Abraham Palma

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since Jun 15, 2020
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New to urban permaculture.
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Málaga, Spain
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Recent posts by Abraham Palma

Oh, I should have specified... cactus is a succulent too!
4 days ago
Hi.

Question ...what plants absorb water the fastest and store water for the longest?  


Succulents, provided they were dry when it rained. However, they don't stand waterlogged soil.
The best 'container' for water is the soil itself. Keep it alive, with living roots from draught resistant plants, don't irrigate it unless strictly necessary and you'll create a rich soil which can absorb much more water than you think.
4 days ago
Hi there!

Things are going well in the garden. I lost a couple of plants in the rainwater section. I am unsure if it was for excessive moisture or that they just didn't root.
Then, the Senecio macroglosus (this one that looks like a crassula disguised as ivy) is not faring well in either system, it's still alive but is looking sad.

I've planted a few cuttings of Boldo brasileiro (Plectranthus barbatus) since it's a plant that thrive in our orchard without any care, and another from one Pelargoniom hortorum that is happy in a dry and sunny corner.
Then I added by chance: Cineraria maritima, Salvia licyoides, Westringia fruticosa, Ceratostigma plumbaginoides, Hypericum patulum 'Hidcote', Erigeron karvinskianus, Hemerocallis 'Merry Monarch' and Miscanthus sinensis 'Jakujima'.
I couldn't find Atriplex halimus for the hedge as I designed, so I bought some seeds and seeded them directly a month ago. Not showing any sprout yet.

In the picture (just a corner of the garden) it is hard to distinguish anything because we're enjoying a wet spring and Oxalis pes-caprae is running wild everywhere.
3 weeks ago
Update.
05/Apr/2025

Hi, everyone. The planter sometimes looks ugly, sometimes looks awesome. Today is of the latter.

In the planter:
- Red chard
- Cherry tomato
- Rosemary
- Marjory
- Coriander
- Carrot
- Persil

Pots on the planter:
- Oleander (for shade)
- Broadleaf plantain (Plantago major)
- Marjory
- Cineraria maritima
- Jade tree (Crassula ovata)
- Crassula capitella
- 'Tabasco' pepper
- Rose geranium (Pelargonium graveolens)

Other plants in the picture:
- Olive tree
- Lettuce
- Viburnum tinus

I'm not really feeding from it: Not enough tomatos, lettuce and plantain for filling a salad, chard for an omelette or two, fresh spices for cooking, but hey, it's gorgeous!
3 weeks ago
Welcome c.
Great first post, by the way!
1 month ago

why waste the effort of writing something at all, if it cannot be read?



It's an alchemist's trick: You take a concept, solve it into your illegible writting, and it coagulates into your memory. Seeing the bizarre form in the future might remind you about the concept, if you use it farily soon. It only serves you, but that's kind of the point.

Side note: I have a similar problem with the grocery list when quantities are not explicitly written.
3 months ago
The typography they teach in my son's class is still the same that I learned in school, we call it 'letra de escuela', or 'school calligraphy' (see below).
Also, some of his books use a font type that looks very similar, called 'edelfontmed regular'. It can be installed here: https://www.en.netfontes.com.br/view/edelfontmed_regular/
His calligraphy is something between the two types.


I used to write in a fast palatino type, readable but ugly, and now I prefer to use bastard italics (see here: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letra_bastarda_(caligraf%C3%ADa)
in cursive style, also readable and less ugly.
3 months ago
I think... it depends.
I'm going to discuss it all from theory, not practiced myself, so there's that.

The point about making any plant drought resistant is allowing it to get water when it is not available. Otherwise you don't need to make it tolerant when the plant is already resistant to drought.
So, where's water in drought climates? Usually there's some water below the roots, dipping slowly onto the water table. There's the water table. There's the occasional irrigation by the gardener. There's some humidity captured by the organic matter in the soil. There can be mist and dew that some plants are able to catch.
And water is lost through evapotranspiration: The heated ground, the more thirsty plants taking more water for standing against the scorching sun or just using water for the photosynthesis process.

Trees are good at throwing their roots deep into the ground and reaching the more humid layers and the water table. Therefore, the faster they extend their roots below, the more resistant they get to drought. This is true even for native plants already adapted to drought.
One reliable method is to deep irrigate the trees during the first year. Deep irrigation is watering in large quantities when the soil is dry and the plant is active. That can be 30 litres of water per plant every 3 weeks during the dry season. It is helpful to irrigate directly at the depth of the roots and not watering the surface where water is lost very fast.

But maybe the land has not enough dirt for plants to develop deep roots, or maybe you don't have enough water for irrigating all the plants. In these cases, adding extra organic matter and mulching can increase the humidity in the upper layers, and while it will slow down the production of deep roots, it may save the life of the sapplings. Letting the plant lose some leaves thus reducing the water needs, also helps, but don't prune them during drought. If you are blessed with weeds that capture mist and dew, you can use them as an extra water source for your other plants.
3 months ago
Ok, I have finished the installation.
Here you have the pathways mulched.

Now I have to wait until summer for next step.
4 months ago

I think the only olive oil I've ever seen here is  labelled "extra virgin" or "virgin." It's hard to tell how these fit into your categories -- even though it's lovely stuff, I don't know how carefully labels and categories are regulated here, so shenanigans are possible.



Virgin is the normal one. They come with an acidity marked in grades.

Fraud is always a posibility, but trust your senses. If it tastes like olives, it's good. If the flavour is mild, then that's good for cooking, but not for dressing.
In the bottle they should mark the acidity. An extra virgin is always below 0.8º. Anything over 2º is not edible.

4 months ago