18th January 2026
Last week we had one of our “immersive garden days” well that was the plan, however the early start was curtailed by our NYE infringement and the trip to the magistrates court. By the time we had returned the gardening team had made massive inroads into the project of the day.
The yoga deck is the most peaceful, cool and tranquil space, it looks out to sea and is shaded all day by a large almond tree. Over the last year, due to the fecundity of the tropics and just a few other little things to deal with!!! We had failed to notice that the tree was getting strangled. A large number of vines have used its limbs as a ladder and were covering it. Amongst these unknown, fast creeping, light sapping, tight gripping vines, is a passion fruit. The passion fruit was bearing fruit prolifically. Only the monkeys were eating the sky reaching fruit. Project of the day … free the almond tree, retrain the passion fruit and release the jungle below.
On our return the effect was dramatic.
All the vines had been cut from the base and from the yoga deck you could see the sea again. Next came the clearing of the anonymous growth around the Bougainvillea, Yucca and Song of India. Dramatic transformation
“Lovely” I thought, job done, I’ll sit down and have a little refreshment. The head gardener had other thoughts. “I have a job for you”. ……. Pointing towards a large pile of Song of India off cuts. His plan to fill the space that had been created with cuttings was a great one. Free plants …fantastic……may I introduce you to my cutting room……
Happy rooting … must remember to change the water every few days … can’t have a mosquito breeding program on the mossy but not so mucky patio.
On other cutting matters, we ventured out on Friday to explore a new world … mosquito screen replacement. We had spotted cutting station in a rival DIY shop. Bedecked with large rolls of screens, in five different colours …..(grey, greyer, dark grey, almost black and black), with the accompanying bespoke frame cutting. It looked very promising. We had been there before but on that given day the screen cutting man was on holiday. Well he was back from holiday but it took a while to find him, and when we did he was clearly distracted ….. probably it’s Friday and 4pm and and and …. anyway he consented to serving us, muttering away, and then with a “steuppps” when we did not understand his question ….. he asked if we wanted something completely unintelligible and then waved some gadget that meant nothing to us. Anyway we managed to establish that he would cut the frame and the screen to our measurements and it would come fully assembled, so by a process of elimination we were able to say no to the gadget!!! 🤞
So order form filled, measurements checked, off we went to customer service who filled out the formal order form and sent us off to the cashier to pay. Then back to customer service with the receipt, everything ready and good to go …… “do I take this back to grumpy screen man?”
oh no ….
it will be about 10 working days …”we will ring you when it’s ready” Groan. He must have left his cutting room to have another holiday, in our experience he needed one.
Back to my cutting room, I’m making good progress but still have a long way to go, at least I have company 🐦 …. Song of India cuttings for sale, cut your own … going cheap … cheep! 🎶
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