On arriving at our villa the owner presented us with a big bag of giant tomatoes, which he had grown in his vegetable plot, directly behind the villa! There was also a big bag of chilli peppers, and he had left some onions in the fridge too. So it was a bit of a 'home from home' experience. In the end I couldn't resist taking a bag of onions, courgettes and squash in our suitcase, which survived the journey with no problems, so we had plenty of veg to keep us going.
This is Senor Pepe's veg plot:
There were lots of tomatoes, chillies, aubergines, and melons, and although it was very hot and dry, he had the most elaborate irrigation system: a well in the garden behind us, connected to a timed sprinkler and drizzle hoses along the rows of veg. The result was no manual watering necessary, and a beautiful, lush lawn and lovely flowers around the villa. The only drawback was that the sprinklers came on rather noisily at about 4.00am every morning! However that wasn't the only disturbance: the crickets (which I love and wouldn't keep me awake on their own) some cockerels which started up at around 4.00am also, dogs barking, and some very noisy frogs who lived in a pond in the garden.
There was also a donkey in the field opposite the front of the villa, but he only made a noise during the day, so that was fine! But it was all very charming and rural, and a good time was had by all. We went with some friends so there were 8 of us altogether. The weather was amazing, needless to say, with a really well-needed dose of sunshine to keep me going till next summer.
Back home on the allotment, it was clear that I needn't have worried about the lack of water. Everything was absolutely rampant, especially the weeds. I have had a few good sessions tidying up, weeding and removing excess growth. The summer brocolli had all gone to flower so I pulled all that up, and the spring cabbages, which I had left for the pigeons, the pigeons hadn't wanted thank you very much, so I was pulling them up to chuck straight on the compost, when I realised they were actually perfectly good to eat still, so we ate a couple and I put one in the freezer (shredded), but the rest had to be composted because we are officially onto the summer greyhounds now. The empty space has been sown with phacelia as green manure.
I have picked loads of runner beans and french beans, a few peas (most had been had by the allotment sitters - fair enough), a few courgettes and squashes, the tomatoes are ripening, but I haven't staked them properly, or removed side shoots, or generally looked after them at all, so they were way too bushy and flopping all over the place, but I've decided it's too late to do anything about it now - 'EVERYTHING WILL BE DIFFERENT NEXT YEAR!!!' I keep saying to myself. The Spanish grow their tomatoes just like we grow our runner beans, up very sturdy cane structures (see pic above) - that's what I'm going to try next year.
This morning I dug up the first of my maincrop potatoes - 'Cara' - and they are HUGE! Baked potatoes for supper tomorrow - we have to eat the carrots and french beans while they are still fresh so we'll have them tonight.
My two compost bins are full so I managed to find one of those big old square builder's sacks at the bottom of the garden, and that is almost full now too.
I have cut down my clover green manure, which is now mulching the almost empty legume bed. I pulled up all the asparagus peas - I'm with the general consensus that they really aren't very nice. Pretty flowers though.
The on-going weather forecast isn't very promising: there are a few dry days coming up, so I will have to make the most of them, but the rest of August, and probably September too according to the BBC weather 'monthly outlook' - doesn't look at all nice. How depressing. How many more years of this do you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment