My Tiny PlotSpanish Vegetable Plot
I’m always intrigued by how other people grow vegetables. Especially when they live in a different country to me and have different issues to deal with. On my recent trip to Spain I explored this vegetable patch tended by the owners of the hotel we were staying in. They had planted everything in nice long, neat rows in their really red earth.
I was excited to see a Pomegranate tree. I’ve never seen one before and even though this one was only just bursting into leaf it was still beautiful. Apparently it fruits in Autumn.
This delicate Apple blossom was perfect against blue, clear skies.
A fledgling Herb patch was well served by the watering system…
…which, by the way was taken very seriously. As you can imagine once the season gets going there is little rain on offer for these plants so hugging the watering system is their only hope.
While we were chatting about the garden, Yvonne, the lady who ran the hotel, told me a little story about a Walnut tree she had back in her own garden. Years before her father had planted a Walnut tree in his garden, in the UK. He had sadly died in the year before the tree produced any nuts but when it did Yvonne carried a nut back to Spain and planted it there. Where it’s growing well. Gardens are so much more than plants, aren’t they?
I am also interested in how others do their garden…please post as many as you find! This year I will be doing a soaker hose on my 24×24 feet garden, well parts of it, and I hope that will save my tomatoes in August. I can be a very lazy gardener and the kids think the hose is fun time, not work time so it gets more complex!
It seems hard to believe at present, but perhaps there are lessons we should be learning from the Spanish with regard to irrigation.
I’m glad the Walnut tree grew for her, and you are so right about the way gardens can sometimes hold us with so much more than just plants…
All looks great – some great imagery here too. I especially liked the apple blossom picture!
The quality of the fruit and vegetables in Spain is of the highest quality and a family tradition at many households. Of coarse it helps having all that lovely warm sun unlike most summers we have here in Glossop Derbyshire. I’m jealous.
Lovely post! We also love exploring veg gardens on holiday. Last year we were staying next to an amazing veg garden in Italy- Hubby blogged about it last year. I was so inspired by the elderly Italian man and how he grew his tomato plants, luckily, we got to taste some of his produce!
Yes, gardens are so much more than plants! I have a dogwood tree that my mother set out for me soon after I married. She is gone to Heaven now, but the tree is growing and blooming beautifully here near my house.
Have a blessed day!
Lea
Lea’s Menagerie
I love looking at how they grow veg in different countries too. Railway journeys out through the grey suburbs of cities and towns in France and Italy are my favourites – every tiny little patch of land, is given to growing wonderful colourful food…
Love the post. I have a Spanish kitchen gardening book that i found in a local bookshop and like the different ideas. I garden in southern california so a similar mediterranean climate. We had the last rainfall this past weekend and there will probably be no more rain until October if then so irrigation is a must. But you do get two seasons, and winter can be more productive than summer in some ways. There are a lot of raised beds and drip irrigation systems.
The native americans in the southwest often used wide plant spacing ans waffle beds which are actually sunken beds to make better use of the scarce water.
In Western Australia we also have a Spanish climate. Unfortunately on the coast the sand is … well, sand, like beach sand. Pomegranates will grow in it, I have two of them but birds or rats eat the fruit before I get any.
My vegetables are mostly in big (waist high) pots – big enough to have earth worms in them. It’s the only way to grow them in proper soil. Covered in mulch of course (finely chopped lupin straw). I started with two pots to see if it would work, and then kept adding – I now have no grass at all, but 50 big pots!
My grandparents weren’t keen gardeners, but my grandfather grew carnations and gerberas for my grandmother. My parents were even less interested in gardens, but when I got a garden I grew gerberas and carnations for Mum, and never missed taking her a bunch every Sunday ’till she died. Now that’s she died I could stop the effort, but I don’t, I still grow carnations and gerberas, and they are in the same vase Mum used, but on my sideboard. (The gardening gene came to me from my other grandmother).
Oh yes, they are so much more! I love having plants which have special memories, or maybe they were gifts from special friends … it’s a wonderful way to keep memories alive :-)
I’ve just discovered your blog via Chiots Run, and I’m delighted I’ve landed here! So much to read and enjoy! Mine is an extremely tiny plot too, shared with two little children. I used to have a flower garden – but since the children arrived I now have to snatch the space I can before the children dig it up or create a den !
Happy days to you,
Josie x