They look great Nigel.  Did you buy the kerb stones or were they already there when you moved in ?  Which road out of Tortosa is the garden centre on please.

The kerbstones were already there.  The garden centre is on the way out of Tortosa towards L'Aldea on the right hand side - La Senia.  BEWARE though, the majority of garden centres sell plants that will die as they aren't suitable for the area as they cannot tolerate the heat or lack of water.  You can (as many people have done) spend a fortune on plants that will just die.  Do your homework - get the FULL latin name for the plant and make sure that it is drought tolerant. For example, a lavender. In the catalogue we have there are 47 different types that vary in size/colour/suitability. Buy a plant that says it's lavender and you could be wasting your money!

There is a garden centre in Amposta called Culti Delta that only sells mediterranean plants - open to the public on Saturday mornings only. It's on the internet if you look.

Nigel

Bigyin wrote on May 1^st, 2012 at 10:31pm:


Hi Roger you need donkey poo...........improved my soil no end....fantastic on rhubarb (although I do prefer custard) free to all beer toting strangers 

I tried a brick (concrete block) compost heap - totally useless as it just dried out. In the end I used some old water containers turned upside down and cutting the bottoms off to use as lids.  Works perfectly.

Nigel

I have a plastic composting bin courtesy of Milton Keynes council ( dont ask!!) with a lid and unless I put about 20 litres of water into it every week it just dries out. Perfect snake breeding ground 
As for weeds the chickens and turkeys eat all of them, so the only stuff I have left to compost is tea bags, about 200 a day
I might end up just growing potatoes in it.
The donkeys eat all the olive prunings.
I do use the donkey manure as a mulch, even the fresh stuff, as its not acidic like horse manure. It helps keep the soil moist so less watering.

A brick composter worked fine for me too in the UK but not here - too dry. Maybe worth painting the inside of yours with swimming pool paint to help stop it dry out.

I have to add water to my bins about once a week (if I remember). Adding cardboard or old copies of the Catalunya Chronicle helps to stop the water all running out.

To add photos add them as attachments from the link below where you are typing.

Nigel

Geronimo !!
Thanks Nigel.  You may be able to see that it forms part of the bunny barrier and will be open to the inside of the horta.  A couple more courses to go and a sloping top with lids.  I'm also going to render it.  I'd thought about waterproofing the inside faces but hadn't thought of pool paint.  I've got some left over from painting the pool.
I'd thought of feeding a dribbler into the top of each bin from the irrigation system so it they get a bit every time we water the plants.  Can't be any worse than the UK way.