5TH JANUARY
CENTRAL PORTUGAL.
Happy New year from
Portugal. Sky is azure blue (has been for the last twenty one days, the sun is
a glorious golden globe from dawn till dusk and it’s very cold every morning
(around ‘0’ degrees with mild frost) but
the temperature has been topping 18 degrees by noon (most days). Counted ten
varieties of flowers in bloom on Christmas Day (is this record?)
 |
| A frosty but sunny start to another beautiful day |
Ventured down to the
orchard this morning; amazed to find all the fruit trees in good order (must be
due to competent pruning supervised by the Head Gardener in November) and the
majority already show plump buds. The Damascus Apricots look as if they will be
the winners in the ‘First Blossom’ stakes. As these trees flower early, ensured
this year that only the lower branches were pruned to improve the chance of pollination
and lack of ‘Frost Bite’(anything under two metres seems to be affected as the
orchard is a valley bottom frost pocket) when the superb orange to peach
blossom appears in around three weeks(note to self ‘Plant trees on south facing slope in next
life’ i.e. Gardening by Experience and Incarnation).
 |
| Orchard still looking healthy, if a little weedy! |
Olive trees seem to
have all grown by at least two metres in the past few months (since the crop
failure this autumn). Too late to cut back now so will ‘wait and see’ what
happens. If the crop is enormous this year must accept that the trees probably
know better than ‘Oliverianist ’ (yes it means ‘Cultivator of Olives’ see
COD - Complete Oxford Dictionary).
On the higher terraces
the Cherry trees may invoke a very Japanese landscape in early march if the
current state of the excess of buds is any indication. As usual, it will be a case of enjoy the
flower display as the fruit simply feeds the birds (but then best to share
nature’s bounties sometimes).
Finally succumbed to
the Head Gardner’s exhortations to
remove the heavily fruited branches of the large lemon tree hanging over
our Multi Talented neighbour’s roof. Armed
with a fearsome array of clippers, saws
and loppers, the task has been completed in the perfect weather conditions prevailing
during late morning and a bonus of 30kg of Lemons picked. Seems there is little
that can be done with this quantity of available fruit, lemon curd, lemon meringue
pie and lemon marmalade can only use a small
proportion of this ‘glut’. There is even an excess for that ‘all important’
constituent of a ‘Gin and Tonic’- the fresh slice of lemon - but will try very hard in this pursuit.
The Diosperos which are similar to Sharon Fruit – that
wonderful Israeli invention , also known as ‘Kaki’, which amply describes the
local variety - has large orange fruits which are inedible until they are
absolutely ripe .They are then very soft
and the interior looks similar to ‘sweating gelignite’. The time scale for
picking is around thirty minutes prior to the fruit deciding to fall (bit like
the old fashioned Med lar of ‘Tudor’ England) and invariably results in the
gleaner’s clothes becoming covered in thick and very sticky pale orange slime.
Unpicked fruit fall at an alarming rate upon cars and drives ways and ferment
immediately leaving ‘boozy and slippery’ mess and very relaxed birds (the ‘feathered’
variety not the ‘Friday Night’ specials).
Well at least the
morning cold gives ample time in the potting shed to wash and sterilise the
seed planting ‘kit’ for the new season’s foray into seed germination. There is
little point in buying or saving the best seed for propagating if the ‘tools’ i.e.
seed trays, plant pots and tubs remain contaminated with the viral detritus of
last year. The tablets used for the sterilisation of babies feeding bottles are
an excellent starting point. Put half a dozen in a bucket of warm water, submerge
and scrub all the ‘plastic’ garden ‘bits’ in this cauldron and then dry. Potting
compost also requires considerable thought; the local commercial variety
available in Portugal is of very ‘mixed’ quality (and that is being polite at
best) - had a bag bought last year that still had the recognisable granulated
packaging plastic from which it originated. Home produced ‘composts’ are easily
constructed without a great deal of effort. Use leaf mould, river sand, granulated
vermiculite and a little charcoal (which
keeps everything ‘nice and fresh’ p.s. avoid fertiliser if using ‘mix’ for seed
germination) cost is less than 10% of
the commercial brands available, and infinitely more satisfying to both plants
and planter.
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| Had to slip this picture in - very proud of the first flowering of these Kniphofias! |
More wood needed on the
stove, still chilly in the shade, sun has not reached the shed yet, kettle
boiling so might enjoy a solitary coffee before the inevitable summons of the
Head Gardeners Bell
Must get warm, see you
soon
,
Stuart.
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