Isso é verão, não é? part 2
Well, that’s July come and gone – and what a strange month weather wise: cold sometimes, and grey and then some of those hot, hot days you think should be here all the time. We’ve done very little swimming (a trip to the beach the other day saw us don more clothes as we sat in the sea mist, the crashing waves only just visible) and we had more breakfasts outside in April and May.
And the veg patch? Plodding along slowly, we did manage to sun-dry some more toms in July, and our stanley plums from the tree we planted in 2009, but in fact there’s not a great deal to do now. No sowing, or potting on, or even weeding, just harvesting which is good. But there are fewer squash this year, I think because of the hot spring, and only 4 (but really delicious) melons. The second crop of french beans are doing well but, like last year, not as tasty as the first crop. At the end of the season I’m going to sit down and see what I have learnt from 2 summers here now, and plan for the year ahead.
Richard is doing wonderfully with the roasties, just two left from the original eight. Another roast chicken tonight (with all the trimmings again of course), and what a lot has been learnt from that. Not just raising them, but the killing, plucking, guttering, boning… and now we must find some more chicken recipes too.
Meanwhile, the photo looks a little dull, doesn’t it? Well, today is the 1 August – and it’s raining!
7 thoughts on “Isso é verão, não é? part 2”
Do chickens have guttering? I didn’t find any! 😉
Ok, I meant gutting!!
Yeah, it raining down south too. What do you mean “no weeding”? Wedds are growing wild in my veg garden and even though I keep on pulling them and feeding them to the chickens I don’t seem to get rid of them.
I think our system of drip watering which delivers water just to our veggies means the weeds don’t get any water and therefore can’t grow. We had more weeds last year when we just sprayed water all over the veggie patch (and it used more water as well)
PS the rain we have had has been so little it’s not been enough for the weeds (or grass)
In fear of sounding incredibly stupid, can you advise me (please) when is the best time to plant seeds of thyme and parsley? I have recently moved to Portugal from another european country, with colder weather and whatnot, I’m not sure if the same rules apply to warmer countries such as Portugal.
Hi Bianca
Personally, if you have a packet of seeds which have hundreds (perhaps thousands!) in I think you can experiment. Having said that I think thyme, which is a hardy perennial and does well here, can be grown almost any time (well, spring to late summer perhaps) whereas parsley, a less-hardy biannual, will probably benefit more from a spring sowing. It needs more water and a more sheltered site than the thyme.
Good luck!