Gardens in full flower

Expand Your Spanish

MACHO, a Spanish word meaning male, has entered the English language to describe a man who is assertively masculine, and sexist with it.

So spare a thought for any machista or chauvinist whose parents called him Romero, Jacinto or Narciso. This means he must answer to Rosemary, Hyacinth or Narcissus , although you meet fewer of them now that the custom of naming a child after a parent or grandparent has fallen into disuse.

What hasn’t fallen into disuse is the custom of embellishing balconies and windowboxes with as many plants as they can hold. Given the climate in Mediterranean Spain, gardens can be lush, although not in a way that depends on reliable rainfall or lluvia, but whichever you opt for you will need to acquire plants by asking:

Is there a nursery near here?.....¿hay un vivero cerca de aquí?

I want to buy fertiliser/a trowel/spade/secateurs/a rake//hoe…..quiero compara abono/una palita/una pala/tijeras de podar/un rastrillo/una azada (although it’s only fair to warn you that instead of an Englishspeaker’s laboursaving hoe you could be offered a back­breaking mattock)

I’d like to buy seeds…..quiero comprar semillas

I’d like to buy some indoor/outdoor plants…..quiero comprar unas plantas de interior/plantas de exterior

Does it need much light/shade?…

..¿necesita mucha luz/sombra?

Does it need watering often/seldom…

..¿necesita mucha/poca agua?

The names of some plants rarely need translating but others do, especially those found in herbaceous borders:

I’m looking for pansies, lupins, snapdragons, nasturtiums, sweet peas, lavender, oleanders, …..busco pensamientos, altramuces, boca de lobo, capuchinos, guisantes de olor, espliego (increasingly referred to as lavanda), adelfas,

If your balcony or terrace can accommodate them:

I’m looking for hollyhocks/sunflowers…..busco malvarosas/girasoles

If you have problems:

I need weedkiller…..necesito herbicida

I need to get rid of aphids/greenfly/whitefly/snails/ants…..necesito eliminar pulgones (for both aphids and greenfly)/mosca blanca/caracoles/hormigas

Meanwhile, the kind of nursery that provides childcare is una guarderia, which sounds suspiciously like a lockup for infants but nevertheless doesn’t keep them behind bars and lets them leave at the end of the day.