Garden – Page 6 – the story of Casa Azul

November newsround

November 19, 2011 Jackie Comments 0 Comment

A mild, if not rather wet, autumn so far. Everything’s getter greener and taller, a bit like spring really without the flowers. Some evenings there has been a beautiful light and pink or yellowy grey clouds depending if it’s going to be sunny or rainy the next day. Richard’s away in the Isle of Man so I’m here defending the fort, or rather the farm, alone. Meanwhile, here’s a round up of casa azul news.

Veg etc
I have to admit to being a rather fairweather gardener, although I don’t mind digging in the frost on a cold but sunny day I really don’t like working in the wet – who does? So I’ve only just pulled up and cleared the last of the tom beds, this included removing the nasturtiums which we’re growing well but I’ve now got masses of enormous nasturtium buds which will be turned into poor man’s capers. The asparagus have turned a beautiful bronzey yellow, these are soon to be cut back and mulched along with the raspberries.

In the polytunnel there are lots of wild flowers coming up (from seed collected throughout the year) plus yet more edibles – mainly brassicas. These will go in soon, and tomorrow more onions are being planted and, at long last, I’ve got the garlic.

I’ve also got plenty of rocket growing, this has just never worked in the heat so it’s fingers crossed for a winter attempt. Lettuce seems to thrive in the cold, and isn’t affected by the frost, so I’m hoping rocket will too.

Elsewhere in the garden mushrooms are supplementing our diet. I don’t know if you read the account of Nicholas Evans and his mushroom fiasco in the guardian but it makes fascinating and sobering reading.

The ones on the left have opened and are now huge, tempting grub but am definitely sticking to the field mushrooms.

I don’t know if it was beginner’s luck but last year the sprouts grew without any bother, I hardly did anything with them. This year, alas, they’ve been plagued with grey aphids and some of the heads didn’t open properly, and a few of the stalks are massive with enormous leaves but few sprouts. I also spotted the other day that one of the stalks was completely inundated with caterpillars – how come I never saw them before? I counted at least 30 chomping caterpillars, and the one on the left was found the french tarragon.

So what to do with a box of bugs? The hens love snails and giant slugs so decided it would be an early Christmas present…

The chickens
The hens aren’t quite up to their full laying capacity, 2 or 3 a day but that’s fine. They’re slightly sulking now because our plan to keep them off the growing grass, well weeds, is working well and their plot (which looks like something from the WW1) is surrounded by green. Once the roasties are dispatched the hens will go over there, and their mud bath of a plot can have a chance to regrow.

Along with the fact they they realise that the grass is greener on the other side one of them is moulting and looks very funny without a tail.

So I was hoping that my gift of grubs would cheer them up. I tossed the caterpillars on the ground, the hens came dashing forward and then stopped in their tracks and squawked loudly. They eyed the crawling mass with trepidation and then, with beaks in the air, walked off. They weren’t interested at all! I covered the caterpillars with corn but the hens simply ate the corn and left the caterpillars. As these were all now gallivanting off in different directions I ended up having to stand on them all. So much for good intentions. At least the lettuce and purple sprouting broccoli leaves keeps them happy.

Meanwhile the roasties have been let out and are enjoying the grass and opportunity to stretch their wings. They are the biggest, fattest birds I have ever seen and Richard’s number one task on returning is to sharpen the knife. I swear when they walk the earth trembles.

The wild boar
One of the nice things about being in the countryside of course is that we are surrounded by nature. In this part of Portugal that includes the javali – wild boar. Up until recently I have enjoyed the fact that they come to the neighbours’ fields but now the beggars have trotted into our garden. Before Richard left we were given loads of prickly pears and agaves to plant in our garden and I wasn’t best pleased to see that most of these had either been knocked over, dug up (some dragged into bushes), and, it seems, eaten. After the second visit I’ve had to block the entrances to our garden with cut down olive branches, a temporary measure. Richard’s number two task on returning is to get the saw and hammer out.

Before and after replanting, can you see the teeth marks?!

