leaves

Lettuce plants in between brassicas

French beans in November

My good friend Snr A welded some steel bar to form a very handy/useful bean support.

Only one wee problem, i have planted dwarf-french beans and the support is some 7 ft tall!!!

The beans taste lovely and we'll use the supports for a summer crop - which i like so much with rice chicken and red peppers, and are a principal ingredient of the paellas around the costa blanca

Organised versus Non- Organised , but both organic.

I have two vegetable beds on the go at present. Basically a test to see if organised or unorganised gives better results.


At present i am pleased with both beds and we are eating a selection of fresh green leaves at the moment in the form of lettuce, endives, swiss chard and spinach.


I am still picking tomatoes from one of the "net-houses" and have a load of peppers to take off the plants in the greenhouse and in the vegetable bed at the house.


The cabbages which are grown in an orange grove, with irrigation in between the trees have grown enormous. Some more plantlings have been planted in their place which will be ready for cropping march.

The time has come to plant onions and garlic, i have planted some red sets and white plantlets. I will sow "Lisboa" in january as it is just such a nice onion.

Oils Aceites Olis

The basil plants were starting to look a bit tired and a little dishevelled so i have immersed them in olive oil to get a taste of summer in winter. I should be picking tomatoes to round about Valentine's day so this oil makes a wonderful accompyament to fresh toms.

Betera is well worthy of a visit on the 15th of Aug when they parade their huge basil plants. Some of them are more than 7ft tall and are about the 6ft in diameter, quite a spectacular. They also have, arguably, the most ferocious night of firework bangers in the Valencian community.

(NOT FOR THE FIENT-HEARTED OR ILL-PREPARED)

Brassicas and Haggis

Brassica - the family which cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, kolirabi, sprouts, etc belong to, are pretty easy to grow here in the Marina Alta.
My experience is that they enjoy the cool of winter here, rather than our hot summers. In hot weather I find that broccoli wants to try to “bolt”, and generally they like cooler conditions.
At presente I have sprouts, curly kale, broccoli, cauliflower and variuos varieties of cabbage on the go. I have been given many of the plantlets by Snr Alex, many thanks.
The snails can be rather fond of young plants, as can be caterpillars. White fly can also be a bit problematic, however some Neem oil or a light solution of washing up liquid well diluted will do the trick.
On the positive side we have a bountiful supply of which some of it I freeze for all year round use.
I rotate plant brassicas so that they are not in the same part of the patch for at least 3 years. I don't know if club-root is a problem in Spain, however the ploicy of prevention rather than cure I always find works best.
I will plant some romanesco, the sort of green pointed cauliflower looking thing, this weekend along with some more kolirabi which I am so fond of. The flavour I find very similar to “neeps”. Talking of neeps I heard a nasty rumour that on the Mediterranean they hunt haggis all year round and don't have a closed season!! I dearly hope that it is only a nasty rumour.

Cabbage - Col - Col

I picked this cabbage yesterday.

However at the vegetable garden at the house i have has a pretty bad attack of catepillars, they have all but destroyed many. If it's not one thingh it's another. Sometimes there is just not enough time.

I will spray everything tomorrow afternoon with a little Neem Oil, as i noted greenfly on the oranges and limes, other caterpillars chewing the roses, and whitefly trying to nestle in on the peppers.

green fingers

Some bean sprouts