MESEMBS IN RETIREMENT by Robin Fuller, Nr Cartagena, Spain

摘要

I have been living in the region of Murcia, in southern Spain, for three years now and when we first came here to our finca I thought that the hard tennis court would make an ideal site for a greenhouse to pursue my hobby of growing and collecting mesembs. After all, with summer temperatures of 30 degrees plus celsius, who wants to run about?? In this horticultural region of Spain, there is no shortage of greenhouse suppliers and although they usually cover several acres, one such supplier was quitehappy to oblige and so I now possess a 15 metre by 8 metre greenhouse. The roof and ends are polycarbonate whilst the sides are of a strong, very fine mesh nylon fabric. At the time, I knew of no other growers so was rather in the dark as regards to benching so I had eight benches made up at a local galvanised metal workshop. A few months later, I met a commercial grower of cacti and on visiting his greenhouses, I saw that he had flood benching on rollers which seemed a great idea to me so I promptly ordered some from him. They mean I can have narrower walkways between benches but can make them wider in an instant with just a nudge of my hip.