Garden – Page 8 – the story of Casa Azul

Ah, primavera!

March 17, 2010 Jackie Comments 3 comments

That lovely spring feeling is continuing. It’s strange then to see at first glance what looks like snow, in the trees and the fields. Closer inspection reveals wild plum bushes bursting with white blossom and meadows of daisies.

So the warmer weather has seen us donning those lovely blue dungarees and doing some landscape gardening. The back of the house has a huge mound of enormous rocks and stones from the holes made in the walls so we’ve been using those to make a rockery and discovering a hidden talent for dry stone walling. Not bad, eh?

Meanwhile there are those of you who will be pleased that the first seedlings are sprouting, here broad beans and sweet peas. The leeks are up too and many others beginning to poke through. Our cold frames have been made from the old window frames balanced on breeze blocks.

Plus the super spuds are going from strength to strength, with a second batch not far behind. Helpful Luis handed over a box of some too so, if they all work, they’ll be about 40 plants – a whole bed full of tatties! The tunnel cloche over them was removed today as I decided that it was now warm enough. Not without some trepidation though – the bunnies have been seen with napkins around their necks and a glint in their eyes. The gate has been covered in chicken wire and the other entrance to the veg garden near the house has been blocked off with corrugated iron (not the prettiest of sights but will have to do for now), so fingers crossed! (And we are perfecting a wonderful Nigel Slater rabbit dish just in case…)

The second cloche remains up for the mo protecting onions and carrots although it seems to get very hot inside. I opened one end up the other day and my glasses immediately steamed up… the plastic covering is lifted when we’re around but until I’m convinced that Brer Rabbit and his friends won’t be round for a sneaky supper it’s staying put. We’re really looking forward to having a barbecue in the garden in the not too distant future – coelho kebabs, perhaps?

Super spuds!

February 24, 2010 Jackie Comments 1 comment

Things are coming along on the house fine – although every time we visit the builders we have to correct something (too late for all three north facing doors which inexplicably are not quite in the right place…) and today we stopped the downstairs loo being the same size as the study. There seems to be a (healthy?) disregard for the plans which lay abandoned on a large wooden barrel along with some beer bottles.

We did a quick tour of the garden to see how things were coping from the recent deluge and it was lovely to see tiny signs of spring growth on all the fruit trees we have planted, they all seem to be working. But the biggest surprise, nay astonishment, came when I looked under the potato cloche. I have now planted two groups of Jersey Royals (although they can’t legally be called that now), the first lot less than three weeks ago and the second lot last Friday, and the first lot have sprouted – already! In just over 2 weeks! Now I am sure (Richard not) that some of you would like to see the proof so here they are on Feb 5 and then again Feb 24:

Mmm, I can smell them boiling in a pan of minted water already…

Transformations

February 14, 2010 richard Comments 0 Comment

The raised beds are finally finished – they just need green things to start sprouting from them. Here’s one photo we took not long after we arrived in September and another this week after putting some gravel down.

And here is the pergola, which is where the pig pen once was.

Still no sight of the builders. Hopefully they will be starting again next week…

Not happy bunnies

February 7, 2010 richard Comments 1 comment

The euphoria surrounding last week’s concrete pour on the roofs has quickly dissipated. After getting the roof done, the builder said that we had to leave it for four or five days to set. Fair enough. But now a week later he has told us he won’t be back for another week as he has to finish another job! So two weeks of inaction on the house has left us non plussed to say the least.

However, work continues on the garden and the raised beds are perfectly manicured, ready and waiting. In fact, Jackie has planted our first veggies. Jersey Royal potatoes specially flown in from Jersey (actually posted here from her sister). They should be ready in about three months. And the strawberries are also bedded in and raring to go.

Jackie has also been busy in the kitchen. We rediscovered a huge pile of walnuts the other day which we had picked in November and she made a delicious walnut cake. So delicious in fact that Furface, the local moggie who has adopted us, sneaked in and snaffled up half of it while we weren’t watching.

I’ve also been busy utilising my great strengths – brute force and ignorance. I’ve finally removed all trace of the former pigsty. In its place we’re going to build a little outdoor dining area with a trellis which will be dripping with vines. That (hopefully) will be going up next week, so look out for the pics.

Finally, a good sign that spring must be on its way is that a tiny wren is building a nest on our balcony. Here’s a pic of the wren and a blackcap who came for a butcher’s.