So that’s it for now. The bees are still buzzing, I think they were disappointed that the nasturtiums were cut down. And, of course, I’m not really alone. The hairy one continues to prove she’s Portuguese, having eaten many of the olives she delights in munching walnuts and looks longingly at the roasting chestnuts on the fire. Which reminds me, time to get the wood burning stove going and have a glass of something. Cheers!

It must be Autumn because…

November 3, 2011 richard Comments 0 Comment

Well the first thing obviously is the rain. It has been bucketing down on and off for the last week and this has meant the return of the grass. Not an even, lush carpet but it’s back. Strangely enough on our learning English site (podcastsinenglish.com) this week, Jackie interviewed our good friend Peter who was describing a scary few days at the edge of a huge forest fire which threatened to engulf his house. This happened only a few weeks ago. With the wood burning stove already on the go for the cold nights, the hot, dry summer already seems a distant memory.

Last year the area just in front of the house was builders’ rubble. We planted some grass seed and thankfully it is already starting to come back pretty well.

Also the conifers we planted shortly after we arrived have done pretty well over the summer and are starting to shoot skywards. No doubt this will continue with the Autumn rains.

Not forgetting the strange episode of the autumn flowering apple tree. And the apples are coming along nicely.

So the season has changed, the wellies go on and with the rain we are seeing (and picking) our first mushrooms and also oranges. Although Jackie did make some quince jam, we are hoping that it’s not too late to grab a few more but we may have missed our chance.

The wet weather means that the ground is much softer now and so we are going to be planting a whole load of bulbs. Summer is not great here for flowers as we can’t spare much water but we are hoping for a good show in spring when it’s damp but sunny.

The hens are finding the damp ground much easier to scratch as well. I feared that they would scratch up any new grass that tried to poke through and my fears were well founded. So I split the chicken run in two, hoping that the chickenless half would resprout so they can be let loose on this when there’s a bit of grass. As you can see from the photo below this has worked a treat. They certainly aren’t bothered by the rain and actually seem to enjoy it.

Meanwhile the new roasties are gaining weight hand over fist and will be ready for the chop in a few weeks!

And the veggie patch is still going strong. The carrots and parsnips sown back in September are, at long last, starting to germinate; they obviously appreciate the cold, wet weather more. The experiment to grow more things through the winter continues: both the peas and broad beans are flowering and of course not an aphid in sight. All the brassicas are up, there are no green caterpillars now, although they look rather straggly at the mo.

cauliflower_peas_turnips — cauliflowers, peas and turnips

The turnips and swede are going mad, and the onions are doing well too. Must remember to put some garlic in this month. Finally, the chard, kale, lettuce and beetroot are also doing well – no fatalities yet! We should be eating the leeks into the new year, and the sprouts too. And the tomatoes are amazingly still going – just a few left now but we’ve got plenty stored in various guises for the winter.

Also, as can be seen below, the artichokes and asparagus are doing well and will be ready to eat next year.

So there are very few beds which are empty and we’re pleased about that. These have been covered in manure which will break down even more over the winter months and be ready for the new potatoes and other early crops. Let’s just see what the winter holds in store…

Repairing and building

September 11, 2011 richard Comments 0 Comment

Today is the second anniversary of our arrival in Portugal to start a new life. It is also just over a year since we moved in to our new house and we are already doing repairs. Fortunately not to the house but only the polytunnel at the bottom of the garden. The sun has taken its toll on the cheap plastic covering which was falling apart so I recovered it with UV resistant plastic. Looks good now, I wonder how long that will last.

However, we continue to build new things. Since the renovation of the barn, our attention has been on the courtyard and to this end I recently made a new flower bed. I had to dig up the new paving, and a layer of concrete and then the original cobbles underneath but the main reason was to practice my bricklaying as I intend to embark on a bigger project in the courtyard very soon.

new — New project started. What will it be?

Meanwhile, as we move into September, things are ripening. Walnuts are appearing on the ground around our three trees and so soon enough we’ll be sitting in front of the telly of an evening shelling them in readiness for a succession of walnut cakes. Also the figs are coming to fruition. Not just in our garden but there are a few trees in the lanes and tracks hereabouts. So along with the blackberries and apples, they are providing sustenance for our country walks.

