Gardening in Mallorca: Let’s just hope that everything is neat and tidy!

There is of course the endless watering that is a daily chore. Some regions of the Island did in fact have a few hours of rain last week which were a great blessing. There is an old saying in Pollensa and the port that the bunting and street decorations of the summer feasts will always get wet at some time or other.

In fact years ago when it became the fasion to decorate the streets, coloured paper bunting was used, but as it always rained at some point the coloured dye always dripped down on to the ladies dresses. It was then decided to use only white decorations so that nobodies clothing was spoilt or stained when it rained. But even those few hours of rain in high summer are not really enough to forget the watering altogether.

There are a few chores to carry on with besided harvesting the summer vegetables like Aubergines, Peppers and Tomatoes all the rest of the root vegetables can start to be planted now ready for the winter harvesting. Traditional gardening books will give you the whole list of what to sow now and it is just about everything.

Besides actually being out in the garden there are some fun things to try at planting in a pot on the terrace. As we enjoy all those ripening varieties of fruit from the supermarket shelves like Peaches, Apricots , Nectarines and Mangos each with a big stone, don’t throw that away, plant the stone to grow your own tree in a pot. There are those who like to very carefully crack the hard woody shell to remove the nutty kernal and plant just that. Others plant the whole thing and just wait for it to sprout.

This is a case of popping several of the fruit stones into moist compost in a plant pot, be sure to label it becasue all those months before it sprouts will pretty surely help you forget what went into the pot. There will be failures but out of a half dozen fruit stones maybe a couple will germinate. Have patience! it will be a month or two but the fun of seeing something grow is always worth while the waiting.

Each healthy little sapling will then need its own space transplanting into a larger pot as it matures and we are told by the experts that it could be a mature tree in about two years and producing fruit in three years. These are trees that need no grafting so lets all start planting our own Peaches on the terrace.

The one stone that is probably the most difficult to prize open and remove its inner kernal is the Mango but having said that it frequently already has a little root forming so be careful not to break that off and plant it root downwards.

I am told by our managing editor that he has a good crop of Tomatoes on his terrace this year, this reminds me of how he persuaded me into writing this column on gardening because he wanted to grow his own Tomatoes and wasn’t sure if they would grow in a pot on a terrace. All this conversation dates back to 2007 so between us we must have planted a good many Tomato plants by now!