It’s been a busy few weeks. We have been to Lisbon via Porto and then headed down to Spain to relax. Well relax and garden if I’m honest. It’s great to be back at Casa Verano especially as there has been some rain Quite a bit of rain to be fair. Some heavy downpours which have been great for the garden and hopefully has made some difference to the water table levels and the reservoirs. Not rain like in Somerset which I won’t mention again. But enough to make the garden here look green.

I know I’ve said it before but if you read these blogs you’ll be familiar with things. I repeat myself often. But when we viewed the house 6 years ago I knew it was for us when we opened the gate and walked up the path. In many ways the house was irrelevant – the garden and the view sold it. Not withstanding I originally wanted a town house with no garden and a walk to the shops and restaurants. Fickle. Me. Yes. But give me a garden and I’m easily swayed.

It doesn’t take long to settle in. Washing machine on. Seat cushions out. Feet up and relax. Another thing on repeat is good neighbours. We arrive to the essentials stocked in the fridge. Milk for our coffee. Bread cheese ham and biscuits. And all the windows open and the hot water on.

But it’s the garden that has come on leaps and bounds since I was here a few weeks ago. The rain has certainly brought things to life. The garden has a lot of drought tolerant plants but even they need a boost. We have a gardener come in to do a lot of the cutting back of the larger shrubs and trees and he has cut back the oleander and the hideous transparente a lot this year. The extra light it gives is amazing. So many people are afraid to cut back hard but it has its benefits. Earlier in the year he cut a climber back on the gate and I was mortified. That will not grow back I said to Ian. It’s a goner. I promptly bought another. Which died back. The original has run away with itself and is thicker and stronger and healthier than before. I apologised. He knows what he’s doing. He told me an agave would be a goner with a month or two. He was right. We arrived back to the large agave in a pot laying on its side. The dreadful bug that has been attacking the agave from the roots had got the one in the pot. Which had now departed the pot and the garden.

Another pruning earlier this year was the olive tree. How do you want it pruned I was asked. . For fruit or looks < both was my reply. You can’t have both. So I chose ornamental ~ and it’s being pruned and shaped. The olives are lovely but are usually ready when we aren’t. Stain the terrace like crazy and need constant sweeping. Oh. And to be honest how can I spend so much time in Spain and dislike olives so much.

Underneath are 3 curry plants which last year I shaped. I think they need it again this year as they are getting massive ~ on a warm day you get a whiff of curry as you walk past. I’m glad I didn’t replace the lavender with a whole path of curry. Instead of the lovely scent of a lavender path it would be like Brick Lane on a Friday night. If you’ve ever been. You’ll know what I mean.

I’ve mentioned before the problem we have had with lavender on the path. I replaced the old lavender a few years ago and the new has never taken. I plant 20 plants and half of them don’t survive. I did it twice and had the same results so the year before last I planted Gaura which I loved but didn’t survive the cold winter so I planted grasses ( think ex PM hair or ex President ) which have survived and are looking great. Well I think they are.

Interplanted with creeping rosemary which is a great plant in the Mediterranean garden. Although last winter many of us lost large established plants.

I had asked friends to keep an eye on the ‘big plant’ by the gate and let me know if it flowered. When we bought the house I thought that it was a banana plant. Massive leaves. But I was very mistaken. It is a bird of paradise. It looked like it would flower when we left las time but it’s never flowered before. It did and I had fingers crossed that it would still be flowering when we got back. It was and still is. Along with another one on a different plant. They are beautiful and magnificent ~ strelitzia Nicolai. To me even more beautiful that their orange counterparts and a quite common sight along the coast in Torre del Mar.

The tulips had all gone over ~ well the ones that had actually started. Have I ever said I like tulips ? Tulips here are hit and miss for me. The ones planted in the white wall were ok. A big short. Like me. But to be fair it meant they didn’t get snapped in the wind. But the pots were pants. I say now no tulips next year but we will see. So it’s time for the trusty geraniums to be planted. I like them but can’t help feel they are a bit like municipal planting. But you get a zing of colour for the rest of the summer. And to be honest. I love them. It also reminds me of my mother ~ especially for her dead heading skills. A prolific dead header and it mattered not if it wasn’t her plants. She was a terror for walking up a path and deadheading. I find it therapeutic.

Throw in a bit if pink for the empty tulip pots and that’s all of the summer bedding in. Geraniums only.

I’m just off to wash my prickly pear I said to Ian. You don’t want to shout that out too loud was he’s quick reply. We have two in the garden both of which I have been trying to save from the dreaded Cochineal fly. When I am here it’s a hose down to get them off. It’s worked so far of a fashion and they are still alive and getting fruit. And flowers. Another plant that has been decimated in the area. It’s a sad sight driving up the mountain and seeing them dying.

