The sun is shining, the rain has stopped and our gardens are starting to get down to the serious business of growth!
Wwoofer Aaron has cleared some of the weeds from beds in ‘the hot end’ of my garden, and yesterday we bought lots of pepper, aubergine and piri-piri plants at market to be transplanted through the thick layer of horse manure.
Lettuces are amazing this year, thanks to the incrfedible amount of rain that has poured into the ground. We grow lettuces all through the winter, outside, but they all tend to reach readiness at the same time, regardless of how much we stagger the plantings! So we have been giving away lettuces and the chickens have to get a taste for them.
I also planted a whole bed of Hopi Indian blue corn with trail of tears cherokee climbing beans and a long thin bed of sunflowers, over the weekend.
The summer glut of food from the garden feels like its about to start – the first courgette flowers are starting to open and some of the redcurrants are ripe, while some tomato plants are also flowering.
A solar drier is on our list of jobs, to be done before we need to start drying for the winter.
Hi there!
Your garden looks lovely – it is our first year in Portugal and we are amazed how quickly things grow in this climate….and how much water is needed!
We have been looking for chilli seeds everywhere to no avail – any tips where I could find some?
Best wishes,
B
hi ben
i don’t know about seeds (we’ve got some – send me your address and i’ll pop some in the post!) but you can usually buy piri-piri seedlings at your local market. or buy chilis that you like (from market or supermarket) and save the seeds: http://www.thechileman.org/guide_seedsaving.php
x sophie