One tree that doesn’t know what time of year it is, is our new apple tree as it has rather strangely come into blossom. I’m sure nothing will come of that.

Despite Jackie’s bemoaning of the lack of sun and heat to dry her tomatoes, we have had little rain – as measured by my new rain gauge. In fact in August we only had one decent night of rain which measured a relatively pathetic 25mm. However, this was enough for the grass to be reborn and now patches of the garden are starting to green in a sea of brown. And that is the signal that I’ve got a few months of strimming to look forward to …

Harvest time

June 1, 2011 richard Comments 1 comment

…OK a bit premature but over the last couple of weeks the veggies have sprung to life. We’ve been eating the strawberries for a while, the delicious raspberries have now come on stream and the cherries have already come and gone. Admittedly ours were rather small like last year. And of course just like last year, Luis, with a big smile on his face, came over with a huge punnet of plump ones for us. Back to our veg, the artichokes and purple sprouting broccoli have come and gone but now we’ve got potatoes, onions, garlic and various beans and peas. Oh, and those triffids from last year are back and already producing like no tomorrow – the courgettes. And that’s just the start. There are plenty of other veggies on their way as well. Jackie will follow with a full update soon.

In addition to veggies, the tree fruits are coming through. The plums should be ready soon and although the main pear tree (and apple tree) may well disappoint (the aphids have been extremely busy this year), we found a rather sickly young pear tree at the end of the garden last year and after some careful nurturing looks like it will come good.

I only hope our electrician returns and connects the electricity to the barn as our new chest freezer is ready and waiting for excess produce. Talking of the barn – that is finished (but still needs painting) as is the patio. And I must say the front of the house finally looks pretty good. However, unlike in the UK, we haven’t seen the builders for a while and I still owe them 1000 Euros!

Jackie has also been busy making Elderflower champagne. Despite exploding bottles – glass and even plastic (see below) we have salvaged a fair amount and I must say it’s pretty good. Next up the quince wine.

Apologies for no posts over the last two weeks but we’ve had Jackie’s parents staying and we’ve been quite busy. So has Jackie’s dad. He very kindly brought over a new henhouse for our proposed table birds (chickens for eating) and he also made a run for them while he was here.

Having them over has also meant me and Jackie (and the hairy one) managed to get away for a few days for some camping while they looked after the hens. As this blog is focussed on casa Azul, I won’t go into details but we had a great time and below are some photos.

And to wrap up this blog entry – garden wildlife. It looks like the black redstarts won’t be making a nest in the postbox this year but we do have a couple of collared doves in the garden. I presume the nest must be here somewhere but we haven’t found it yet. Watch this space!

Transformation

May 16, 2011 richard Comments 1 comment

It’s been exactly two years since we first saw Casa Azul. The first video shows how it has changed since that wet May morning in 2009.

This is the 360 degree video we took of the garden.

And here is the garden in May 2011:

And here’s one for our friends Helen and Peter. Our local friendly snake pictured in the courtyard:

Any idea what it is Pete?

The fall of the monolith

May 4, 2011 richard Comments 2 comments

One of the strangest features of Casa Azul has been a large stone, standing in the courtyard. Well this week we took it down. It went as part of patio project stage 2. Now we’ve done the barn we are paving part of the courtyard and turning it into a small patio area. The stone was in the way but we wanted to keep it so we’ve turned it into a stone seat. Very nice it looks too.

After the recent, much needed, heavy rain a surprising thing happened. I found some puffball mushrooms at the bottom of the garden. Autumn was so dry we didn’t get any mushrooms but here they are now. I’d never eaten them before and I must admit they were rather a disappointment. Like creamy tofu.

Much tastier, I am sure, will be our honey and on the latest inspection, the bees are really going for it. Keen readers will know that we started off with one box (the brood box) and after the bees had settled down we added a second on top. Between the two was a queen excluder. This is a wire frame that stops the queen from going “upstairs”. Therefore she concentrates on laying eggs and making new bees in the bottom box while the workers fill up the top with honey. And after a few short weeks the bees have been busy making honey comb in the top box and filling it with honey. As can be seen in the photo below. This is just one frame of ten, so we are hoping they will all be full by July and ready for harvesting. Thinking of which, I’ll have to do some reading and work out how to do it.

