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SilverCoast Holidays - Portugal |
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January 2012 |
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Hello and welcome to another growing year here on our small-holding in Portugal. We faced many challenges last year and we are sure there will more this year. Ready for another 12 month journey? Lets get going with fingers crossed.
Week One January here on the farm at this time of the year, as in many other places, is quiet in respect of what needs doing. The days are sunny but cold at night, what we have found this year which we had little of last year is frost and some mornings its quite hard. No rain for a bit so the ground is becoming workable, as soon as we get the chance some areas will get turned over in preparation for the coming season.
Week Two Chilly week but no rain until we got to Saturday night so ground work got started with the area which will grow our chillies, peppers and tomatoes being turned over to open the top layer so the weather can get at it as it is still quite wet despite the lack of rain.
Planted out spinach with some garlic on the lower plot, put up netting to hopefully keep the bunnies from having a taste!
In the poly the lettuce plants are now big enough to plant into the ground and the onion seedlings have been transplanted into trays which will get hardened off before getting planted out.
The rental has been given a lick of paint although it was in very good condition and started to do some painting on our own home too.
For those who think we are “sad and don’t get out much”, we went out to celebrate Niks birthday which is next Monday. We had a meal, total €14.10, Beef with egg, black pork, plus the normal chips, rice & salad, beers and coffee. We then went to see “The Gift” a well known local band from Alcobaca and that was only €15 per ticket. Interesting sound and well executed.
Week Three Still sunny and cold at night so got the strimmer out this week, the plants may struggle to grow but the grass is having an away day!!!
In the poly we sowed lettuce, aubergines and salad onions, the aubergines may struggle because of the cold nights, but if we don’t try we will never know!! Planted out down near the poly’s a lime tree, pomegranate and near the wood a hazelnut
Once again the demand for sweet chilli sauce meant another batch was made and blow me sold 2 of them within 24 hours.
Week Four The weather continues to be dry and warm in the day but most mornings we wake to a heavy frost which in some ways is great as this has enabled us to get out on the ground earlier than last year but on the other hand could cause water shortages later in the year.
We have retired our previous compost bin now and have just began a new one, the product in the bottom of the old one looks great, some plants are going to get a treat! The soil is dry on the surface but just below it is still moist, this is good as this week we sowed some more broad beans and moved the Tarragon from last years growing position to the edge of the upper plot with the hope it will form a hedge.
The poly is nice and warm in the day and we plan to use it to our advantage by sowing spring onions directly into the soil, we struggled last year to get germination outside in the summer because of the heat (we think) lets see if we can get an early crop this way. Another experiment we are trying is to bring on Beetroot in cells which when big enough will be planted out in the ground, hopefully by not disturbing the roots they will produce earlier crops. Herbs and some onions have been sown this week also.
Week Five The weather so far this year has been rather good, sunny days with frosty nights. The young plants in the poly have stood up well to this but on Friday 3rd the night was really cold, cold enough to freeze the water in a bucket inside the poly so we had losses. We lost all the Roma tomato and marigold seedlings plus the pepper plants our neighbour gave us the other week.
Most of this week was about working and clearing the ground in preparation for planting later in the year, it is great to be able to get some of this under our belt because when planting time comes we will need all the time we have.
January Sowings, Plantings and Harvesting. Sowings/Plantings - Onions, Spinach, Garlic, Radish, Beetroot, Spring Onions, Broad Beans & Assorted Herbs.
Harvestings - Radish & Lettuce. |