I love the variegated yucca and have both fingers and toes crossed that the bug eating the agave doesn’t start on them. A lot of palms are being decimated as well. Soon there will be no large plants around. Just to the bottom left of the photo is a hollyhock. I planted it about 3 years ago and it’s been stunted. All of a sudden it’s sprung into life and flower. There used to be a glorious show of them ~ lovely red colour on the road to the house. On the side of the road 2,000ft up the mountain. No water. Rough ground. But there are none this year. Winter was a funny old time. Low temperatures. Little rainfall. Plants lost. Some you expected to lose survived.

The pineapple guava didn’t flower or fruit last year. It has this year although a lot of the flowers are small but there is some fruit forming. The fruit is a bit marmite. Not in taste but in liking. A friend who was staying a few years ago likened the taste to germolene. I could see what she meant though it’s not something I’ve ever really eaten. It’s one of two smells I can’t stand. That and TCP.

But the fruit is ok cut up in yoghurt. A friend recently posted some pics of one growing in a central London square. If I’d realised I would have potted one for the London garden. Too late now.

Talking of the Loquat or the níspero ~ I love the size and shape of the leaves. The fruit I can live without. Which in this garden is just as well as it flowers then fruits and then they either drop off or shrivel. Good for Jam if you can catch them in time.

We just caught get the last of the Jasmine Azoricum for now. A bit slow growing and a different growth than others. But a great scent. It’s an evergreen with white, lemon-scented flowers from late spring to late autumn though i find the flowering patchy. It’s supposed to be tender but it’s done ok here.

Ve have had only two good years out of the last six when it comes to alliums. They have been really hit and mostly miss. Only the drumsticks ( Allium sphaerocephalon) do well and are popping up all over the garden. In places where I didn’t think I’d planted them. To be honest I hate planting them. The bulbs are too small. The ground is usually like cement when I’m trying and. there are some where I’ve probably just given up and thrown them around. But they do well.

I have one other large allium on the dry bank. In an area that’s not irrigated or gets water. Unless it rains. I noticed that it is in flower and tall. Quite how I don’t know when the ones in the beds have shrivelled and died.

A mix of aeonium , Clivia which are just finishing flowering, rosemary about to start , agapanthus and the leaves of the strelitzia in the path bed. The garden has benefitted from the earlier weeks rain and the couple of days rain when we arrived. But it won’t last. Temperatures are rising.

The oleander had been cut back hard this year like a lot of things. I’m no longer nervous when I arrive back and things have had a massive haircut. I’m always told that there will be some cutting back though in Spain it’s described as cleaning rather than cutting. I’ve been told so many times how poisonous the oleander is. It’s is. But it’s very pretty and I try not to eat it. Wear gloves when pruning and never burn it.

The agapanthus always do well. Some better than others and the good thing is they self seed. There are varios colour from white through the blues to purple. I have to admit I add more each year. Not too much water require. Are perennial. Great flowers. Only thing missing is a scent.

I love the period of mid May to the end of June in this garden. It’s at its most colourful which dies down in the hotter months of July and August with a bit of a comeback in September. It’s a bit like me. I find July and august too hot. My enthusiasm to di anything fades in the hotter months. In one of the lockdowns I spent most of August stuck in Spain. Too hot. Too many mosquitos. I’d go out for early breakfast. Shop. Come back home and close the shutters. Turn on the air con and sit and watch Netflix in my pants. Too much information I know. But it’s the reality. So now we avoid it. Spain in August. Not Netflix.

It wasn’t all gardening to be fair. There were trips down the wiggly road to Malaga to catch up with friends and shop. There was also the chance for churros and a coffee bombón. A coffee so sweet that you can only have one. Condensed milk on the bottom. A shot of espessso. Then frothy milk. Served in a glass cup. Looks pretty and then you stir it. Churros. Well. They are the Spanish equivalent for me of nata tarts. One is never enough.

There weee drives down the windey road to the coast. To Nerja. To La Herradura. Lunch in each. Not the same day obviously. A drive along the coast. The coastline is lovely.

Oh. I forgot a drive down the windey road to Torre del Mar. The wiggly takes you to one coast. The windey to another. It’s the same coast just different directions but also dependent who’s in the car decides which of the roads we take. Some like wiggly. Some like windey. I don’t care. I’m driving. I’ll go down both. Depending on what I want out of each.

There were loads of photos ~ the usual photo of Ian. This time at night looking for ice cream. We found it. We have a great geleteria in Cómpeta.

Baywatch on the beach at Torre del Marr. No one was in the sea.

The lovely night view from the Cómpeta car park after a night out.

There was the obligatory cake. One cafe. One home made.

But in the blink of an eye it’s over for another time. In the words of Peter Paul & Mary. I’m leaving on a jet plane. Unlike them. I do know when I’m back again. And I’m not counting sheep ? Tho Grandad is shearing in Somerset on Saturday) but counting sleeps.