Summer 2018

June
So, it is now officially summer but no-one has told the weather.  There was a ridiculously warm week in May but since then it has get wet and chilly. Wet is good in a way, I have not had to water for ages, the seeds have all germinated, I have loads of lettuce and everything else is doing well. Everything is later this year because of the cold winter and whilst rain is useful a bit of warm weather to ripen everything would be nice.
The two swallows who arrived in March stayed on their own until this weekend and now there has been an influx, they are preparing nests again.
August 24th
Summer finally arrived this month, along with the usual influx of visitors, it is so noisy.
On the whole everything has done well though I reckon about 2 weeks behind normal, but looking back I seem to have said that before so maybe it is normal.

All growing well!

Cherry tomatoes just ripening

My neighbours courgette!

People here don't reckon much to my cherry tomatoes but at least mine are ripening! The beans and the mange-tout are now at the end of their season. I've been lucky with my courgette again, it is staying in one place and producing at an acceptable rate! The only thing to have done very badly this year is the plums, and then only the green ones. There are not many plum trees in the village but none of the green ones have fruit whilst the tree with 'plum' coloured fruit is loaded.

Spring 2018

March 22nd
We have had the coldest and wettest winter for years. The sun is shining today but it is going to rain again tomorrow, but I have taken advantage of today's sunshine to start clearing and digging. Now, as I sit here and look out I can see two Swallows, or are they House Martins, I never know, but I am sure they do not normally arrive so early. Maybe summer is on the way!!

Summer 2017

This June has been and is the hottest in 36 years, we have had a few days of rain but really not very much. The vegetables are doing well.

I have been eating lettuce and new potatoes since the beginning of the month and I have loads, so different to last year. I planted more potatoes this year and I hoped to have them all summer and maybe in to autumn but I've just discovered that something has attacked them and dug up the majority. It doesn't look like the work of a boar so I'm not sure what.  I have been eating raspberries for a couple of weeks, there are just enough to get a helping every day but I doubt I will manage to freeze any this year as many of the flowers in the bottom plot got frosted, again a real change from last year! I have managed to have some cherries, it is strange that some trees have no fruit and some have done quite well so I have had some from neighbours.

The courgette is not doing very well, I didn't water it enough and it got unhappy but it looks better now so, hopefully, I will have some soon.

July 5th

Well I think it was a boar and it has been back a couple of times to make absolutely sure that all the potatoes are dug up!

I am just coming to the end of the raspberries, they have lasted all month and I have managed to freeze a bag full so it was better than I expected.

 The beans and mange-tout are flowering so I hope to start harvesting in a couple of weeks and the courgette is now thriving.

The hydrangea is doing better than I have ever seen before.

August 8th 

Everything is producing really well and the tomatoes are turning red.  Only the potatoes have been a disaster but this has worked in my favour, my neighbour thought that her potatoes were only fit to give to the pigs as they are mostly small this year, when I said that I like small potatoes with my salads she told me to take as many as I wanted as she would be throwing the rest away, no one has a pig!! So now I have plenty of salad potatoes. 

29th August

A wonderful year for vegetables but incredibly dry, finally it has rained which is great as I am about to be away. Next year I must label the peppers and tomatoes as to variety as I have no idea what they aere this year. 

Spring 2017

April
This Spring has been crazy, after a very cold but very dry winter it snowed for the last week, since then it has just got hotter and hotter. The fruit blossom was early and I was worried that it would get frosted or that there would not be enough insects around but it seems to have been OK. Won't know until summer and autumn but the amount of blossom is amazing and there have been no frosts and lot of insects.
The family with the plot next door to mine kindly ploughed half of my plot, he said he would harrow it later but he didn't come back for ages so I planted my onions and put sticks in for my tomatoes, then he came back and harrowed!! I had to dig to find my onions, under about 6 inches of soil! I found most and planted some new ones, at least the soil has been well broken up this year.

I've sown lettuce seed inside and out, the inside has germinated, it's too early for the outside yet, I also have tomatoes growing inside, the problem is that I will be away next week and I am having to water at the moment, hopefully it will rain!😊  It isn't often I say that!
16th May
The weather continues to be crazy, but we did have several days of heavy rain last week. When I first came I was told not to plant out tomatoes or peppers until after 15th May and last week I saw a gardening programme on TV that said not to plant out tender plants till the 3rd week of May! I confess I planted out on the 13th, not a good day for doing anything but the last few days have been fine but there are likely to be frosts at the end of the week!
There was a very bad frost a week or two ago and many fruit plants were badly affected, the cherries look pathetic and I don't think it will be a good year for walnuts.
At the moment my plot looks healthy.

