The
Mediterranean Garden Society

Forthcoming Events

May 13th   
Boat trip to Cabrera and guided tour.

June 9th   
11.30 am. A visit to Son Reus, Mallorca's Recycling Center.
Park de Technologies Ambientals de Mallorca. 

May / June 
Visit to Lord Latymer’s garden near Arta with lunch in nearby restaurant. (Postponed until further notice)
                                               
Autumn 2008 (provisional activities)

Early September
Kick off discussions for future events and possibly GOB talk.

October 9th – 14th
Annual General Meeting of the Mediterranean Garden Society to be held in Monterey.
           
October / November
Plant Exchange and possible garden visit.

Past events

Pruning Workshop on January 12, 2008
by Sally Beale

On Saturday, January 12th, 27 MGS members were lucky enough to take part in the third annual pruning day with Gabriel Bonet. Cindy and Chris Evans, in their magnificent garden above the old town of Esporles, hosted this year’s workshop. Cindy and Chris are fortunate to have inherited a large number of really old fruit trees, of all different varieties, and many of these were in urgent need of skilful pruning to prolong their productive lives, and improve their appearance. The garden had once been an orchard, and contains some old apple trees of an unknown variety, which produce masses of small, sweet fruit on their spreading branches. Cindy explained that the flavour is like rosewater, and quite delicious. The trees, however, were leggy, and required shaping, so we were fascinated to watch Gabriel go about his business, as confident and as expert as ever.

Gabriel showed us the "chupones", or suckers, that the trees had thrown up, and explained that these must always be removed, and preferably as soon as they appear, to prevent their sapping the tree’s strength. With his motor-saw he bravely lopped off an enormous branch, and down went one third of the old tree, accompanied by horrified gasps from his audience. He then cleaned out the centre of the tree, trimmed off long branches, and removed all the inner-facing stems. It was astonishing how much better the old tree looked in just a few minutes, in spite of our sighs of sympathy for it.

Next on the list was a very old, large pear tree of the local San Juan variety. Although this tree is hugely productive, it was in danger of dying, due to too much leggy growth and spindly branches. Again, Gabriel first removed all the upright suckers, which take a vast amount of energy from the tree, and must ALWAYS be removed. He then shortened the upper growth, by reducing the higher branches, in order to prevent all the fruit being borne too high to be easily picked. The centre was opened up to the light, and the tree thinned, to encourage less fruit, but of a larger size.

After discussion with Cindy, it was decided that, due to the windy aspect of her garden, it would be better to keep her peach trees small and low, instead of allowing them to grow tall, and risk damage. Gabriel then mercilessly chopped off the main branch of a little tree, to gasps of horror from us, and showed us how next year the tree would fruit low down and be protected from the gales. He said it should be allowed to grow no taller than 1.65m. He also reminded those of us who had rather tragically forgotten this important fact last year, that peaches and apricots fruit on the old wood, so not to remove all the fruiting branches in an effort to tidy the trees! Fruit trees should be sprayed in November and January, before any buds appear, with "aceite de invierno", or "winter oil", mixed with copper sulphate, to protect them from early infestation by pulgones and cochinillos, which will lead to tree damage, and wormy fruit.

A big old carob tree then attracted the attention of Gabriel´s saw. This tree just needed a tidy up, but he explained that if your Carob has really grown straggly, the best thing to do is to be severe, and lop it off across the main branches. It will look sad and empty for a couple of years, but as it grows back you can then prune it steadily to make the shape you desire. Carobs are extremely forgiving trees, and will tolerate this sort of pruning, which, he warned us, is not the case with cherries. Cherries do not tolerate pruning well, and it should be kept to the absolute bare minimum, and only when strictly necessary.

An old, leggy almond, already in blossom, was cut drastically in order to ¨semi renovar¨ its life, Gabriel told us. The old tree was "living from the top",and had to be cut high to renew growth from the lower branches. A Jacaranda with a double trunk was sliced in half, leaving the stronger of the trunks staked to a pole. The crown was removed, as was the main upright branch, to encourage side growth, and the development of a full tree with a pretty, rounded shape.

Gabriel has "the eye" for the job. He approaches the trees with the love of a sculptor for his clay. He can see the shape he wants to create, and this has come with more than forty years of pruning experience. He showed us his technique and his skill, and filled us with the enthusiasm and the confidence to go home and emulate his work. We will certainly make mistakes, but if we go carefully and slowly these can usually be corrected, or at least nature will disguise them in time. Watching this wonderful craftsman at work is a privilege and a pleasure, and we hope he will agree to continue with his demonstrations for years to come. We thank Cindy and Chris for their hospitality at their beautiful home.

