sever but thought it would be exposed when I started lifting the pup. Fork went in ground, worked it around until it was in to full depth, leant back to start leverage and … nothing. Not the slightest bit of movement, nothing was giving whatever direction I tried from, the main roots must have gone under the rock-bed. Gave up on the idea, they'll just have to take their chances where they are, or perhaps I'll cull at least 2 of the pups to give the others a chance - that's a very drastic step for me though, I'll have to ponder on it for a few days.



I know I've shown these plants before, several times, but I just love their showy blooms so much:
Datura Blackcurrant Swirl
  

[windermeregolfer]

Our Strelitzia - bird of paradise is about to flower we have 3 plants and currently there are 13 flower stems developing 7 of them on one plant, think it is going to look wonderful and it nice that we are still here to see it.

       

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

It's going to be stunning WMG - looking forward to more pics please.

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Worm alert!

I'm so happy, I've got worms!!  

To non gardeners this may seem a strange statement but worms are such a bonus in the garden, aerating the soil and incorporating decaying plant material into the soil to improve it's structure and to provide nutrients for the plants. Traditionally on Fuerte there are no worms as the soil is too dry and hard or non existent! There is also a lack of suitable decaying plant material for them to feed on - most gets blown straight away! I can only assume that my 'worm zero' arrived in a plant that I bought that was imported from mainland Europe, or occupied a plant pot in a garden centre here en route to my house.

 

I spotted these 2 when I moved an empty plant pot - hopefully there are many more.

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

The first of my Mirabilis looked ready to open flowers this afternoon, and it did (Flowers open when the sun goes off the plant). The strange thing is that the flowers are all the same single colour - last year each flower was a different combination of pink and white, stripes, splashes, and a few singles.

 

one of the aloes is in glorious bloom with 2 further spikes following on at different stages:

 

the banana and it's pups got 'boxed' as protection from the builder who is due to work on that section of the wall tomorrow.   

and further along the wall I cut out 2 cubic meters of this purple flowered plant and a cubic metre of false olive. The goats are in for a treat tomorrow!

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

The monarch caterpillars are munching away and growing quickly. This little fella has spent all his time eating seed pods rather than leaves!

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Spotted a few things on my trip to Corralejo today.

fig tree looking amazingly well.

a Datura seedling (similar to Blacurrant swirl by the colour of leaves/stems) around the corner from Sabadell. This side street is where I first saw these daturas about 20 years ago, they were growing wild in the dirt verges - area is all paved now.

the roundabout my the Football stadium is looking pretty good. There are about half a dozen Solanum, grown as standards, that are covered with deep purple flowers - stunning! They are a bit washed out in this pic as I couldn't get near enough for a good photo.

the highlight of my day, driving back through La Oliva I caught a glimpse of a blue/purple tree in bloom. I just had to turn down the lane and try to have a closer look. Turned out there are a number of Jacaranda trees in the gardens behind Casa Vieja - I think it's the gardens of the holiday rentals. One tree is far bigger than the others and putting my phone to the fence I managed to capture more of it. It's reinforced my desire to have another go at growing one! I think they are in bloom a bit earlier this year, I seem to remember May as being their norm.



in my own garden a new platycodon seedling is just starting to bloom.

in Ideal today I found liquid ferrous supplement. This is ideal ( ) for me as I can just pour a bit down the loo once a month and know it will get distributed all around the garden. It can also be applied as a foliar feed for quicker results if something is suffering as a result of a deficiency. When foliar feeding it helps to add a tiny bit of washing up liquid to the mix - helps the liquid stay on the leaves longer rather than dripping straight off.

[Tardis]

I've been experimenting in the garden with time-lapse photography:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ci4GB_q...sp=sharing

PS. Is this the correct way to insert a video from Google Drive?

[Tardis]

Our Statice in bloom.

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Tardis that time lapse photography is beautiful! Thankyou. Hopefully you will be in a position to do this for a Monarch emerging?