The first lettuce are doing really well and today I am going to have my first helping of lettuce from the garden.  The leeks germinated exactly a month after I sowed them, I was just giving up hope!  Tomorrow I will cover and protect as much as I can I just hope the potatoes survive as I can't cover them.
30th May
Thursday will be the start of meteorological summer! The weather has become more normal, I don't think we had a frost last week. The temperatures are now reasonable for the time of year and it has rained plenty this last week. I don't think I have done anything different this year but everything is growing well, the beans and mange-tout have sprouted, I have loads of lettuce, everything looks healthy, except the cherries which are virtually non-existent, such a shame because the blossom was beautiful, the later flowering apples also look as if they are doing nothing.  I am going to have to rethink my raspberries, I wanted to move them all up to the orchard but the deer have been having a feast, eating the tops of the majority of the canes, it doesn't look like it is a good idea, the gooseberries are doing nothing as well :(

August

Eventually everything is growing, the lettuce have been reluctant but I have sufficient. The tomatoes are now changing colour, I won't have to buy any more. The beans are still producing and I have frozen quite a few, the courgette is slow, which is probably a blessing :) I have sufficient and I have frozen some already. I have harvested the potatoes and some of the onions, next year I must only grow onions in the lower plot, keep the 'orchard' for fruit and potatoes.
The plum doesn't have much fruit and what it has seems to have been nobbled, I aim to pick them all tomorrow.
It has been a very hot dry summer, today is cloudy, for the first time in 2 months. I don't know whether it has been because of the unusually hot weather but the snakes have been much in evidence. One, very hot, afternoon there were 3 snakes swimming in the old wash place, I got a photo of one of them leaving!

 Another day there was only one having a swim, he was more unlucky as the water level was reduced, I think he couldn't get out and the next day he was dead.

It gives pause for thought when walking around in long grass!

summer

So now it is officially summer. Things are growing slowly, that is, everything except the weeds are growing slowly!!  I have a flower on the 'mange-tout', the raspberries are just starting to ripen and I have had strawberries. The gooseberries are virtually non existent and I am still waiting for lettuce seeds to germinate!

I have one great achievement! I have picked my garlic and they are the best ever. Usually I am ashamed of the size, but this year they have really grown well.

June

I wonder how many years of gardening it takes before you can really recognize when to sow and plant!! It doesn't help that the instructions on the back of the seed packets seem to be really wrong. Looking at last year I seem to be having the same problem with the lettuce that I have each year, I sow according to the instructions but they never germinate until the weather gets warm.
This year Spring has been particularly cold and wet and germination seems particularly slow, but maybe not. My leeks germinated well, the beans are just starting and I have 4 mange-tout. It is the lettuce that are being a pain, I have sown seeds 3 times, one packet promised me that I would have salad to eat in 26 days!! Not a thing, I have bought 12 lettuce plants at various times over the last few weeks and 9 have been eaten by something, as have 2 peppers and a courgette, I now have 3 lettuce and 2 courgettes sitting under plastic bottles, hopefully they will survive.
We have been lucky with the fruit this year, the trees all managed to blossom whilst we had a few days of good weather, the only fruit that is not performing well is my gooseberries, they seem to be on strike. The snow in winter broke some branches off my neighbours plum tree, these happened to be the branches that grew over my plot and they are really nice plums so I won't have any of those this year but mine seem to be doing well. Now I just have to be patient and maybe also sow some more lettuce :)

October

I wrote last month that the beans were nearly finished, that wasn't true, I continue to have beans, I have eaten some and managed to freeze another bag. My peppers continue to do well as do the tomatoes and courgettes.
I have picked quite a few parasol mushrooms, they grew without any rain, but it has rained for the last couple of days so I will start looking for field mushrooms. It has been a good season for almost everything, only the onions were a disappointment and I reckon that that was my fault, next year I will drench them regularly.
I am now clearing some of my top plot that I didn't clear properly originally, I cleared a bit and then hid it behind a 'plum' hedge, this time it will be done properly. I am also going to clear some of the surrounding area as I am fed up of being attacked by ferns and brambles from the surrounding plots.
My garden looks great, it has really flourished this year and looks very green and colourful.