A roof over our heads

January 27, 2010 Jackie Comments 0 Comment

After weeks and weeks of downpour the weather has started to be kind, and just at the right moment. There were a few delays the first week but now, the week the roof goes up, it couldn’t be nicer. Blue skies and lots of sun. Actually, it could be nicer – it’s freezing cold! Frost welcomed us this morning but hey who cares because when we get to the house the builders are already there and every day there seems to be real progress. Not surprising perhaps with the hours they put in: they arrive at 8 and leave at 6. And amazingly they do seem to be putting up the roof in a week. The concrete posts are all in place and our builder reckons both the main roof, and the flat roof over the extension, will be done by Friday which is splendid news.

My only concern at the moment is the soil in the garden. Despite oodles of horse manure, composting and growing comfrey nothing is ready yet to put on the soil. I hadn’t been too worried up until now – I’d been turning over spadefuls of moist (admittedly rather heavy) stuff, and with worms in too (despite far too many vine weevil larvae which are waiting for some juicy roots and rabbits waiting for some juicy shoots). But the nice weather has dried up the soil and today I went to break up some clods of earth – and couldn’t! Rock solid! The soil desperately needs some nourishment. Meanwhile I tried to buy some potting compost and despite visiting three garden centres yesterday couldn’t find anything decent. I asked at one place and was shown a huge bag of peat and was told that’s what I needed. It looked dry and unwholesome, and suspiciously cheap. So my latest mission is to find good quality potting compost as the little seedlings are going to need a good start in life.

Richard continues to strim away, everything looks so much nicer once the brambles have been blitzed. Hope to have some tile photos up next…

Another false start

January 9, 2010 richard Comments 0 Comment

So, Thursday came and went with no sign of the builder. We are used to such disappointments, so we were not too disheartened. It was an added shame in that it was the first bright sunny day we had had in ages – but then again it meant a glorious day for getting down to the myriad of things that needed to be done in the garden.

I made another extension to the compost heap as Dolly (our neighbour’s horse) continues to produce poo at a tremendous rate. Apparently horse poo is the best thing for the veggie garden but needs to settle down for 6 months before we can use it. I think by then half our garden will be one huge compost heap. In comparison we are meticulously saving our food scraps in another compost heap which seems to go down as quickly as we put stuff in. A good sign of course as it means it is composting down to rich nutritious ‘stuff’.

This compost will soon be ready for our first ‘raised bed’ which Jackie has been digging over in preparation for our first planting – spuds. Unfortunately however, in her digging she is coming across prodigious amounts of vine weevils which apparently lie in wait to munch through any roots that come their way.

I’ve also been busy digging, taking the turf off an area which will be augmented with the garden shed. Round these parts, sheds and similar buildings are built with bricks, so I shall do the same. I have to say, having no experience in such matters, I fear I will be rather pathetically overwhelmed by this relatively basic task – certainly basic for the locals round here. I am hoping that Luis, our neighbour, will be able to point me in the right direction before I make an absolute idiot out of myself. In the meantime as I brace myself for this larger enterprise, I hope I can build my confidence by erecting an even more menial structure – the cloche. Rather like a miniature poly tunnel. Hopefully a few photos of this will appear here next week.

We have also been experiencing winter frosts. Not quite the thick winter snow of the UK, but this morning we were treated to views of the far valley covered in a white dusting and we had to clear thick frost from the windscreen of the truck. In preparation for the colder days ahead we ordered more wood for the woodburning stove and went on a foraging expedition in the surrounding forest for pine cones. Pine cones are nature’s firelighters. You can understand why forest fires can be so devastating once you see one of these little guys flare up.

For those not accustomed, it may seem strange that winter is the time for another crop – oranges. I have mentioned them in a previous post but loads have now ripened on our trees and we have more orange juice than we know what to do with. As they are really sweet, they are great for eating but not the best for marmelade. However, Jackie has made some anyway and I reckon it’s fine. It’s also good for the mulled wine!

We’ve also been doing a bit more shopping for the house. Today we bought a bedroom set for the spare bedroom and have our eye on a sofa bed for the lounge, so we’ll have plenty of room for guests. Judging by people’s keenness to visit us, I think we’ll need them. Just need to get started on the Bl**dy house now!

By the way, the builder said he was busy finishing off at another place and promised work would start on Monday. We’re not holding our breath.

A white-ish Christmas

December 18, 2009 Jackie Comments 0 Comment

So the year draws to a close, a frost2 nd how nice that would be if we could say that at last the builders are busy on the house. Alas, that’s not to be – although it does seem that the paperwork is done. Now it’s a matter of getting it all approved, and for that we need the officials to be in their offices… well, it is Christmas I suppose and things do wind down this time of the year…

The weather has turned jolly cold and looking across the valley it was white with frost one morning. Not a great event for many but for me, having lived in more clement climes, it looked lovely, hence the pretty frost pics…

Looking out of a top window from Casa Azul it was great to see so many birds by the big pond, although one looked like it was walking on water – yes, even the big pond had frozen over. This was lunchtime too and the sun had been on it all morning but it was still completely iced up. The pic shows the pond completed before the frost – just to show you what it looks like now filled with water.

