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kevinscottgardens · 3 years

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14 au 20 décembre 2020

Monday I worked in the Med garden, then did a bit of strimming and finished the day harvesting kumquats for Sarah-Jane to make marmalade. Tuesday, it had rained over night, Michele and Karim decided it was a perfect day to clean the atelier.

I helped them a bit, and I also worked with Kevin and Sébastien (they’ve been friends since they were kids) weeding around the lavender along the terrace walls (les restanques). There is a lot of clay in the soil here. I’ve never worked in clay before because both Kew and Chelsea had very free-draining soil. Clay is much colder, and very slippery. Sébastien and I took a lot of cuttings of the lavender and put these in sand. I’m comparing how these do in pure sand to how the ones in half potting soil and half perlite (I took a few weeks ago) start rooting.

Wednesday Sébastien and I continued weeding the lavender beds along les restanque; it was a grey, damp day. We finally finished clearing the rows of lavender of weeds on Friday morning.

Thursday afternoon we took a break from the lavender beds and finished taking out the dead parts of an old Punica granatum at the bottom of the property. M. wanted it completely removed, Mme. prefers to keep things if there is a chance they might come back (much like Elizabeth in London). So I suggested we see if the young growth comes back vigorously over the next year or two... We shall see. This was also my first opportunity to learn how to use a chainsaw (une tronçonneuse). We found ants had nested in the dead trunks, so we left the rest for them.

This week I was tasked with overseeing the construction of the new part of the garden. I get to try to keep big, burly French landscapers in check. It turns out I know someone who works for this company, Florian. He attended London College of Garden Design with me in 2012/13. Friday afternoon I oversaw the planting of three Prunus mahaleb, key focal points around a new patio area.

I drove Sarah Jane to Nice Côte d'Azur Airport Friday night. I took surface streets which go along the coast. It was fast, only about ten kilometres, little traffic and it avoided the toll route, the A8. It is very quiet without her here. She’s in London visiting family and friends for a month.

I have been in Antibes one month! To commemorate this life-changing move, I’ve decided I need to make a huge effort to learn French. To encourage me to learn something new everyday, I’ll be posting ten new words a week, words that have come up during the week.

Cours de français hebdomadaire

aérer - to aerate [j'aère, tu aères, il aère, nous aérons, vous aérez, ils aèrent]

arroser - to water plants

bêcher - to dig (with a spade une bêche)

biner - to hoe

creuser - to dig (a hole un trou)

désherber - to weed

déterrer - to unearth, to dig

planter - to plant

pousser - to sprout, to germinate, to push

semer - to sow

Plant of the week

Araceae Arisarum simorrhinum Durieu

common name(s) - canary friar's cowl; español : arísaro, dragontea minor, candil, candilillos; Arabic (Tunisia) : Ouden el-fil, Cebot el-ghoula, Kelb el-beqouqa, Rejel el begra; Berber : Tioughda, Tiqqenousine, Quaba, Abbouq, Taourza, Airni, Hierni, Idjened, Tikilmout synonym(s) - Arisarum tingitanum Schott; Arisarum vulgare subsp. simorrhinum (Durieu) Maire & Weiller conservation rating - Least Concern native to - Algeria, Portugal, Spain, Morocco location - l’Orangerie leaves - sagittate, with a long petiole; no stems, the leaves arise directly from a tuber, sometimes with small purple spots flowers - the inflorescence being usually shorter than the leaves and with a peduncle stained with purple; spadix, a rod-like structure bearing the individual flowers, is protected by a special bract (the spathe) shaped as a tube of 15mm to 30mm , wide at the bottom, with purple spotting, and curved upper part, in the shape of a helmet tilted forward fruit - composed of multiple berries (2 to 8), greenish and not very fleshy, 5mm to 15mm by 5mm to 14mm, and 1 to 12 seeds per berry habit - perennial, summer dormant, plant, up to 300mm in height habitat - forest, shrubland, grassland, rocky areas (eg. inland cliffs, mountain peaks) pests - generally pest-free disease - generally disease-free hardiness - to 1ºC (H2) soil - moist and well-drained; dry in the summer during dormancy sun - full sun to part shade propagation - division; spread via rhizomes pruning - none nomenclature - Araceae - arum - a name used by Theophrastus; Arisarum - a name used by Dioscorides; simorrhinum - monkey-snouted (spathe) NB - Though out of its range, I feel it looks more A. simorrhinum than S. vulgare. It doesn’t have the tail described for A. proboscideum.

References, bibliography:

Gledhill, David, (2008) “The Names of Plants”, fourth edition; Cambridge University Press; ISBN: 978-0-52168-553-5

IUCN [online] https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/13133497/18611160 [19 Dec 20]

Plant List, The [online] http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/tro-29203749 [19 June 20]

Plants of the World [online] http://plantsoftheworldonline.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:85897-1 [19 Dec 20]

Rare Plants [online] http://www.rareplants.es/shop/prodtype.asp?strParents=0,6&CAT_ID=612# [19 Dec 20]

Wikipedia [online] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arisarum_simorrhinum [19 Dec 20]

This weekend it rained incessantly. I worked on Arabella’s database and I wrote my Christmas letter, which will be emailed this year because I haven’t had time to find a printer in town.

Saturday night I enjoyed a Zoom Christmas with relatives in California, Illinois and Wisconsin. It was really nice to see and chat with them. Sunday I continued working on Arabella’s database. I received my numéro fiscal Sunday morning, so finally things are moving along. It finally stopped raining around 17.00.

It was announced Sunday evening that all flights between the UK and much of western Europe will be cancelled from midnight tonight. A strain of CoVid-19 that is 70% more infectious has been identified in London and the south east of England. This may scupper my New Year’s Eve plans with Denis and André who are supposed to be returning to Antibes from London after Christmas.

SARS-CoVid-2 update (active cases only)

#Arisarum simorrhinum

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