You might have read an earlier post on Living in Rural Mallorca about our blackthorn bushes, kindly brought over for us from the UK by our best friends, who wanted to surprise us this unusual gift. And they did.
Not only had they remembered The Boss mentioning that he couldn’t make any more sloe gin, because we couldn’t find sloes anywhere, they’d also sourced 20 young blackthorn shrubs from a good plant nursery and packed them carefully into a suitcase, to bring over on one of their visits to us on Mallorca.
In the manner of Mallorcan country folk, The Boss pondered for some time over where he would plant what he hoped would turn into a bountiful hedge. Spot chosen, he planted the individual shrubs, a suitable distance apart, and gave them a good pep talk to encourage some rapid growth.
The Full Monty
Tending plants in the garden is largely my domain (although I couldn’t do it without The Boss to take a pickaxe to the ground whenever I want to put a new plant in). But he’s become a regular Monty Don (a BBC TV gardening expert, if you live outside the UK and haven’t a clue who he is), and is often to be found down the field, fertilizer and watering can to hand, scrutinizing the progress of the blackthorns’ growth. Apparently, it’s slow at best, and non-existent if he’s in a less positive frame of mind.
From my perspective, I think there has been some growth – perhaps because I’m not down there a couple of times a day looking at them, so the difference is more obvious. But the acid test will be in a few days, when our friends return for a week’s visit. Will they see a difference in size in the plants they had nurtured in their apartment for some time? Let’s hope so.
Jan Edwards Copyright 2013
Not so sloe progress?
It’s the first thing we’ll check over!