Compost - Recycling

Busy recycling -yes i have taken to riding a bicycle again. Thankfully there is no photographic proof of this.

In the garden i have a couple of big blue plastic barrels which i use for re-cycling about everything i can. Before using them, i ground off the top and drilled lots of air holes with a 50mm

hole cutter all the way round and in the bottom. All in all, about half an hours effort.

All the compostable kitchen stuff is put in the buckets, along with newspapers, garden rubbish, even the dusty leaf mould stuff thats picked up by the blower thingy whilst at clients.

I add a bit of chicken manure to the barrels and a couple of buckets of the re-cycled compost from the local compost shredder.

The finished product is an earthy smelling very dark looking humus which i use as a mulch and a great soil conditioner.

Beetroot - Remolacha - Remolatxa

I purchased some beetroot translpants from a lovely lady in Denia, very knowledgable and a source of infromation about "la horta valenciana". Her shop is called the bodgea de Teresa Pastor and it is just on the entrance to Denia before the bus station. She has the widest selection of plant transplants I have came across in the area.

The beetroots have been in the ground a couple of weeks and are doing well.

Beans - Judias - Bajoquetes

The late beans are doing well.

Las judias tardias estan creciendo bien.

Las bajoquetes tardeanes van be

Neem oil at 2cc/litre every 14 days

Aciete del neem 2cc/litro cada 14 dias

celery - apio - api

Celery

The Sunday Press

This cold press i will use for goodness knows what. But I like it

Peas - o bolitas verdes

Planted sept 23rd, variety Lincoln.
I will "nip" them out in a few weeks when they have settled into their new home, and pop a support round them.
I will spray with Neem Oil very week to avoid the onset of Fungi as it is pretty wet here at present. Dosage 2cl per litre.

September Reins

The summer has been hot and dry, just for a change, here in The Costa Blanca. The second "spring" has sprung.



A quick look back at the main part of the season- what's grown well? Everything. Apart from some brocoli planted too late in the season which quickly bolted into flower.



Problems - loss of tomatoes production due to tutta absoluta. It really is a 4x4 pest. The sucess story,if it can be called that, is the newly constructed "net-houses". I built these with complete crop isolation in mind, and it has worked with the late tomatoes, a crop which is particularly vulnerable to tutta attack. Sounds a bit rum "tutta attack"- answers on a postcard. http://picarona.blogspot.com/2008/06/la-tuta-absoluta.html has a good guide to this nasty .



High-notes. Cucumbers, peppers, potatoes, onions, leeks, artichokes.

Super high-notes. The quality of fresh fruit and vegetables that we have eaten throughout the year.



Current agenda: Soil preparation for next year has begun as a crop rotavation system is used. Lots and lots and lots of recycled compost has be dug into the ground to improve the moisture retention and general stucture,along with a little bit of well rotted ckicken manure. My own grapes have been regular this year, but a client's moscatels have been super sweet.

Late peaches will be ready for picking around the week of the full moon of October. Peppers and toms to be picked.



Planting; I have just planted beetroot, leek, lettuce, celery, cabbage, peas and beans in the form of plantlets.