16TH JANUARY - CENTRAL PORTUGAL
Gin clear air,
brilliant azure blue skies, radiant golden sunshine (but temperatures in low
single figures overnight), the torrential rain has departed (600 mm in 10 days),
this is the way to enjoy a Portuguese January. Winter passes very quickly when
the sun shines.
These meteorological
conditions not only suit the gardener, they are titillating the burgeoning buds
on the fruit trees in the orchard to greater effort to be the first blossom of
spring (all bets are on the Damascus Apricot, always early to flower but
usually short of fruit; could do better this year as my Amazingly Talented next door neighbour’s bees are also enjoying the sun’s stimulating rays.
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| The small almond tree is budding up nicely |
Picking wonderfully
flavoured, and well ripened, oranges, tangerines and lemons (grapefruit are all
well formed but need a few more months to maturity), in great quantities. There
are only so many that can be eaten fresh, so searching out the ‘forgotten’
recipes for all forms of preservation. Jam, Marmalade and Curd are all too easy,
bottling is an awful fuss and freezing usually fails - there must be another
route to follow for efficient storage?.
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| Juicy and huge - ornages |
Picked and consumed
some excellent sprouting broccoli and a number of very tasty baby leeks
from the ‘Veg’ terrace.
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| Baby leeks well on the way |
Looks as if the beetroot may be ready in next couple of
weeks and the piri piri plants are still covered in ripe and ripening
‘Birdseye’ Chillis. The chilli plants being over wintered this year, ‘Paper
Lantern’, ’Hotscotch’ and ‘Celia’ are all surviving the night chill and remaining
sturdy and in leaf (always an earlier and larger crop in the second and third
year). Now debating whether to re-seed or keep fingers crossed that these
existing plants will suffice (HG says freezer now overflowing with the fruits
of the chilli bed).
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| Piri piri - in January? |
Small portable green
house about to be erected on the Belvedere (highest terrace and maximum
sunshine) to accommodate the first seed trays of the season. End of January is
a good time to start tomatoes. This gives the sturdiest plants for potting out
in late April and early cropping at the end of June ( blink and the gardening
year is nearly over). The beginning of February is a good time to get
Aubergine, Cucumber, Chilli and Sweet Pepper seeds ‘in’ as they all like a slow
lazy start for maximum production in the summer.
Good time to give a
winter feed to apple, peach, nectarine, plum and cherry trees and all flowering
shrubs and plants (particularly roses). A nutritional boost just now maximises
the bud and flower production for the coming season. Raspberry plants can be
transplanted with ease just now. Any good looking prunings can be planted to a
depth of one spade ‘spit’ and ignored until April, by which time they will be
rooted and ready to flower and crop this summer.
The pure white of the
Arum Lily trumpets is reminiscent of the ‘Snow Fields’ of the North Yorkshire
Moors in the grip of the ‘ever freezing’ mid-winter. Such a relief to be
enjoying mid day temperatures in the high ‘teens’, even if there is a morning
chill. Just the boost needed for an ‘Ageing Ex-Pat’.
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| The always beautiful Arum Lily |
Is that the
tintinnabulation of the Head Gardener’s bell that skips over the glittering
orange tree leaves? Coffee would be most
welcome –
must dash –
see you soon.
Stuart.
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| For those of you who are wondering - Rudi is making excellent progress |
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