And the garden plot has had a lot of work on it now. The last three beds were weeded (and the stones removed), then covered with paper and finally with grass. The idea being that this will prevent the weeds returning (ha!) and also add some nutrients to the soil. The worms should come up and break everything down. For those interested the compost heap has grown (and shrunk), we have made another compost box for all the horse manure we’re collecting (thanks, Dolly), and there is now comfrey root growing in pots (I hope) which will grow huge leaves that make fantastic organic fertiliser. Well, that’s the idea anyway. The most successful gardeners look after the soil rather than the plants, it is said, so at this rate I should have the best produce in town! (When Luis saw us digging up the brambles he scoffed and suggested his tractor friend Tony come round and sprinkle poison over everything!)

Finally, when the sun comes out we get in the pick up and have a run around. The countryside around here really is lovely and we always feel better afterwards. We are spending Christmas down in Lisbon which I’m really looking forward to. So Boas Festas and here’s to a house-building 2010!

The never ending battle with brambles and ivy

October 5, 2009 richard Comments 0 Comment

Need I mention the fact that the plans for our house renovation are still to be finalised?

But of course it means we can break our backs on the other thing – namely the garden. Slowly but surely we are claiming it back from the jungle. Toni’s tractor has done a good job but there are still brambles everywhere you look. It is seemingly a never ending battle as the roots go on and on. In addition to the brambles we have also freed a number of the olive trees from the ivy which was slowly strangling them. I’ve also cleaned up the threshing square from the same invasive weed.

We’ve also been busy lopping. Mainly lopping the dead bits off the olive trees. This means we’ve got loads of this excellent burning-wood stored away for the winter fire.

Using the smaller branches, all those bramble bushes and various other detritus, we’ve built up a huge pile ready for a bonfire. I don’t know whether I can wait till November 5th but Jackie is very worried that I might set off a forest fire as the flora all around is still tinderbox dry.

That may soon change though because as I type I can here the splatter splatter of our first Autumn rains and more is forecast for the next few days. It actually makes a pleasant change from the fierce heat we’ve been enjoying recently. I don’t know how long the pleasure will last though. I left the UK many years ago to avoid the cold and wet and I’m slightly concerned about the onset of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) despite this being Southern Europe.

To end on a more positive note we have enjoyed the first cooked fruits of our land. We’ve had plenty of raw fruit but hadn’t cooked anything until Jackie put some (actually all) of our crop of pears into a crumble. So delicious it was that it didn’t last even long enough to pose for a photo.

The rough with the smooth

September 30, 2009 Jackie Comments 5 comments

It’s been easy to feel frustrated – there’s nothing doing on the house at all as we’re still waiting for the plans to be finished. In many ways the glorious weather has added to our exasperation – it would be so much easier getting the roof done in the sunshine. No doubt the builders will start as soon as it rains… anyway, it’s important to realise too that we have achieved such a lot already. We now have two compost heaps, one for leafmould and one for normal compost:Don’t laugh – we are taking this very seriously!

Secondly, there’s been a lot of chopping, sawing and general tree bashing. We have two saws (one which is already bent) plus a horrid chainsaw, but at least that means we have plenty of logs for the wood burning stove to keep us warm during the cold, winter months. trees We have one neighbour – Sr Luis and his wife Laurinda live in a new flash house opposite us. There’s nothing Luis likes better than leaning on the wall and giving us advice, basically telling us what we’re doing is wrong. In fact, there is something he likes doing better – and that’s popping over and helping out. So he was in his element with his big orange tractor helping us to remove all the huge stones in the land. And then we couldn’t stop him from knocking over the old pigsty (or whatever it was) which is now a big pile of broken cement blocks.It was Luis who got Tony round (they’re both 71!) to pulverise all the weeds and brambles with his big red tractor. tonys One area is now home for the raised beds. These have been covered with carpets pulled up from the bedrooms with the aim of killing the weeds (although we have yet to find someone who thinks this will work) and so our next task is to find some manure… At the end of the working day we usually find ourselves in a little bar (at home with the other workers in our dirty clothes and big white truck) downing a bottle of Sagres and a pastel de nata or two. Today we celebrated buying 82 square metres of terracotta floor tiling for 7 Euros a square metre, surely a bargain? beers We have also found time to visit the different local markets, numerous construction material sites and garden centres, and go on a long walk into the hills and forest behind where we are staying for the time being. Oh yes, we also went to the local festa where the main attraction was… tractors. Ah, country life!