AUTUMN SUNSHINE INSPIRATIONS

28^th SEPTEMBER – CENTRAL PORTUGAL

Ten days of torrential rain in central Portugal is about to give way to weeks of glorious autumn sunshine (well it’s what the four forecast sites I watch claim anyway). Just back from the north, North Yorkshire ,England where the weather was strictly ‘Autumnal’ (change to ‘Wintery’ if in Portugal or California), magnificent grey skies, sneaky cold winds and the UK speciality ‘drizzle’, all adds up in Yorkshire to a ‘Right Good Bracing Day’. There was some sunshine too! Had an interesting visit to RHS Harlow Carr Gardens in Harrogate.  The Head Gardener and I disagreed about some of the things going on there.  She liked the wild flower bedding – I didn’t.  I preferred the rose gardens which seem sadly to have disappeared.  (Note from Head Gardener – I missed the roses too!)

Wild flowers at Harlow Carr Gardens

So for the last fourteen days of absence from the garden it has mainly rained, thunderstorms most days which hopefully have mitigated the watering load on my Talented Neighbour (always sounds simple to offer to water another garden but it can become a bit of a grind after a week). The wet and humid weather has wiped out the 16^th June tomatoes with ‘Ebola-esque’ strength  BLIGHT, so shall happily forget any late tomatoes. The various chillis are beacons of fire on each plant. I picked ten varieties yesterday evening. With ninety five percent still to ripen, the freezer will be bursting with bags full of latent heat and the neighbours will benefit too. The mass of ripening figs are keeping the ‘system’ to a clockwork time table.

Latest Chilli and pepper crop

The late apples are bountiful. The locally grown ‘Golden Delicious’ strain are magnificent, and are  full of flavour;  crisp golden flesh, fragrant bouquet and a superb matt skin the colour of pale grey/ green mountain grass - the truly perfect apple to ‘crunch’

.

Looks like a good year for citrus fruits.  Oranges are still green but very big. Lemons are abundant and the ‘perpetual’ varieties are flowering well while being very heavily fruited.  Grapefruits are large and green (wait another six months to have anything near edible). Tangerines are prolific and should be ready for Christmas.  Limes are trying hard and the Mandarin orange tree is covered in small fruit. No olives again (think it will have to be the ‘Saw’ this year). Pomegranates, marmelos (quince), figs (profuse) and diosperos (sharon fruit) either ready to pick or getting close to ripening.

Lemons

Oranges

Grapefruit

Flowers are still trying and succeeding, ready for another feed after the heavy rains. Roses, cosmos, geraniums,  fuchsias and flowering vines such as plumbago and Solanum all in full flower. It’s about the right time to plant new tulip bulbs for early spring display.

Most of the cuttings taken at the start of September have ‘struck’ and are already showing signs of growth.  Still lots of time to take cuttings from fuchsia, geranium, roses, clematis, plumbago, campsis, Pandorea Jasminoides (sorry just being posh) solanum, jasmine and lavender. Just took the strawberry cuttings from the prolific number of runners sprouting from each tub. New plants should fruit well next year if planted out now.

It’s time to think about taking in the orchids ‘over summered’ on the terrace.  Early cold nights below 12 degrees will stop the flowering shoots. Place in a sunny spot by the window, keep almost damp (never wet) and enjoy Cymbidiums (and the others, can never spell their names) by late December and through the winter a spring, (we have a ‘Moth’ Orchid that has bloomed non-stop for two years).

Low the dulcet tones of the Head Gardener can be heard from above (must have finished the holiday washing)  Coffee is served (still enjoying preferential treatment after the ‘Northern’ break),

must dash,

See you soon,

 Stuart.

WEATHER WET - CHILLI PEPPERS HOT!

14^th SEPTEMBER, CENTRAL PORTUGAL

Rainy Season started (Again)? Where has the lovely summer weather of Portugal gone this year!!!! Warm and Humid, day and night, but little sunshine. Means Botrytis, powdery mildew on the grapes that have managed to grow through the strange weather this year.

Picked first real crop of Chillis this morning.  Head Gardener now doing her best to recognise the twelve varieties picked (should have taken more notice while still on the plant). Colours are spectacular especially the REDS, vibrant vermillion Tabasco and Piri Piri, deep orange and reds from the Hungarian Wax and Palivec, carmillion Cherry Bombs and languid sunset yellow from the Wenk’s Peruvian strain. The Lipstick Sweet peppers, round with a ‘pointy’ end and the lushness of the enormous California Wonder peppers completes the rainbow of horticultural success the  Capsicum family has produced this year (not over yet - expect to be picking chilli and peppers well into November). Just found out that the Bartlett’s Bonnets, seed grown in Portugal by Mrs. Bartlett, do not have the ‘Firey’ heat that was detailed in the Seed Merchants literature (great disappointment to my HOT chilli consuming neighbour last year) but have been crossed with some strange ‘Brazilian’ variety which has removed the sting (pity), so now recommended as a salad filler in the lime green or dark red state.

