New Site Forman

It’s November 2020, and we’ve been in Tenerife just eleven months. These have been very strange times, for more than one reason; but we have held our heads high and got on with things, as I’m sure lots of you have had to do.

It’s been a steep learning curve for us in many ways, and gardening here has definitely been one of them. It’s very different from gardening in the UK, but we are beginning to get to grips with it.

We spent the last couple of days getting the greenhouse ready, taking cuttings and sewing seeds. Hopefully we should have plenty of new bedding plants to put out next year, and the trips to the garden centre should be fewer. (Although I doubt it very much!)

It’s still very hot here during the day; yesterday it was in the high 20’s, low 30’s, but the temperature drops dramatically overnight. So we have to protect some plants by bringing them into the greenhouse to over winter, something we hadn’t taken into account.

For months now we have been perplexed at the way a plant would be flourishing one day, and almost dead the next. All became clear recently when I’d spent weeks trolling round the local garden centres looking for a particular plant. I’d seen one  in someone’s garden and fallen in love with it; when it’s mature and in full bloom, it sends its delicate flowers up on long stalks, resembling a firework display. I had the perfect spot in mind to plant it. We eventually came across it in Home & Garden, in Cho. Excited, we rushed home, prepared the ground, planted, watered and stood back to enjoy the fruits of our labour. Two days later that beautiful healthy plant looked very sick indeed. We were at a complete loss, because this wasn’t the first time we’d lost a healthy plant only days after planting it. Then out of the blue, (you know how it is sometimes?) I had a lightbulb moment. Whenever we are doing work in the garden, Lola (the Doberman/site foreman!) is there keeping an eye on us. It would seem that when we’re not looking she decides that we haven’t quite watered the new plants in enough and does a bit of extra watering herself. So having said all of that and the puzzle now solved, we dashed of to the garden centre, bought another plant, prepared the soil, planted it and stood back. But this time we put a temporary protective fence around it, “Hey Presto,” it survived and is thriving. The only problem is, in our haste, I forgot to write down the name of the plant; so it’s another trip to the garden centre.

A x

Hope you’ve enjoyed this; if you have, let me know and I’ll tell Lola, she’ll be pleased to hear from you.