Lazy Friday, Baking, Strimming, Basil, Thyme Mastichina and smelly geraniums

So it is Friday, the end of the week. A slow start and a fiddling day for me, before we pack the two vehicles this evening ready for Narbonne and Perpignan markets tomorrow. For Caroline it is completely different, she starts baking her gluten free pizzas and cakes at 5am in the morning.

With the temperature up we have had to empty the poly tunnel, at 45 to 50 centigrade in there nothing can survive. With everything around the house the watering is easier, if so what later. We typically water in the evening when the sun is off the garden, so start around 8ish and finish around 9, have a late appero and a Catalan hours dinner then crash.

We do not even need the poly tunnel for germination, Basil likes between 25 and 32 to germinate, so the Genovese, Thai, Red Marseillais and Greek Basil I put in on Tuesday is already showing signs of life, not bad in three days.

This morning I up potted the Thym Ibérique, Thyme Mastichina, cuttings I took in Spring/ Thyme Mastichina is a white flowering thyme, unlike say Thyme Latifolia wich is a great grown cover for dry gardens, Thyme Mastichina is a tall plant, getting to 50 cms high. It is used a lot in medicinal teas and is equally delicious to eat. Native to central Spain and Portugal it grows really well in the South of France, needing a little water the first year but nothing after that.

After a dodgy start the lemon verbena is finally ready to be up potted, due to the very mild January we had the verbena has already started to grow at the beginning of the year, but the -12 mornings of February and early March stopped it dead, all their leaves fell off and they went on strike. Now with the heat they are starting to grow again. It has been a bit disheartening seeing my friends harvesting their verbena while ours refuses to even push out green leaves, but all is well that ends well and the first batch are in their adult pots.

Last but not least the scented geraniums got up potted, the two most popular are the lemon and rose ones. They are pélargoniums really but don’t tell anyone. Round here folk are convinced that they are good to keep away flies and mosquitoes. Our terrace is covered with them, really because of the perfume, they are at their most powerful at dusk, but the effect is more psychological that scientific. The only real mosquito dissuader, apart from industrial strength toxines is essential oil of lemon grass. Because they are so popular I did a whole load of more tip cuttings from the mother plant.I popped them into our cutting soil, Orgasyl, As long as they are kept moist they should take quickly.

Caroline had been down to top up our aging batteries with distilled water and reported that their were weeds growing in front of the solar panels and that the path was over grown so I nipped down there this afternoon and strimmed the lot down. Even the slightest shade and the performance of the panels is effected.

As I write this the last pizzas are in the oven,so only the cars to pack and we are ready for tomorrow.