Feeling completely conflicted

This week: Feeling completely conflicted; One decision made; Digging up bulbs;

This week has again been hot. Very hot in fact. This afternoon when I was outside sorting bulbs, my digital thermometer registered 36.7°C in the shade.

Once the temperature reaches 35°C, degrees above that barely register, it just feel hot!

Severe Weather Europe published a chart this week showing the temperatures under the “Heat Dome” which is still covering the western and central Mediterranean.

It is frightening that around Sardinia and Corsica the sea surface temperature is more the 6°C ABOVE the long term average. The second chart is the actual sea temperatures.

In the Adriatic the venomous Lion Fish, Pterois miles, originally from the Indo-Pacific has now become established in the southern and central Adriatic.

There are others too, which have come into the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal, which have moved into the Adriatic and they are altering the whole sea ecosystem because they have no local predators.

Looking today, the sea temperature in Jelsa, just 8 km from Dol is 24°C . Warm for the start of July, about 2°C above where it usually is at the end of June.

As Tuesday was the 1st July, I downloaded the weather statistics for June and then looked at the first six months of 2025.

First, looking at the temperatures. Currently we are more than 5°C above both the minimum and maximum average temperatures.

For less than three weeks of this year have we been below the long term average.

We have moved beyond climate change and into climate breakdown

Cumulative rainfall for our annual rainfall year which begins at the start of the rainy season in September, shows that we are just above the average.

In statistical terms, this is insignificant and suggests we are exactly on the long term average.

The third chart is the 11 day running average. This is a more accurate reflection on temperatures because a longer frequency average balances out one or two day temperature outliers.

The 11 day average has been shown in scientific research to be the one which affects growing of plants.

The start of the year was above the average, then until May, the 11 day average is on the long term median. Then the cold spell in May dropped the temperature for three weeks.

You can see that the 11 day average peaks at the end of July.

Feeling completely conflicted

I have kept a check of the amount of water I have used for irrigation this week. I have used just over 2,000 litres and all this is delivered either by drips exactly where needed, or by watering can.

Even so, early on Saturday morning I discovered two more trees which are suffering heat stress.

My Persimmon, Diospyros kaki, which I planted eight years ago, was one.

So it should really now have a deep root system and should be able to draw enough water for its needs. One of the plums, planted three years ago does not look happy.

The Persimmon tree is not big, more of a large shrub at just over 2 metres tall.

This year there are a lot of fruit, however I expect that, as happened last year, the tree will soon start to abort fruit as a survival mechanism.

Looking at my table Olives, they have started to shrink and desicate, looking rather like green raisins.

Olive trees are supposed to be the backbone of the Mediterranean climate, so if they cannot survive, where do we go next?

The Mandarin and Lime trees in my citrus orchard are particularly badly stressed and even giving extra water to them has not revived them.

Over my years in Dol I have spent quite a lot of money on appropriate trees. However this week I am wondering whether I should just let some die and not replace the one’s which have already succumbed?

Would decreasing the number of trees allow those remaining to survive?

There are a lot of unknowns. I do not know how deep the soils in my terraces are. I don’t have ground penetrating radar to determine the depth above the bedrock. However from the height of the walls, perhaps one to 1.5 metres.

I do know that my soils were “worked out” when I came to live in Dol. I have tried to increase the soil fertility, but with no cows on the island, there is no ready source of farmyard manure. The underlying rock is porous limestone and sandstone, so precipitation will easily seep away.

Whilst the cost of water is not high, that is not the point. It is about growing sustainably.

Climate breakdown is real and we just have no idea what future years will be like. I can hazard a guess though, that they will be hotter and dryer!

One decision made

Five years ago I bought the butyl rubber fabric to line a small ornamental pond in the garden.

I identified an area where subsoil had been dumped after my neighbour dug out his cess pit some 20+ years ago. Only weeds are growing there.

I also obtained some pond marginals and plants. However I have never actually dug out the hole in the ground.

The weather these past weeks has made me reconsider the whole idea and decide to abandon it.

The reason is that I would need to be almost constantly adding water, which is simply not sustainable.

The area I had planned is in the Top Orchard, where it receives full sun and bakes in the summer heat.

My water plants are in 60 litre tubs, and I have to fill them every week! So even a small to medium ornamental pond would need vast amounts of water.

There is one option I may consider, but I need to move stones and build a wall first.

However, what is the rationale for having a pond in the first place? It is about wildlife.

Since the time of the Greeks and Romans, two thousand years ago, water features were to be found in the courtyards of Villas.

Even during the “Roman Warm Period” between 250BC and 400AD, when the average temperature was 2°C warmer than it is today, water was used in architecture and landscape design.

Here in Dol, I see Damsel and Dragon flies, and see them laying eggs in puggles after late summer rains.

These puddles are transient, so the larvae are unlikely to ever develop into adults.

In the garden it would be nice to have a water feature which would attract insects, reptiles and nocturnal mammals. Even birds like a bath now and then!

However, as the temperatures at the moment are 5°C above the average, with unrelenting heat caused by a “heat dome” over the central and Western Mediterranean Basin, allowing uninterrupted solar radiation, a water feature is not viable.

Most people understand that our wild weather is being driven by human caused climate breakdown. I fear that at some point there will not be enough water to go around.

So for now, I am going to keep my water plants alive in their containers, but not dig a holed for a pond…

Digging up bulbs

I feel very guilty if I am not doing “something”, even in this heat. And goodness knows, I have enough jobs on my list of “things to do”!

I have started this week to dig out the soil from the small flower bed which is in front of my kitchen window.

Over time I have planted a series of spring flowering bulbs, things like Crocus, Hyacinth and Cyclamen.

Then there are the natural bulbs, like the Dragon Arum and Onion Grass. The latter is completely self seeded.

I also tried planting some dwarf Trailing Blackberry, Rubus ursinus. These failed to fruit, failed to trail and have spread, just as Blackberry’s do…

So I decided earlier in the year, that once all the bulbs had died back, I would completely dig out the bed, sort and save the bulbs, and then replant them with a little more order.

At the same time I would remove the blackberry’s and a couple of self sown raspberry canes and plant them elsewhere.

I have made a start. The Onion Grass bulbs are huge. Behind the paper sheath around each bulb are hundreds of bulblets, so I had to remove them carefully.

The flower heads were 175cm tall.

I also removed some wild Gladioli, Gladiolus italicus, a beautiful early summer flower, from a small trough.

These are a Balkan native and I had planted them hoping to make a display for the patio, but the trough was too small and they only produced leaves.

There are still a couple of days work involved in carefully removing the soil and recovering the bulbs. Then I will mix some well rotted compost, turkey manure and the removed soil before I replant everything.

I actually need to lower the height of the soil, because it had reached the patio retaining wall, with the result that when we had any significant rainfall, water (and soil) simply ran off the bed, over the wall and into the patio drains. NCG