Planting the plants

This morning, I went to the Community Church; Tim and our visitor from Australia went to the Anglican church; Richard and his colleague from Egypt went sailing!

We all converged back here at lunchtime, where Tim had used both kitchens to produce roast beef, roast potatoes, two veg and the best yorkshire pudddings he has ever made - rather to his surprise, since he realised, when they were in the oven, that he had put in 100ml too little milk.

In the afternoon, we chatted awhile, watched the news briefly, and relaxed. Then Richard and his colleague started fitting some ducting for computer wires in the guest apartment, and Tim had a siesta. Our visitor worked, in some frustration, on some complicated knitting she's doing for her prospective grandchild. I got out a tapestry picture I've been working on - off and on - for the past two years. It's about half finished. Still, every little helps. Perhaps I'll get it done by the time Daniel returns, in about 18 months...

At 6pm Tim asked for a ride back to the church, where he had to play the organ for the evening service. So Richard drove him there, then we went on to our old house where we collected a wheelbarrow full of stones. We knew there were thousands, gathered from the garden over the years and nobody else would want them. While there, I noticed my newest bougainvillea looking rather sad, having been knocked down. But still alive. I know bougainvilleas don't like being moved much, but I thought I'd give it a chance as it was still small enough to dig up - and it wouldn't last long if I left it behind. Then I saw two of my geraniums, still just about alive but very dry after a month without being watered. So I watered them and dug them up too. Then I decided to take a few cuttings from the larger geraniums, which are in more shady areas and still thriving despite the lack of water.

We also filled the barrow with stones and managed to get them back in the car. Then with our visitor advising, we filled our pots and a couple of planters with stones, and used the compost we had bought combined with older soil to re-plant what we bought yesterday, and the ones I hope to revive from the old house. We also replanted the palm that was in a broken pot. And then had to do yet more mopping of the porch! Here's the results so far... it'll be interesting (to us, anyway) to see what survives.

The two lavender plants. They don't look as happy as they were yesterday, but still smell wonderful. They were rather badly pot-bound, so having a bit more freedom and fresh soil should help:


The palm in its new pot, and the two geraniums from the old house:


The two hibiscus plants. They look very healthy, at least so far:


The bougainvillea from the old house, and one of the citrus trees (with Cleo observing):


I wasn't going to do anything with our cactus which seems to keep growing and sprouting new pieces, and which was almost falling out of its pot in various places. But Richard's colleague took it out, pulled off the dead leaves, and replanted the healthiest pieces in fresh soil:


Then as there were so many bits left, he planted some more in a small trough planter:


He seemed confident about what he was doing, but admitted afterwards that he had never done this before, and had no idea if they would survive! I'm not a huge fan of cactus, but this one has survived eight years of neglect with occasional watering, so I hope it will do well with increased space and nutrients.