Never mind honey bees, we also have a carpenter bee making its home in the pergola. I’ll try and get a photo of the bee soon (it’s a big black hairy thing like a bumble bee). The nest itself is just a small perfectly round hole which the bee has chewed out of the frame.

We’ve also got a wasp making a nest in the potting shed!

With the rain and now more sun, the veggie garden is taking off. Here are the spuds in all their glory. And thanks to the polytunnel we have been eating strawberries for weeks (admittedly only about 6 or 7 a week) and have enjoyed plenty of artichokes.

Of course warmer weather means the smell of summer is here – yes the barbie!

Most of the locals have small tractors but we’ve got one old boy who still uses the old ways.

Couldn’t resist putting in this photo of the hairy one enjoying a puddle. They won’t be here for much longer.

And of course the wild flowers are still a joy. The poppies are coming up now but we still have a few orchids about. We’re not sure whether this one is a bee orchid or woodcock.

Summer?

April 14, 2011 richard Comments 0 Comment

We’ve now had at least 2 weeks of blazing hot sun with temps in the mid to high twenties. Surely it can’t go on? One thing we are already worried about is our water bill. With no rain in (April!), July, August and September and with loads of thirsty veggies, it soon mounts ups.

We do have a well, but it only stores water and doesn’t access any groundwater. It’s over 5 metres deep but the pipe, which feeds it with rainwater from the roof, comes in quite low down and leaks water out, so my first job was to get down there and cement up the hole. This should mean we can get more water in. Fortunately the ever reliable Luis had a ladder long enough to go all the way down. I can tell you that water was cold!

So with that done, next up was getting the water to the veggies. For that I bought a pump to get water from the well and into a tank on top and then a system of pipes from the tank to the veggies. In addition, I needed small plugs which drip feed the water to the plants. I can tell you, that stretched my Portuguese to the limit (I now know these plugs are called gotejadores – I think. Difficult to spell but impossible to pronounce). Only time will tell whether it saves us any money and whether we get any more rain to replenish the well.

Still, with all this gorgeous weather, the plants are loving it.

Couldn’t resist another photo of that great, Naked man orchid!

…and other wildlife…

We think this is a toad – and toads only go into the water to mate (which is why we kept finding a big toad in the courtyard last year)

The butterflies are also here, this one is as pretty as a picture underneath too.

We also continue having guests over. Jackie knows Rosie and Debbie from her time volunteering with VSO in Malawi so it was great to have them visit for a few days especially as they hadn’t met up for years.

friends — Jackie, Rosie, Debbie and the hairy one

We’ve also been down the beach, which was glorious and not a soul about.

The bees seem to go from strength to strength. I have a look in the hive every now and then and everything seems to be OK. I have even managed to spot the queen which was great. No more stings either which is a bonus.

This photo is quite interesting (for apiarists only maybe). In the top left there are cells filled with honey, in the bottom right, sealed brood (baby bees waiting to hatch out) and in the lower middle you can just about see small white grubs in the base of the cells. This shows that everything is operating as normal. Now the bottom box is pretty full – of brood, grubs, pollen and honey, they should now turn their attention to filling the top box just with honey!

The orchid and the nightingale

April 12, 2011 Jackie Comments 0 Comment

We’ve had friends of mine staying these last few days. It’s been lovely showing them around – everything is green and of course loads of wild flowers are beginning to appear. It was great to discover the wild orchids nearby, and to find we have a naked man orchid Orchis italica in the garden. There are fields of these in other places and so hope that Richard’s strimming hasn’t seen them off. It’s also been lovely to discover the nightingales. They’ve begun to sing and sing all night, and most of the day too – when they sleep I have no idea. Despite their song being loud and clear they’re quite difficult to spot, and quickly disappear into the bushes if you go anywhere near them. I was rather pleased with this photo then. So two new, and somewhat exotic, firsts for me this week.