The June 16^th Tomatoes are in full swing and are being picked daily - pity about the ‘Tigerellas’ - big crop, lots of ‘The Look’, no flavour!!!!, Red Alert and Roma doing much better in the flavour stakes but still not a patch on ‘Principe di Borghese’( the Princess of Italian Tomatoes). Have decided to go for taste next year, rather than obscure origins, after the early disaster of the ‘Purple Ukrainians’, ‘Green Zebra’ and ‘Coeur de Bue’ (all ravaged by blight in June), so may be back to ‘Gardeners Delight’ and ‘Alicante’ then?

Took eighty cuttings from the Strawberries yesterday, just cut off the runners and planted the newly formed plants.  Most had roots from growing in the detritus  around the parent pots.  Have a idea to grow them next year in troughs, above ground, with constant water supply from May until August, to extend the season with the same variety. (Might work).

Picked the few apples still available on the new trees (not many) and actually picked two full sized Marmelos (Quince) after five non productive years from the (then) newly planted tree. Next to nothing on the Olive trees (third year on the ‘trot’ the crop has failed) so maybe some major surgery due in October and start again from very low down the trunk.

Well it would seem to be raining AGAIN. (Most flowers ruined so will not mention). Back to the Head Gardeners shed with a plea for coffee?

Must dash, getting very wet,

 see you soon

Stuart.  

Note from Head Gardener - sorry no pictures today, weather too wet! Coffee brewing.

SUMMER IS ON THE TURN

3^RD SEPTEMBER 2014 CENTRAL PORTUGAL

The latent heat of Autumn (summer officially finished on the 31^st August according to the UK Meteorological Institutions), suffuses the days and nights of Central Portugal. Now is the time it becomes apparent why the Ex-Patriot Community really lives here. Long hot days and warm nights will continue to be enjoyed for the next few months whilst the North of Europe goes into hibernation.

The ’Corns’ of the local Portuguese ‘Sages’ assure that the fine weather will continue for at least another two months and most probably until Christmas with little rain or cold until mid January.  As the Grapes and Olives would seem to be very poor this year they expect a Drought next year with a poor Potato crop.  This is the reason they all look so ‘Happy’ with their lot. OR is it as one younger ex- resident commented, as he got into his car to return with his young family to Luxembourg, that he, and most of his friends, now enjoy the ever more ‘fruitful’ but non agricultural ‘life style’ in the north.

However, in this arena of ‘Doom and Gloom’, the Chillis are amazing (ten varieties all maturing well), 

short ones

Long ones

round ones

fat ones

 

Piri piri

Tomatoes, seeded on the 16^th June (after the ‘Blight’ had infected the initial planting) are now being picked and eaten (can’t do that in the damp wet summers of the north).

 

seeded 16th June

 All colours of Sweet Peppers are sumptuous. Finally picked the Dark Purple Plums (they always seem to enjoy the long hot summer whilst the other colours were ‘off’ the tree starting in early June until mid July). Good year for Apples - picked a 100 kg for the freezer and now suffer from ‘Peelers Thumb’.

As the tomato tubs are being emptied of plants the opportunity for refilling with cuttings is too good to miss. Buddleia (yes, I know it is out of fashion, so what!!!, it still gives a great show and camouflages quickly those less esoteric corners of your garden). Lavender - just stick the odd hundred cuttings into a couple of tubs and by next spring at least 50% will be rooted and ready for planting into low hedges around the ‘rough’ bits.  Roses - catch them just after the bloom has faded, take a cutting 250mm long and plant at least 200mm in ground, water and leave until next March (again at least half will grow).

 For those with a ‘Biblical’ tendency, this is a good time to take Fig Tree cuttings. Like roses, take a decent length of ‘Whip’ from the existing tree, plant deep, water and wait. Twenty cuttings will give you a ‘Fig Forest’ in five years with masses of shade to sit under and contemplate the world, just as described in the ‘Old Testament’.

Petunias that look sad need a second ‘Haircut’ and ‘Feeding’ if you want to enjoy their mass of colour into October. Do the same with Impatiens, Fuchsias and Cosmos for a good show in the ‘Second Spring;’ of Portugal.  

 

Impatiens (Busy Lizzie)

pretty Cosmos

Ballerina Fuchsia

Feed your Lemon, Orange and Grapefruit trees while the ground is dry. The morning dew has an amazing effect on the ‘Slow’ release of the nutrients which will ensure a heavy crop this winter. Good time now to start burying all the garden rubbish (all the greenery left from annual crops after harvest). Having a terrace garden, the rule that  ‘all foliage that grows on the terrace stays on the terrace’  ensures that the soil improves each year with the ‘plant fibre’ and the imported ‘organic manure (estrume)’. (It’s also much easier on the aching back). Dig a hole around 200mm deep (follow the ‘Bob Flowerdew’ method of relief, see BBC Gardeners World prior to censorship and P.C. for details), introduce the odd torn up cardboard box or newspaper, damp down and in fill with dug out soil. Plant next year’s Beans on this site for excellent results.

Must get back to the ‘Apple Peeling’, managing to do it left handed now, less painful but very slow.  

 (Note from Head Gardener – he didn’t peel ALL the apples by himself!)

Apple basket empty - just right  for a cat!

See you soon,

Stuart.