Early-morning gardening will be a memory of this spring and summer in Mallorca. To be honest, it hasn’t entirely been a matter of choice to be working in the garden before we can see the sun over the valley ridge.
In previous years we’ve done little to the garden once the hot weather starts – apart from sporadic watering. But we’ve had to take action after the demise of several substantial agave plants, courtesy of the snout-nose weevil. That something so small can cause such destruction still astounds me.
Our early-morning gardening has seen us clear the dead plants one by one, leaving large, empty spaces. We had to find replacement plants that weren’t spiky, to make future gardening less painful. We also wanted more colour and flowers. Because we already have some pink oleanders that have grown well with little attention from us, we decided to buy some in red and white.
Gabriel the Garden Guru
We went to Viveros Hermanos Llabres (established 1940), after seeing it recommended on the Mallorca Gardeners Facebook group. Why had we never been before? We’ve now made three visits and each has been an informative experience, with pleasing purchases.
Arriving for the first time, we couldn’t see anyone around – until an ancient Mobylette pootled into view from around the back of the building. This was our first meeting with the nursery’s Gabriel, who told us his beloved (and rusty) 70-year-old Mobylette had belonged to his grandfather.
Gabriel’s an affable chap with a good sense of humour and excellent knowledge of plants. Tell him whereabouts you live in Mallorca and he’ll know the plants to suit its micro-climate and type of terrain. He’s a straight talker too and will put you right if you’re thinking of planting something that’s not going to work here. Thank goodness I didn’t mention my yearning for a magnolia.
©Jan Edwards 2022
Interesting information. I have passed countless times not realising that it was open for everyone. When we return this authumn we will have a look. This year has been tought on my garden. My deep well is low on water. Hope that that some will survive .
Autumn will be a good time to check it out, I’m sure. We’re very pleased to have found this place. I’m sorry to hear about your deep well being low on water. Fingers crossed you won’t have too many casualties when you return. Have a good summer.
Yes I’ve lost two Agaves to the beetles and another seems to be under attack. I don’t fancy applying gallons of insecticide, just see how it goes and replace it with something else if it keels over like the first two.
I’m not convinced the insecticide worked for us and we haven’t reapplied to try and save the remaining agaves. I was very upset about it all initially, but have now turned this situation as a positive and a way to give us a new-look garden. We have another dead one to dig out if we get a cool early morning this week, but I imagine it won’t be the last casualty. Good luck with yours, Mike.