Saturday 24 April 2010

Spring flowers, new vine leaves and another lizard

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The vines are sprouting new spring growth in all the vineyards. We passed these near Roquessels this morning. And on the hillsides in the garrigue the asphodels, cistus, broom and thyme are all flowering.

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In the garden, the apple blossom is nearly over, but we had borage flowers to decorate our salad of broad bean leaves, rocket and mint. I can’t see any small fruits on the apricot tree, although there are lots of leaves, so I think that the sudden cold weather we had in March must have killed off the fertilised flowers. We had a lot of blossom in February on the apricot tree, and insects buzzing around the flowers, so we expected a reasonable crop, until the surprise snow arrived at the beginning of March.

A lizard in the sky

This lizard run up the wall of the shed and onto one of the supports for our shelter to bask in the sun.

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It’s been good weather for lizards. After an unusually cold spring, with that snow, it’s now unusually hot for April – up to 30 degrees C at midday in the sun – and very dry, although the stream is still running well down the hill past the gardens so we have plenty of free water.

Preparing to plant out the tomatoes

We have prepared most of the tomato beds and put up the cane supports for the plants. We’ve planted lettuce seedlings in between what will be double rows of tomatoes – the lettuces will get watered with the tomato plants, which will shade them a bit, and we’ll have eaten them by the time the tomato plants grow.

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The tomato plants on the right have been in the mini-greenhouse on the balcony and are now desperate for more space and light, so we’ll be planting them out in the next day or so.

6 comments:

Jan said...

What a shame about your apricots! Ours seem to be ok at the moment and I'll post a photo soon. I'm so envious of your tomatoes, and I think we'll end up buying some plants as mine are tiny.

Lavender and Vanilla Friends of the Gardens said...

It is a busy time this time of year. I admire the rows and rows of grapes getting ready for another crop. I love lizards in my garden and have created habitats for the bigger ones.
Generally we do not have Geckos but I have now spotted two. I like it how they live inside and walk up the walls. The salad greens look so inviting, the best! Happy gardening. T.

Stefaneener said...

Those are nice tomato supports. And nice lizards!!

Roasted Garlicious said...

i love the idea of growing the lettuce inbetween the tomatoes... am going to try that!!! we only have one species of lizard here, alligator lizards... and no, they aren't alligators ;)

MulchMaid said...

It's still too early for us to put out tomatoes: they'd shiver for the next month! That asphodel is unknown to me and very lovely - I must look it up. My cistus are getting fat buds, but won't bloom until our days warm up quite a bit more. Love your lizard. They're such cheerful little creatures and nothing says "warm sun" like spotting one basking in it!

impoftheyard said...

I wish it were warm here but it's cold and grey alas! Love the little lizards.