An Algarve Garden

When mine used to drop and they got wet, they smelt like rotting teabags.
Sounds like yours is almost evergreen, and shedding in the summer drought.

 

Must be the lovely dry English summers .... hmmmm. But think you're right, Pete, and to be honest I don't fancy rotting teabags on my patios ... in the soil, A-OK!

 

Having finished my painting, I'm at a loss what to do next so thought I'd wander around the garden as it's such a beautiful day.

Bird of Paradise starting to open ...



Poinsettia still giving a show ...



Jade Plant flowering ...



Osteopernum enjoying the sun ...



Tibuchina in all it's glory ...



Verbena still going strong ...



... and a beautiful winter's day on the deck looking across the orange orchards ...

 

Lovely pictures LOL I have just bought tibuchina and stralitsia so hope mine turn out as well though not in January of course!

Ah well at least here in UK we have all the expectation and hope of travelling through Spring into Summer.

 

Mr Waco & I are sitting here with our evening beverage and admiring the results of you 10 years work, some of them perhaps long years!

Do you get sufficient rain in the summer to keep things going or do you constantly have to water?

We hope snow here to have gone by thursday and I expect to have finished the lean to for Mrs Waco within a week.

 

Evening Waco. It was pure slave labour .... certainly blood, sweat and tears and still is as we are not finished with the house ... the garden is okay because I do that!

We have no rain in the summer. You may get a shower in June but that's your lot until November. In saying that we had a freak downpour in August ... here one minute, gone the next.

We rely on the Winter rains, of which we have had none since early November except for the two silly showers yesterday. It can be a big problem. A lot of the shrubs / trees are deep rooted. As we are in the middle of the orange orchards, they probably get something from there. We have a simple irrigation system in place for the hot months and I heave around a 10 gallon watering can nightly to get exercise.

Thanks for taking the time to look.

Saude!

 

do you have an aspiration to upgrade your "simple" irrigation system to a more intelligent user friendly one? ie a tank and solar pump there too.

Fun to give advice in snow conditions
Mr waco
Norht Yorkshire

 

Evening Mr Waco (and Waco)

Yes, we have a cisterna / deposit which was the original rainwater collector for the house (a casa antiga) before we went onto mains four years ago. For a while we had to live on rainwater, sometimes difficult in a hot country!

It holds 19,000 litres. If we don't get any winter rains, as this winter so far, we now top it up with mains water (cheap here) in case there is desperation in the summer as we can pump it into the house or garden.

Yes t'other does plan to upgrade the irrigation to something more intelligent and yes we are looking into the solar everything at the mo. With 300 plus days of sun a year, it's stupid not to.

Any more interesting questions?

 

lovely pictures LoL, must be great sitting on that decking what a view you have, very nice

 

Thanks rosa. Yes, I love the deck, day or night, and you've seen all the furry babes do as well ... usually if we are up there, they are as well!

Also, t'other half put a plank from the deck to the house roof so they can trot around to their hearts desire looking at places we even can't (no I don't fancy walking the plank, thank you!). :D

 

Being a sunny morning, I had a wander around with the camera, so here are my February shots ...

Euryops chrysanthemoides, the Paris Daisy, glowing in the sun, with the Prunus dulcis (Almond) starting to bloom in the background ...



The Myoporum acuminatum, the Boobialla or Australian Blueberry Tree, with its tiny white flowers which will turn into berries ...



Chamelaucium uncinatum Schauer, the Geraldton Waxflower, a very delicate shrub with fine needle-like foliage and tiny flowers that bloom for months ...



The Viburnum tinus blooming under the Jacaranda ...



Bouganvillea looking good as usual ...



Cobaea scandens violeta still going strong ...



... and last but not least, my beautiful Euphorbia pulcherrima, the Poinsettia ...



[ 30. June 2007, 03:31 PM: Message edited by: Lady of Leisure ]

 

Lol your garden is looking fantastic well done :clap:beautiful flowers

 

Seeing your beautiful garden cheers me up no end when it's wet and cold here. Your bougainvillia reminds me of the lovely little town of Odemira, where I was in the 80's, which was draped in it. Shame we can't grow it here outside.

 

Thanks, Blackthorn. We're in our rainy season at the moment but it's warm with 16 degrees.

Odemira in the Alentejo region, lovely. T'other half would like to live in Alentejo. What a strange place to be in the 80s!

We first came here in '83 but it was to the Algarve. Things have changed a lot along the coast since then but the "hinterland" remains virtually unchanged.

 

Blackthorn, you can keep pot Bougainvillea outside for at least 9 months of the year in the south, but only the common purple or pink varieties (Glabra) and not the doubles, reds, gold or orange. As long as the temp doesn't go under -1/2c and the are a year or two old they will be OK. True unless given an early start in a conservatory or greenhouse they don't usually get going till June but they can flower from late July through to November in a sunny position, mine do.