The back of my orchard, now clear of nettles and brambles



September

What a difference a year makes, I have just read what I wrote last year but none of it applies this year. Everyone has harvested everything much earlier.
We have just had 2 days of something called, I think, 'cyclonogenesis'. 2 days of heavy rain and winds, but now the weather is warming up again. I have no lettuces left this year, on the whole my lettuce have behaved very badly but I did have some, enough to provide salads through June and July.
The tomatoes have been great, nearly all have already ripened and I have managed to freeze plenty. I think I have probably just picked the last of the beans and I have plenty in the freezer. Both trees had apples, I have loads of pears and the raspberries are producing a few regularly.
This years courgette has been really good, it has produced consistently without absolutely overwhelming me, it is so hit and miss when buying a courgette plant. My veg are all looking healthy and I will probably be able to harvest tomatoes, peppers and courgettes for a few weeks more and my leeks are growing steadily, ready for the winter.

August

2nd August
Everything is early this year. The plums are already ripe, as are the blackberries. With a bit of luck I will manage to pick all my plums before my neighbour realises they are ripe!
I have had my first tomato though it is the only one to have turned red yet, and everything else is flourishing. My freezer is almost full. A good year :)
16th August
It feels like autumn! After months of very hot weather and no rain it rained all day on Thursday and remains cloudy. The pears seem to be ripening and are falling off the trees
I managed to eat all my plums, in any case the plum thief left last week, I still have neighbours but I don't dislike them so they are no bother.
I have picked nearly all my beans, the mange-tout have nearly finished, even the second sowing is not really producing. The tomatoes are now ripening well, the peppers are good this year. The leeks are growing but the cabbage don't seem to have taken. In general it has been, and still is, a good season. 

July

7th July
It really is salad time! Some of my earlier sowings have produced, plus I bought 3 lettuce in the market but my nth sowing is just producing so I should have salads for the rest of summer. There are lots of flowers on my tomatoes, plus my first green tomatoes. The peppers are doing well and I have 'Mange-tout'.
My onions are pathetic again and they are drying off so they will get no bigger. I thought I watered more this year but I think I only watered the top soil, next year I must soak the ground more often.
The potatoes are really good, I still have gooseberries, the raspberries have almost finished now but I have had loads. The cherry season has been poor but there are a few plums and the pears and apples look promising.
I continue to learn, but, for a non-gardener, I think I don't do too badly. This year is hard as we have had so little rain and there have been some very hot times.

June

8th June
This Spring has been very warm and there has been very little rain so everything needs watering all the time.
My vegetables have been fairly unproductive so far, the carrots have done nothing, I won't try again, the second sowing of leeks has done nothing either, usually they do well; the second sowing of beans has produced 1 shoot so far. The last sowing of lettuce has produced a couple of plants and I have sown again, I have had a couple of salads now. the strawberries are doing well and the raspberries have produced the first ripe fruit today, the cherries will not be far behind and I have had gooseberries for a couple of weeks now, so all in all things are doing well. I will sow more leeks and probably buy some plants as they are useful in winter.

19th June
It is nearly summer. Finally I have leeks and beans sprouting. The tomatoes have their first flowers, the peppers are flowering, and I have a couple of small courgettes that, for some reason, seem to want to stay as small courgettes! The 'mange-tout' are growing well, so hopefully I will have some to eat soon. I have had my first potatoes, to eat with my lettuce, and I have plenty of fruit.
The weather continues to be warm, last week got a bit cooler but, apparently this has been the hottest Spring since the 19th Century, everything needs watering every day

May

So, it's 15th May, that magical day after which there should not be a frost! Everything is now in. I have sown carrots and lettuce for the 3rd time, no sign of germination, so sowing early was not such a good idea, on the other hand the Spring onions did germinate so I got that right. I have bought 3 lettuce plants and put them in today so I will have some lettuce and hopefully the last lot will do OK.

A beautiful lizard

 

March 2015

Time to start again. The winter has been variable, although it has rained and snowed we have also had some dry, sunny days.  I have been away again and I sowed some carrot seeds before I went. I think I let the ground get too dry usually so I thought it would be good to sow whilst it was still sure to rain, unfortunately it has hardly rained, it has been cold with very cold winds so I don't know if it was such a good idea, now I must remember to water regularly.
Today I have sown lettuce and Spring onions, I think I left it too late last year. I have also planted the onions sets.
I have sown tomatoes indoors and they are doing well.

