Yes, more planting

Tibouchina

I guess people who build their homes must become obsessed with different things once the main project is over. In my case it's clear to see it's the landscaping and anything to do with the yard.

We still require further "infrastructure" work. The sprinkler system has been expanded to its full potential (two expansions) and is about to get a new computer because we're out of "sectors" to assign. Not to mention the perimeter fence that needs to be moved out to enclose the lot we bought last year. Hope Barbi doesn't read this until he's gone to Turkey.

The ground has received multiple truckloads of top soil to make it more fertile and more even, easier to mow, eventually. But we're not done with that either, we need about 3 or 4 more truckloads, on top of the 7 we have used up since July last year.

And the planting continues apace. Some sections of the perimeter are dense enough already that I start thinking about "editing", taking something from here to move over there. Most sections still need a second or third layer of shrubs in order to fill them in or make them more interesting looking. But in certain areas we're still struggling to fill out the perimeter, if only with one layer of shrub/tree.

Against this backdrop, we just took delivery of a couple hundred new shrubs and trees, which were planted over the last week. New arrivals include the retama (a yellow flowered broom, which is endemic around our place) which will be lined up against certain segments of the border with some neighbors and on the sidewalk on the main road, hoping it will create a good barrier for winds blowing from the ocean side. Agustin from Proverde, our lovely neighborhood nursery, says the retama is very slow growing, but I'm stubborn and am willing to give it a try. I show him the huge mounds near the house, and he says "Those are 50 years old". We'll see, we planted a total of 30 or 40.

Retamas near our house a couple of springs ago

Another one making a debut is the melaleuca, which has a bottle-brush like white flower, and beautiful foliage, thin and tapered with a red tinge in new growth, plus the reputation for withstanding any rough weather we throw at it.

We went full on with the photinia, which did very well since we planted the 5 bushes on a trial basis a couple of months ago, so now we added 15 new bushes, these ones actually huge, tree sized almost, around 7 feet tall.

We also added 5 more dodonea bushes, which have fared excellently, only because they were too cramped against the fence and wanted to make them more visible and irregularly laid out.

We doubled the number of native guava trees to 10, a little grove, on the "new lot" near the road, and added a double layer of retama on the "sidewalk" of that lot, in front of the poplar trees. Perpendicular to the road, still in the "new lot", we planted a line of acacia trinervis trees about 35 feet long, intended to work as a hedge to protect the road-front corner of our yard from the ocean wind. We planted them very close together and we will prune them so they remain shortish, dense and bushy, protecting the guava, olive, araza and a couple other fruit trees already planted there, and also further block the view of the yard from the road.

Next to the vegetable patch we added five more tamarix (we had only 3 there) and another 10 against the fence following the agapanthus patch, and on the other side of the fence (read our neighbor's yard) we planted quite a few retamas. The plan is to continue planting more tamarix and agapanthus on a boomerang shape once we incorporate the new lot into the yard, following the angle of the lots' perimeter. That will require a couple hundred agapanthus and a few dozen tamarix, but that's for the next batch, probably in July after Omar the fencer has moved the fence.

But the most exciting recently has been the planting, in two stages, of 40 tibouchina bushes, with a backdrop of formios to both frame them and act as windbreakers, against the western fence, behind the pool and the palm trees. I don't feel like taking pictures right now when everything looks so bleak, especially after I pruned everything in the yard, but I will show them in their full glory if they make it to the summer. As the picture on top shows, they have a fat rabbit's ear like furry leaf, and lots of little purple flowers. And massed like that, unevenly planted over a length of about 45 feet, they look absolutely super cute. I will be praying that they survive the rough winter.

The vegetable patch has been sorely neglected for months and months. Yet, we found some time to till a considerable part and plant it with broccoli. We didn't even bother making seedlings firts, we just pushed the seed in, and there are tons of little broccoli sprouting now. Another "wait and see if they survive" thing. The leeks are fantastic, we've been eating them and there's lots left. The carrots have been harvested, and we always have ciboulette, garlic-ette and scallions to cut off, plus the year-round watercress, the celery and assorted herbs. The cherry tomatoes keep on producing fruit, but it doesn't taste good anymore...

Next I will plant spinach and a Brazilian collard green (couve) whose seeds were brought to me from Brazil and which probably won't survive the weather, but I will give it a try.