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Feelin’ hot hot hot

Feelin’ hot hot hot

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The summer heat is here – the plants are wilting, helicopters hover overhead laden with water for forest fires and the wind feels like a giant hair dryer. Just the kind of heat that makes you crave a dip in a cool river beach. Hurrah! then for the numerous river beaches in central Portugal – another fantastic one we were taken to the other day. No salt, no chlorine, just clear, fresh water and some amazing scenery:

The heat has meant all garden work is done early in the morning after a spot of bird watching. The birds haven’t always been welcome visitors though and CDs and aluminium foil have been hung up around the runner beans whose flowers are all disappearing. The swedes and turnips will have to be sown again having been eaten by flea beetles and a cat has dug up the chard seedlings. However, more carrots have come through, more onions are in the ground and, in lots of little pots, cabbage, calabrese and cauliflower are waiting to go in the old legume bed (rotation, rotation). We’re now eating the dwarf french beans – from seed to stomach in seven weeks – so I’m hoping that this ignoring the seed packet sowing dates will work for everything else as well.

One buttercup squash refuses to die which is great as we’ve already eaten quite a few of them already. The flowers are always open in the morning to greet me and the bees:

It’s been great collecting the day’s produce. The courgettes plants have come alive again and so we had courgette fritters for lunch (which were fantastic) and the courgette cake was a success too. We were also really pleased with our second melon. The first one wasn’t quite ripe and so we waited a week and had another go. Looks like melon for pud for the next few weeks…

Our chillies are eventually turning red (but, stubbornly, not the sweet peppers). Initially I’d put them in a metal dish (as recommended on a UK website) to dry in the sun only to discover that they’d cooked! Hanging them up in the hot air seems to be working much better:

Richard has been making a great som tam salad using courgettes instead of papaya although the chillies so far haven’t been quite as hot as he’d like. The barbecued aubergines make a great moutabal too, I’m hoping the tahini we brought over with us from Jordan is ok still! Oh yes, we’re eating quite a few of the sprouts. Here’s hoping there’s enough growing for Christmas!

The eagle has landed…

The eagle has landed…

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…or rather the pigeon! The only thing remaining to be done on the house was to have a couple of doves / pigeons perched on the roof. With those we would pay the very last of the builder’s fee. And last night they arrived and with them a feeling of completion; there is of course hundreds of things still to be done but by us rather than others. The bird on the roof, the cherry on the cake. Actually, they weren’t exactly what we wanted. Many of the old houses here have ones with wings outstretched as though they are about to take off, but on reflection I like these modern sedentary ones – they look calm and settled, one looking north and the other south.

When Richard asked me to update the blog I realised that I never took any photos when the veg patch was looking it’s best. At one time it was teeming with produce and flowers but I think I was so busy picking and then cooking, bottling, pickling etc that I forgot. Anyway here are some that give you an idea of what’s happening now. All the beans have finished. The borlotti beans and runner beans have been dried for winter use, everything else was eaten. But it seemed strange to me not to have any more growing, so I set about sowing some more and in this heat they have all come through in record time. So a second round of peas, dwarf beans, french beans and runner beans are on the go:

Meanwhile the cherry toms have almost finished but we still have ‘golden sunrise’ and ‘tigerella’ coming through:

What else? The sweet corn have all been eaten – when I found out there was only one cob per plant I thought I wouldn’t grow those again but in fact they were so delicious that I may well do them again next year. I’m pleased with the aubergines and peppers (there are sweet peppers, chilli peppers and red hot chilli peppers) and the melons will be ready soon we hope.

The Brussels sprouts are slowly taking over from the courgettes which are still producing but flagging:

I’m not sure how successful the companion planting was but the nasturtiums did indeed have loads of aphids on when other plants  didn’t, and the bees loved the marigolds which have grown enormous. The flowers have made the garden really colourful, both plants were a range of reds, yellows and vibrant oranges.

However, I’m aware that these pics have made the veg patch look more attractive than it is. It’s midsummer here of course and not having had any rain for weeks means that the land is bone dry and turning a paler shade of yellow:

Our next project is organising the ground around the house, we’re thinking of simply getting some earth and encouraging grass and flowers to grow (with a sign up saying no weeds) because the birds come right up towards the windows as they can’t see us inside and that’s great. Meanwhile, Richard is relaxing:

Growin’ stuff

Growin’ stuff

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So a description of all the beds (for those who are interested)! There are nine, six running west-east and three long ones running north-south. Are you ready…

There are lettuces, herbs, nasturtiums and marigolds dotted about too

Bed #1 has the legumes: dwarf broad beans (and the black aphids), dwarf purple french beans and dwarf peas (from Luis). All have flowers and some pods. Climbing up poles: runner beans and peas, and up the teepee: barlotti beans. Only the peas have no flowers.
Bed #2 is for the solanaceae: 4 cherry toms with lots of flowers, 8 yellow ones (golden sunrise) and 4 stripy ones (tigerella), these all need to be staked soon. Plus various peppers: red, chilli and very chilli, these are all small and seem to be growing very slowly. Finally, a couple of aubergine plants under a mini cloche which are now growing but not that fast…
Bed #3 is for the potatoes. We’re already eating the ‘Jersey Royals’ which I’m very pleased with, averaging about 600g per plant. The supermarket ones (the ones I bought from the supermarket and chitted on the windowsill) are ready to be pulled up and very soon the 16 plants that Luis gave us. Something, however, has eaten all the flower heads…
Bed #4 has 8 perpetual spinach which seem to double in size every morning, plus a rather weedy selection of sweet corn which I now wish I hadn’t bothered with having discovered that you only get one cob per plant!
Bed #5 is the winter brassicas: brussels sprouts and purple sprouting broccoli all doing well, plus the central row of turnips (although having thinned those recently there’s definitely something eating those).
Bed #6 is for the roots and onions. The first sowing of these have worked well and we’ve been enjoying the (carrot fly free) carrots but subsequent sowings haven’t worked. The red onions I sowed in a seed tray have at last worked and these are all in the bed now, fingers crossed. The four strawberries have suffered a bit recently (I think the fruits got sunburnt!) but have given us some delicious strawbs already.
Bed #7 is the curcubits. Squash, courgettes and cucumbers are growing well, have some melons ready to plant out but not sure where to put those yet, perhaps in the potato bed.
Bed #8 has 54 leeks (!) and 6 asparagus in a raised bed, all fine so far. The ferns are all a metre tall.
Bed #9 has cabbage, 6 more asparagus and loads of globe artichokes, again all doing well 🙂
In front, in various pots, are the herbs, some flowers, rhubarb, celery and I can’t remember what else. Our latest purchase was a hose and sprinkler which comes with a timer. It covers the whole area (although patches get left out if it’s too windy) and it’s just great, come 6 o’clock and on it comes, fantastic!