September ?autumn

Well it may not be quite autumn technically but it is by weather, it has rained most days for the last 2 weeks, very sad for September.
Today I have cut back the beans but they have been producing regularly up to now. The last sowing of Spring onions are almost at an edible size, which just goes to show that I sowed them too late. I need to be a bit quicker next year but I was lulled by the enormous Spring onions that I had. In fact I sowed too many too close together, I am just finishing the last of them and I have nearly finished the lettuce. I will have a few more salads but I no longer need to eat salad every day. The tomatoes are ripening well now though they are late, I still hope to get enough to make some soup and I have frozen a few but it is only because of the Cherry tomatoes that I have had plenty to eat for the last 4 weeks, and the Cherry tomatoes that is doing really well is one that self seeded!
The courgette is still going slowly but surely, very slowly. It is producing lots of flowers but they are nearly all male so not much good! My peppers are probably the best I have had so I will continue with Ourense and Anoia peppers, they seem to be the right ones.
I am still getting regular raspberries and all the plants have flowers on them, this is a bit disconcerting as the majority should be spring cropping and on the previous years shoots, I am wondering if they have somehow trans mutated and that this is a feature of Spanish raspberries! Maybe I should write a paper for a botanical journal :) The time to tell will be Spring next year, will I have any raspberries?
I now have my first pears and I have picked all the apples, the apples are tiny and are badly scarred but they are very tasty.
My neighbours have dug their onions this week, they are all enormous, I think I should be more patient, next year I will dig them at the end of September, or the beginning of Autumn.
I have had a visit from a deer, or 'deers', they have eaten the leaves of my vines and my raspberries, I have to find a way of securing my top plot.
Next year I will look at growing a cucumber, I will look out for a plant in the Spring, otherwise everything has done pretty well.

August

I've discovered that now is the time to harvest peas! My mange-tout were looking dead and I thought I had done something to kill them off but then I found a neighbour shelling peas and she told me that pea plants will die off now. Next year I will try sowing a second crop and see if they last longer, I have quite enjoyed my mange-tout. I have also discovered that the plums are ripening, ripening so fast that they are already falling off the tree, this is my neighbours tree that leans onto my land, I have been having plums for a few days now, I tried to pick a lot this morning but it started to rain heavily, it will be a shame if they all drop off. My trees haven't started to ripen yet, I will keep watching and keep watching to see that no-one comes to steal them :(
The spring onions that I sowed last month are now through though there is no sign of the cabbage.
I have bought myself a strimmer, it is only small and runs on a battery but it will help me to keep on top of the grass and weeds that grow under my pear trees, mostly the work now is just keeping up with the weeds and that is quite a job.

August 27th
Well, no-one stole my plums!!!! I am now eating the last of those I have picked, some have stayed on the tree but out of reach and they are now over ripe, I reckon I have been eating plums for about a month, it is time to change fruit, having said that I still have some raspberries and I have been eating those since May:)
I still have a few 'Mange-tout', I pulled up most of the plants but one looked green so I left it and it is still flowering. I have had a plentiful supply of beans and the tomatoes are just ripening, I think they are very late this year but summer has not been very hot. All in all it has been good so far.
Having decided that my cabbage seeds were doing nothing I bought 3 plants only to discover that some of my seeds had germinated, I will have quite a few cabbages I think.
My courgette is very slow this year, I don't know if that is good or bad, I don't like being overwhelmed but I like to manage to have a supply in the freezer, hopefully it will continue producing for a month or two yet.
August 27th p.m.
Sooooo! I spoke too soon! I locked up this evening then, for some reason, I decided to go out again. I had just opened the door when I heard foot steps and my neighbour appeared from around the corner carrying a bowl of plums, they looked very familiar and she looked quite sheepish so I decided to check. There are now no plums on my tree and they haven't all fallen on the floor. She must be very athletic but I would swear to the fact that those plums were mine. Fortunately she has left it a bit late this year and I had most of them, to the point that I wasn't going to pick anymore. Next year I will know who to watch.

 

July

The weather is a bit temperamental and much cooler than last year. I have been away for nearly 2 weeks, though I popped back occasionally to pick raspberries, I have loads again this year, the freezer looks nearly full. I have now dug up my garlic, which look much healthier this year and some of my onions look like they may reach a decent size as well, though many have 'bolted'. I have dug up my first sowing of potatoes and there are a lot and all a good size.
My strawberries did well but now something has come and eaten the leaves, fortunately after I had the fruit, whatever it is, a deer I think, has also decided to eat leaves off the raspberries.
My last sowing of lettuce has taken off and the first plants are now very big so it is lettuce, lettuce, and lettuce! The 'mange-tout' have flowers and some of the beans are looking good. I think the courgette is slow this year but the last couple of weeks have not been very warm.
My leeks are getting very big but some-one (something) has broken one of them, I'm not sure if it is worth while digging it up and freezing it, I may try.
There are loads of plums, I will try and pick them myself this year and lot let someone rob me.
All in all things look promising.

9th July

 

These are the pretty flowers from the 'Mange-tout', I hope this means I will have plenty of peas.