Visit to Menorca by a group of MGS members from Mallorca, April 2007
by Lorraine Ure

Having spent many years working for Swan Hellenic on their operational side and very much in the field as cruise director, it fell to me to put a programme together to entertain our Mallorca visitors for three days.

As we had never attempted anything like this before, we were able to start with a blank canvas. However we were aware that Menorca has not really had a long history of garden culture, nor indeed do any grand gardens exist of the municipal or grand house variety.  We therefore decided to offer a varied selection of garden-related visits with the chance to view a little bit of the island’s landscape.

On the evening of the group’s arrival we held a Welcome Party at our Club Maritimo on the waterfront in Mahon which was a most convivial occasion and allowed all members from both islands to mingle and get to know each other.

The following morning, we started by visiting Es Viver, which is our nursery for autochthonous plants, i.e. native to the island, run by the environmentally aware GOB.  I had been worried about this visit because earlier in the year when we were planning the programme the nursery had been in rather a sorry state, with more weeds than plants.  However, in the event they had worked hard to improve the presentation and labelling greatly, and we were blessed with a wonderfully informative and witty talk by Sr Marti Pons, senior director of the operation, who really gave a great insight into their interesting and valuable work.  It was interesting to discover that Mallorca does not have a similar operation.

After that we headed off in our convoy of cars to visit the first of our members’ gardens.  John and Kelly Springford set us a competition to suggest five ways of improving their already delightful garden, which proved an interesting challenge.  A bottle of champagne was presented to the winner.  John has since reproduced and illustrated the suggestions. 

We took lunch at one of our most attractive Hotel Rurales, Biniarroca, and enjoyed the charming garden surrounds. Then a short hop to the village of Torrett where we divided into two groups to visit Villa Mariposa, a relatively new garden, designed and built by our member Tessa Facey, and also to Veggie Pete, who, in three years, has created a wonderful market garden full of a wide variety of vegetables on a challenging terrain.

The following day saw us all assemble at the other end of the island at Santo Thomas, home of renowned artist Ron Webb, who showed us his most attractive garden and managed to persuade three of his neighbours to do likewise.  Although close to the sea, the gardens are protected from the damaging north winds in a wonderfully sheltered hillside location which allows the cultivation of a wide range of magnificent plants year round.

As the weather was glorious, we nearly all repaired to the nearby beach bar and enjoyed lunch outdoors before heading off to our most ‘refined’ garden centre, Truvi, near Ferreries, where some serious retail therapy took place.

The visit culminated in a very cheerful (judging by the decibels) dinner in the renowned Bar Espana in Es Castell.

We look forward with relish to our visit to Mallorca next year.

Naveta des Tudons	Menorcan cemetary
Menorca garden	Hedysarum coranarium

First impressions of Menorca
by Linda Birkenhead

It is often foolish to have a preconceived image of a person or place, and this was definitely the case with the mental picture I had of Menorca before our recent MGS visit.  I had thought of the island as being flat, arid and bare, save for a few stunted trees bent before the relentless Tramontana wind.  To my delight the actuality is a landscape of gently rolling countryside, with wooded hillsides, verdant valleys and many small, unspoilt beaches, all reminiscent of the English West Country.  It was almost like stepping into one of those pictures of idyllic pastoral scenes, where contented cattle and sheep graze up to their knees in lush fields, which used to decorate railway carriages long ago.  The roadside verges and waste ground were a tapestry of wild flowers, including a red-flowering vetch we do not see in this area of Mallorca.  Apparently it is the descendant of plants imported to feed the dairy cows which form such an important part of the island’s economy, as Menorcan cheeses of many varieties are exported in large quantity. 

The countryside is bracketed at either end of the island by Mahon and Ciutadella, both thriving towns with graceful architecture and harbours bounded with formidable fortifications.  The latter bear witness to the constant struggle for dominion of the island over thousands of years by a bewildering variety of nations.  The island is rich in archaeological sites, ruined forts and more recently, evidence of the British Navy’s presence.  Is part of the latter’s legacy the habit of whitewashing entire houses (even the terracotta roofs), walls, and indeed anything that doesn’t move, rather in the way that the Navy liked to ‘blanco’ everything?  These brilliant white little houses, interspersed with a few painted oxblood red, are all immaculate and carry an air of prosperity and wellbeing.

