This week’s Six on Saturday’s gardening endeavours have once again been set against a backdrop of intermittent showers, sun and strong winds. I’m not complaining. We desperately need the rain. The only downside is the mosquitoes that are always so delighted to see me when I venture out into the garden. The daily temperatures have ranged from between 16C to 20C and at night around 12/15C.
1. Agave Attenduata – Damaged Leaves
This happened overnight. One day, the Agaves were fine, and the next, the plant developed these strange marks on the leaves. I asked on our gardening Facebook Group, and apparently, other people reported the same issue. AND we are not even in the same area. Apparently, this can happen when there is a combination of wet and sun. A form of leaf burn. If anyone else has any further suggestions, then I’m all ears.
2. Radish – Largo Rojo Murciano
Feeling proud. I grew these from seeds planted last December. Totally organic.
3. Healthy Greens – Spinach and Kale
I am trying to improve my diet, so I thought I’d try growing spinach and Kale. These were planted as seed plugs on 28th Jan. Dare I say the snails have not found them yet.
4. Repurposed Plastic Food Trays
I try not to buy food wrapped in plastic or packed in plastic trays unless I need seed trays or want to make mini cloches for seeds. Perfect! The fancy cloches at the garden or DIY centres cost a small fortune.
This one contains Golden Pearl F1 mini tomatoes that can be sown between Jan-June and Aubergine – Violeta Longa from Jan-May
5. Rooting Tradescantia
I saw this in a garden centre for €6.50! No way am I paying that for a plant that grows like a weed, however desperately I want one.
I put a call out on my local gardening FB group, and a kind person responded and gave me some cuttings. No quite the same but they will be fine.I believe this is a tradescanthia zebrina. I put them in a jam jar of water now we wait for them to root.
6. Gardening Projects -Root Infested Raised Beds
We built these raised beds during COVID. We lined them with plastic sheeting and cut drainage holes in the bottom. Bad mistake. The roots from the melaleuca hedge found their way into the beds via the drainage holes, and the beds became a matted nest of roots, rendering the beds unusable. Over the last few weeks we have dug out ALL the soil and are gradually refilling with new soil and compost. Now, they don’t have any drainage. Not sure if I am going to regret this, but as we hardly get any rain in the summer (usually), it should not (she says with fingers and toes crossed) pose too much of a problem. However, with the recent heavy rain, I did cover the beds up. Looking forward to planting up with my tomatoes and peppers.
To join more Six on Saturday bloggers why not check out Jim’s blog ‘Garden Ruminations‘
What’s happening in your garden?
Piglet in Portugal 
Good luck figuring it out!
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Really healthy looking radish, well done. They will be my first crop sown outside in about a month. It must have been frustrating to see those raised beds fill with external roots. I sympathise. I have a lined trough with drainage holes that filled up with ground elder from under the hedge! Good luck with your tradescantia propagation. Facebook has surprising uses!
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Yes, it was tough to realise the bed had filled with roots. But I am no stranger to the promblem. My original raised bed… dug out ALL the earth and laid concrete. then the strawberry bed and now these beds. You could train a dog quicker!
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You’ll soon have lots of tradiscantia plants from those cuttings. I bought a small one a couple of years ago and now have loads of plants.
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fingers crossed 🙂
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What a beautiful collection of photos this week! I love how you repurposed the plastic containers. Why buy new plastic when we are already throwing away so much? That is brilliant. You might want to try planting some of your Tradescantia cuttings into pots in moist soil or sand to root. They will root that way for me, though I often start them in water, too. For some reason, the roots sometimes come faster in soil. I planted a tiny broken bit too small for a jar of water into a pot and it is growing on now, while the larger piece in the jar doesn’t even have the nub of a root. Beautiful radishes! ❤ ❤ ❤
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🙂 Thank you for the tip re Tradescatia. I’ll try and see what happens.
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Happy to see your garden green while we get our last snow. : )
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I confess while I love snow I would not like to live with it. 😦
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What a shame to see these black spots on the leaves of this agave: It’s one of my favourite agave! I would say humidity too, especially on the lower leaves but it’s strange, because it should have been the leaves more towards the hedge, that’s why sunburn is the other solution, you would be right . Well done radishes! I was planning to start my seedlings tomorrow, but inside the greenhouse
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The problem with the Agave is strange and even my fellow gardeners on FB can’t agree. So I will just have to sit it out. We cut off some leaves … we will just have to wait it out.
My cloches are my mini greenhouses although on the seed packet it seems to suggest I can plant them direct in the soil … I don’t believe it LoL. I’d love a green house
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you can sow directly in the ground (Portugal helps) – I have to wait a month to do the same here… About the leaves of your agave, I would cut, I would sprinkle cinnamon which is healing on the wound and otherwise an anti-fungal spray at the bottom
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Well done regarding the radish – something I’ve never managed to grow successfully.
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HAve you tried growing them in a container?
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I haven’t. I may give it a go.
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