The pond is finished, waterfall is running, the rockery has been completed with a few plants planted. Fish have been introduced. Unfortunately some of the Koi carp decided the pond was not for them and rolled over and died. Still, there are six fish left. The problem was high pH cause by the new cement leaching calcium into the water.
The 85 watt pump is extremely efficient, moving up to 15,000 litres per hour. The bottom drain from the pool empties into a 500 litre tank, behind the garden wall, and the flow sets up a circular vortex allowing heavier dirt particles to collect in the middle of the base of the tank. The pump draws clean water off from the top of the tank. Eventually this will be pumped to the hydroponic beds to be filtered, but for now it is returned directly to the head of the waterfall.
I have installed a water feed controlled by a ball valve to keep the pond water level constant. The plumbing is ready to connect up to to the hydroponic beds.
I kept the fish in the greenhouse for a couple of days. They had some water hyacinth for company. This is a lovely floating plant with lavender blue flower spikes. Unfortunately it is a rampant weed in many parts of the tropics, making waterways impassable to boat traffic and destroying fishermens' livelihoods. It can form dense mats of vegetation. I met a pilot in Papua New Guinea who had succeeded in landing his helicopter on a raft of water hyacinth on the Sepik River.
Another job completed was to cover the floor of the greenhouse with a weed membrane. It was becoming a pain to keep weeding the ground between the pots.
I sowed the Afghan Pine seed, following 30 days stratification. Now, four weeks after sowing a very disappointing germination rate of 33% has been achieved. I have ordered another 500 seeds to make up the shortfall.
I am growing the pine seedlings in Rootrainers (from Tildenet) which are ribbed to encourage downward growth of the roots, rather than circling, and which open like a book to allow easy extraction of the plant for transplanting.
Let's pop inside the windmill and have a look at our new acquisition.
It is a curved screen Smart TV. I hadn't realised until now that there is a whole industry making TVs for people like us who live in windmills with round walls. What a result!
The massive stone pile in the garden has been steadily shrinking as we make progress with building stone walls and path edging. The success of David's wall building efforts have been somewhat mixed. Though it looks OK from a distance.
Edging the paths was a lot easier and quicker.
The windbreak planting is growing quite nicely. But there are gaps and so I bought from the Pozo Negro experimental farm some more seedlings of Casaurina, Coccoloba (Sea Grape), and Schinus terebinthifolius (Pepper Tree). I have raised some Eucalyptus from seed which we will also plant on the boundaries.
Last time we planted outside the finca we lost quite a few plants to rabbits and partridges. So I have made up some tree guards using plastic netting and steel bar. These hopefully can be re-used for planting the Christmas Trees late this year.
In the middle of all this there are constant interruptions, such as Jose wanting his cement mixer back. I couldn't really complain as I had been using it for free for several months. However it meant having to fix up Bernard's old mixer which he had dumped in the garden. I needed a new motor and belts, and a cover. It looks a bit rusty but it works!
And then we popped down to a hotel in Costa Calma for a relaxing weekend, as Wendy's birthday treat. Only to discover that it was the grubbiest hotel we had ever been to, in dire need of refurbishment. To top it all, a rusted lamp post was blow over and hit and damaged my car.
One of the great things about living in the Canary Islands is that it is so close to Europe; only four hours flying. So we have already met some friends here by chance who have been holidaying. The latest being Linda and Alistair. I was at college with Linda, more years ago than I care to remember. She has been teaching horticulture and is a keen gardener. Alistair is a agricultural engineer, so we had lots to talk about.
The dogs look so dignified posing for the camera. Whereas, of course in reality, they are a couple of goofy layabouts.