Patio Gardening

It is HOT! This is the hottest time of the year here in San Miguel. The one place that is usually cool during the day is our patio. It is an interior patio shaded by a huge, ancient lugustrum tree. You may think that lugustrum is only a hedge but I can assure you that they can also be trees. This old tree reminds me of the wild hackberry tree we had that was just inside the property line when we built our last house in Houston. It was kind of twisted and ugly but sculptural. I loved it. The builder wanted to take it out. I said "no." The landscape guy wanted to take it out. I said "no." So far as I know the new owners have not taken it out either.

At any rate when we moved into this house in early May, I was just sure that the lugustrum tree was dying. Every morning the patio was covered in leaves. Now I know. It is the cycle for this tree. For the next month or two the tree will be dropping leaves all over the patio, every day, all day. I don't worry now. I just look at the tips of the branches for tiny bright green growth. The new leaves, they are on their way. If we want to have drinks on the patio with friends, we wait until the last minute to sweep up the leaves because if you do it in the morning, it looks like you have not done it for days when the guests arrive.


We had Enrique, the gardener, in a couple of weeks ago to trim up the tree and the bougainvillea, change out some pots, carry bags of dirt to the terrace......some of the stuff that neither Ned or I can do or want to do anymore. The big planter on the patio need some attention. When we planted it, the landscape guy suggested cannas for the back of the bed because we wanted a different leaf shape and we wanted something that would get tall and still be slender. I wasn't sure about the cannas because I didn't think they would get enough sun and they can look so ragged. But I didn't know what else might work so in went the cannas. My fears were justified. They look ragged. I don't like them.

While I'm trying to think what might go there, my Garden Design magazine arrives with the perfect solution......sansevierias or snake plant. I had them in the garden in Houston in a place that had bright shade and they did great. So while the gardener was here I showed him the magazine and a picture of the plants and asked if he knew if any of the nurseries currently had sansevierias. He didn't think they did but I should tell them that I wanted some and then go every week when the supply trucks come in because it is most likely that they would not remember to call me before they were all gone. I really wanted to try a tall sanseviera at the back of that bed so I was planning to try to get the Primavera Viverio to order some for me....even if it meant I would have to try to go there every week just after the supply truck arrived.

Lo and Behold, the next day the doorbell rang and there was Enrique with two kinds of sanseviera. It seems he was cleaning out a garden and so had some extras and he brought them to me. I asked if he would perhaps have five or six more clumps from that garden. He assured me that he would bring me more the next day. That was two weeks ago and we haven't seen Enrique again. He may show up one day with more of the sanseveria or maybe not. But I've got time. The one clump that I do have will multiply and next Spring, we can separate the shoots and spread them out and probably in another couple of years I'll have my tall slender row of sanseviera across the back of the planter.