 

These are some of the plums on one of my small trees, I am tempted to sit on the 'look-out' this year and see if I can catch whoever steals my fruit.

My raspberries have nearly finished, looking back to what I wrote last year they seem to have been much earlier this year. I have enough to last until the beginning of next week. The cherry season is under way but I think that won't last much longer either.

The courgette is still not doing well, it just gets one flower at a time so the fruit never has chance to be pollinated. My tomatoes are looking healthy, I have had 2 tomatoes already but that is because I bought one plant with baby tomatoes on it, I thought that was a good idea but it wasn't as the plant put all it's energy into the tomatoes and made no effort to grow, now finally it is growing but it is well behind the others. I have one plant that is a self seed and it is doing really well, it compares very favourably with the plants I tended carefully over the Spring!

The old barn I bought next door is now down and slowly turning into a garden, at least it is at the front, the back part is still full of wood to saw. I have bought myself a saw and have been very busy. There is now a good supply of wood in the garage but the mound of wood outside doesn't seem to get much smaller.

 

25th July

It is nearly the end of July and the Feast Day of Santiago, a special day here in the village. For lunch I had courgettes, potatoes, mange-tout, lettuce and Spring onions all from my garden and then finished with Raspberry Sorbet, made with my raspberries.

 

Once again my vegetable patch is nearly full.  I have frozen some beans and I have sown cabbage and some more spring onions, I will see what happens.

 

29th July

Nearly the end of the month and what a difference a month makes. This afternoon I sat outside in my garden and enjoyed a cup of tea.

The patio isn't quite large enough so I have bought more slabs to add another row but, all in all, I am very pleased with my garden, all I need now is a door into the kitchen.



 

June

The weather is Spring like i.e. it is variable. Mostly everything seems to be growing well. The lettuce are reluctant this year, I have sown seeds yet again, the seeds that have germinated must have been from lettuce that flowered last year because they are not where I have sown seed but that doesn't matter. I don't have very many but I had lettuce from the garden for lunch today. The carrots are also slow and I have sown more. My beans shoots are being eaten by snails but I still have about 8 that seem to have survived.
I have eaten gooseberries from the garden and had 2 helpings of strawberries, so far they have not been eaten by the wild-life. I have also been given strawberries by a neighbour. It looks like there will be loads of fruit this year. All I need now is patience.
14th June
Nearly half way through and nearly summer. After a slow start June has suddenly got very warm and dry. The raspberries and cherries are now ripening, just as I go away again. The lettuce and carrots remain reluctant everything else is doing well.

May 2014

11th May

The weather brightened up quickly and it has been warm and dry all month so far, the result is that I am having to water frequently. It is the usual story outside, somethings are doing well and others are not doing at all.  I have now sown lettuce for the third time, so far 3 have germinated but they are still tiny, like wise the Spring onions are on the annual 'go slow', as are the carrots.  I don't want to tempt providence but so far my strawberries have not been attacked by any thing so I may have strawberries this year. My first planting of potatoes have all sprouted and I have planted a second lot. In my bottom plot I have leeks, that I was given and cabbages, peppers and tomatoes that I bought as plants. The 'mangetout' are sprouting and I have sown runner beans. This is really the week for planting tender plants but the weather has been good so I have risked putting things out this weekend. I still need to buy a few more peppers and a courgette, maybe even a few lettuce plants to get things started. I have 3 nice tomato plants, that I have grown from seed, they are doing well now and I will plant them out next week.
I expect to have loads of raspberries again soon so I ma trying to finish the frozen raspberries that I still have from last year!  On the whole progress is now being made, the season is starting.

April

The good weather continues. My tomatoes, lettuce and Spring onions, that I sowed indoors, haven't done anything useful whilst I've been away so I've topped up the tomatoes indoors, hopefully I still have time for them to germinate. I've now sown lettuce and Spring onions outside. I've planted some potatoes, the onions are growing well and all the trees have blossom so hopefully there will be good crops. Now all depends on what frosts we get over the next few weeks and no-one can do anything about that.
April 28th
The good weather didn't persist for long and the temperature dropped considerably, to the point that it snowed on the mountains, though not here.
I have now sown; leeks and sugar snap peas (mangetout), that's a first so I'll see how they do. I've also sown more lettuce and spring onions though the first sowing hasn't done any thing yet, I'll probably end up with them all germinating at once. I have 3 small tomato plants indoors, the time has come to start looking for plants to plant out.
One apple tree has blossom but the other has done nothing but I look to have quite a few cherries and the pear tree will be loaded again this year. Another month and I should have something out of my garden.