The Menorcan MGS members had arranged a full and very interesting programme for us and were unfailing in their hospitality and hard work on our behalf.  We visited a variety of gardens, ranging from the elegantly formal to relaxed blowsiness, terraced and flat, some with rich soil and others almost on bedrock, but all displaying imaginative planting and the care lavished on them by their owners.  We also learned of the efforts of GOB, an organisation promoting the sustainability of indigenous plants, and saw the market garden of ‘Veggie Pete’ who, after three years, is still experimenting with different vegetables and varieties to satisfy local needs.  In between these visits we made new friends amongst our Menorcan counterparts, who ensured that we were fed, watered and entertained at all times.

A final treat was a walk to Fort Marlborough with Dodo Mackenzie, an authority on local history and the author of a book of walks in Menorca, a copy of which she was kind enough to give to each of us.

It was a delightful and rewarding visit - the first of many I hope - and the Menorcan members deserve an enthusiastic vote of thanks for organising it and giving up so much time to ensure that we were all in the right place at the right time!  I am sure we all look forward to returning their hospitality and showing them what the gardeners of Mallorca can do.

Information

Pine tree pests
The theme of this meeting was the fight against two pine tree pests faced by the woodland gardener: processional caterpillars (Pytiocamba) and Tomicus (a beetle that breeds in pine bark, formerly known as Blastophagus). The latter has increased so rapidly since the hurricane of November 2001 that one can fairly speak of a plague.

On April 15th Mr Oriol, forest engineer from the Ministry of the Environment of the Balearic Government, explained the situation of these two different pests on damaged trees in and around a member's garden, south of Manacor.

The cycle of Pytiocamba goes through four stages: egg, caterpillar, cocoon and butterfly. The largest part of this life cycle is spent as a caterpillar when 50-100 caterpillars spin themselves into nests, clearly visible in the treetops. The caterpillars eat a lot, taking their food from the pine needles. The greater the infestation, the greater the damage to the tree will be. The caterpillars' eating of the needles will not in itself kill the tree, but if the attack is very great and happens repeatedly the tree can be seriously weakened. This favours attacks by diseases or by boring insects such as Tomicus.

The Tomicus life-cycle is: egg, larva and beetle, the latter being brown-black. The signs of an attack are sap volcanoes, where the mature beetles have bored holes into the rough bark in order to lay their eggs, and/or a yellowing of the crown needles where the young beetles have gone to build up strength before mating. Extensive breeding sites for Tomicus have been created in recent years by (1) the hurricane of 2001 and the resulting dead wood which was mostly not cleared until a year later, (2) extensive forest fires in the nearby hills three years ago, and (3) the droughts of the last few years. Tomicus attacks healthy trees and can kill them. It does so by laying eggs in the bored holes, from which the larvae spread out eating their way around the trunk if they circle the trunk, the sap will no longer flow and the tree dies. There are different species of Tomicus, with some of them breeding a number of times in the year.

What can one do ?

Processional caterpillars can be dealt with by cutting off the nests and burning them, setting up sexual traps which catch the males (the bait for such traps can be had from SEMILLA in the Agricultural Ministry in Palma, Tel. 971 176100), shooting the nests with special shotgun pellets, or spraying. Mr. Parrilla from the firm WILL KILL told us that the fight against Tomicus was much more difficult, especially since there are different species with different breeding cycles, which can also vary with the climate; moreover the only systemic treatment had been outlawed by the EU as being too toxic. He spoke of the necessity of vigilance and of an integrated fight against the beetle, including clearance of dead wood and spraying. We ourselves have begun to spray the pines with a biological spray several times a year. Whether this will prove successful or not is unknown. In the forestry business in Germany, each affected tree is felled, as well as all those trees within a ten-metre radius. Then all the felled trunks are burned. In Mallorca as a whole, however, with its park-like spaced-out pine trees, such a radical cure is not financially viable and fires are strictly forbidden from May to November.
Signe Groos

Branch Head Marianne Beith writes:
"I gardened in England for a number of years, spoilt by soil enriched with cow dung over 600 years, an abundance of rain, and masses of advice from a horticulture- trained gardener. The well-established garden only needed cosmetic touches and my personal stamp put on it. Here in Mallorca we bought a barren finca a year ago and are facing the challenge of rocks, poor soil, little rain, strong island winds, rabbits which especially like the fresh new growth our efforts produce, and snails during the rare moments of precipitation. We do have a lot of sunshine, although this winter's snow and even a few days of frost blanketed my virgin garden and tried to take away my enthusiasm -- without success. Gardening in retirement is hard work but very rewarding and I don't lack for enthusiasm."