LEVANTE LIFESTYLE

GARDENING OVER CHRISTMAS AND THE NEW YEAR

By Elizabeth Ward

The best time to be working in the garden at this time of the year seems to be in the late morning. If you can manage one or two hours a day out in the sun you’ll get some healthy exercise, also a regular dose of Vitamin D to boost your immune system and beat those winter bugs!

Continue the deadheading of flowering plants such as geraniums, petunias, roses, and so on, and prune off any dead ‘leggy’ branches from the shrubs, like bougainvilla, lantana, oleander and bignonias. Many of these established shrubs may be cut back quite severely.

Note when the local Spanish gardeners are doing their major pruning and follow suit. I noticed the other day that the gardens of the Puntazo hotel in Mojácar Playa had been ‘decimated’, so if you wish to see hard pruning, it’s worth taking a look there and check on their progress later in the spring.
Many plants are in their resting phase now. The only ones that need feeding are the winter flowers and flowering tomato plants. Some of the cacti and succulents are beginning to flower about now, so a weak feed will be useful for them.

I have noticed that the calla lilies are showing a good growth, so it’s time to give them a good feed, and I have a strelitz in a pot just coming into bloom - it had been severely frosted three years ago – which I’ve fed regularly with tomato feed and been talking to!

I have been very disappointed with the lack of flowers on my canna lilies, which I kept in pots this year, even though I also fed them with the tomato feed. However many of them are in their first year, so perhaps they need more time (and I need more patience!). I am reluctant to plant them out in the garden yet as I lost quite a few three years ago outside due to the cold temperatures.
This brings me to the next subject for this time of the year – frost protection for vulnerable plants. I have acquired some bags of straw to cover my plants with if January and February bring lower, freezing temperatures.

Try to determine which parts of your patio or garden are most at risk, and if possible, move your most precious plants to a more sheltered area, or provide an extra layer of mulch, gravel, manure, compost or the like over the roots of the exposed trees or plants that cannot be moved.
Newly planted trees – citrus etc. – are fairly vulnerable, but generally the root system will survive, as will hibiscus, bougainvilla, and so on.

Many new plants will be bought for Christmas, and the longest lasting will be those of the succulent group. Flaming Katy, one of the kalenchoe type, is one bright red variety and can look very nice indoors, arranged amongst ferns, spider plants or similar. They are now available in white, yellow and pink, and may be planted outdoors of course in a cactus or succulent bed once the initial flowering session is over.

Other pot plants suitable for short periods inside are the Christmas or Easter cactus, and the cyclamen, although this should only be watered from the bottom, preferably with rain water at room temperature.

The very common euphorbia, poinsettia (either loved or hated) are appearing now in every garden centre and supermarket, and may possibly be kept for another year. Try cutting them back once the initial flowering is over, keeping them in a shady place, or plant them out in the spring at the back of a border, and you may be lucky enough to keep them for another year or so.

Bowls of bulbs are of course a very popular buy, but the only ones which are likely to flower for Christmas are the forced ones. Bring them in gradually to heated rooms and do not over water them.
I am hoping to have some scented narcissi in flower soon. I bought them in the UK as guaranteed to flower by December – we shall see!

More information is available from my book Handy Hints for Gardening in El Desierto, available from The Word in Turre and Albox; Celebrations and Total Entertainments Mojácar, or directly by contacting me on 950 461500 or email wardies99@hotmail.com. You also very welcome at our Garden Club: monthly meetings are held on the second Monday at Camping Los Gallardos at 12 midday.