Mother's Day coming around

February was beautifully calm, only the odd day of rough weather so I hope you all got out into your gardens to get those odd jobs started that are surely on the ‘round to it’ list.

It really is the perfect time to plant any of the spring and summer vegetables if you haven’t already done so. Flowers as well must not be forgotten unless you prefer to buy potted plants from the different flower markets and seed merchants.

Trees and shrubs you may have already cut back will be already showing their new spring growth so we can happily say that spring is in the air but be well prepared for the odd hail storm maybe even a blizzard and hopefully lots of rain. Most gardening depends on the weather so we must be prepared for just about anything at this time of year.

And now on a totally different note, here we are coming up to the middle of Lent. In Spain, Mother's Day doesn’t come around until the first Sunday of May but in the Anglican community our Mothering Sunday falls on the middle Sunday of Lent and being one of those movable feasts is a different date every year.

This year it will be next Sunday March 14th and the Anglican Church of Saint Andrew in Puerto Pollensa will be celebrating Mothering Sunday with flowers. In the UK we would all be out picking primroses and violets, at least that is how I remember it but here there are other flowers.

If you have them planted in the garden you may well have Fuchsias in full flower by now and are surely the perfect choice of fragrant and colourful cut flowers to present to any Mother on this special Sunday. The service starts at 11 o’clock on Sunday mornings and all are welcome.

Gardening doesn’t start with just a bunch of flowers, there are plenty more jobs to keep us going. I mentioned a first cut on the lawn to eliminate all those weeds, that is not just the end of it, although the actual Bermuda/couch grass doesn’t start growing for a month or two yet other grasses and weeds pop up all over the place.

Don’t be led astray by little outcrops of fine green grass like growth, It pulls up quite easily by the handful and there you will find it is a wild garlic that doesn’t smell anything like a good chopped clove of garlic in the frying pan.

Just walking over this ‘grass’ and pulling it up has an aroma of its own, there will be loads of tiny garlic shaped bulbs and if left to mature will fill the lawn with its own bell shaped flowers almost like a Bluebell only white. OK it sounds pretty and all that but like my other pet hate, the Oxalis, you just don’t want it in the lawn or anywhere else in the garden for that matter.

Whilst on the subject of the lawn, if you have trees growing on the lawned areas of the garden make sure you have that area of weed free soil all around the trunk.
Grasses and weeds seem to grow quite rapidly here so keep that area well dug over and free of these unwanted grasses and weeds.

As to other chores, citrus fruits must soon need to be off their trees, in many cases the flowers are already in bud in which case the crop is surely ready for picking unless like some Lemon trees that are perpetual they will have ripe fruit, green fruit and flower continually.

They don’t really like to be cut back or pruned during the very cold weather but it is just about time to be thinking about that, cutting out dead wood and any growth growing inwards. It is important to keep the trees well ‘open’ to allow air to flow and help avoid mildew type diseases that can creep in.

As is painfully obvious, you don’t need to actually look, jobs that need to be done just appear so never walk around the garden without the secateurs in hand.

TOP TIPS

• Citrus fruits must soon need to be off their trees.
• Next Sunday March 14th is Mother’s Day and the Anglican Church of Saint Andrew in Puerto Pollensa will be celebrating Mothering Sunday with flowers.