Buzzy time

March 24, 2011 richard Comments 2 comments

Spring has well and truly sprung. The last few posts have been about how rapidly everything in the garden seems to have taken off. With the plants sprouting, so have the number of jobs I have to do. We plan on getting some more chickens – this time to eat, so I need to build another henhouse for them, we need to fix the well and get some sort of irrigation system ready for the baking hot summer, the barn needs renovating, shelves still need to go up, the list is endless. However, some things are getting done – I repaired the potting shed roof and strimmed the garden – a big job which takes at least a couple of days. I have left some areas unstrimmed however. My excuse is that these areas should be left to nature, encouraging the insects, wild flowers, birds, pest predators etc.

We have also got one of our next major projects up and running – bees!

We’d got word from a friend of ours that there was someone in the Dornes area, not far from here, who had bees and hives for sale. We headed down there with great anticipation and came back with a hive full of bees and all the necessary equipment. We were also quite proud of ourselves in conversing with this guy all in Portuguese (we are still very ashamedly poor at the local lingo). As instructed, we set up the hive in a good place at the bottom of our garden and let the bees settle for a couple of days. Only then were we to inspect the hive.

We have a beekeping guidebook and it explains what to do on this first inspection: try to spot the queen (she is slightly longer than the normal ‘worker’ bees), see that she is laying i.e. try to spot eggs in cells and grubs in various stages of growth and also to see if there was any honey. Basically just to check that everything seemed OK. The book also said that when you buy a nucleus – which is a starter colony containing only a queen and a few attendant bees, you don’t need to smoke them as they will be very calm.

We chose to inspect them first thing in the morning as we knew they would be still asleep (or whatever the bee term is). So, Jackie settled at a safe distance, camera in hand ready to record the moment. I must admit I felt a bit like Dustin Hoffman in Outbreak approaching the hive all suited up.

And then our troubles began.

We had not actually bought a nucleus, but a pretty full hive. Morning is not a good time to open up the hive as everyone is at home rather than out foraging. We had Iberian bees which have a reputation (well warranted I will vouch for already) for aggressiveness.

While I was gingerly taking out a frame to inspect it, clouds of bees took off in front of me. I could see them all over my veil. I almost felt they were going to bite through the gauze. However, I maintained my calm. Then, I heard a scream. It was Jackie running down the garden. “It’s in my hair, it’s in my hair. Arrrrrrrrggggghhhhh!” I didn’t see her for a while but she had only suffered superficial wounds. One sting to the scalp which was not painful. I carefully put the frame back in the hive and then replaced the top. Unfortunately there were bees all over the rim, so a few got squidged, which also makes them angry. I then retreated. I didn’t find the queen and am not even too sure what I saw.

But the story doesn’t end there. Later, in the afternoon, I was strimming the garden quite some distance from the hive and I heard a buzzing followed rather quickly by a sharp pain in my hand – one of the blighters had got me after all!

The bees obviously are not going to give us their honey without a fight but we remain determined. Next time we are using the smoke!

We also made a video for our English teaching site podcastsinenglish.com. Unfortunately (perhaps) most of the more exciting moments were not captured on film and the section with me examining a frame is necessarily ‘artistic’ (and accidental) as by this stage Jackie, the camerawoman, had dropped the camera and retreated to the safety of the house.

To anyone who knows about bees there is also a glaring error in the narrative. The queen doesn’t lay the eggs in honey but in an empty cell. After it hatches, the other bees then feed the larva with royal jelly and pollen. The honey is put in cells purely as a store for the winter months.

Blossom

March 4, 2011 richard Comments 1 comment

While Jackie was suffering with the wind and rain at Casa Azul, I was back in the UK where the uniform grey was cheered by snowdrops and the first signs of crocuses and daffodils. Here and now, however, the crocuses and daffodils are already on the way out to be replaced by tree blossoms. Already, one of our plum trees is in full bloom and is being quickly followed by the peach and even the apricot which we only planted last year.

As my sister visited us in September last year, she never realised we actually had grass in the garden (by then it was just a red dustbowl). So here’s a photo for her.

the story of Casa Azul

and a new life in deepest Portugal

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