January in the Algarve.

 

Has been a mixed bag. We hand a couple of weeks where the temperature reached 19ºC during the day and didn't fall below 8ºC at night. We have more normal winter weather now with a cold northwesterly blowing and a excepted maximum of 13ºC. But is is sunny so my solar panels are working well 🙂 . I still haven't built a charge controller for the wind turbine to harness all the wind energy we have here.

 

Gardening/agriculture wise it's been a good month. I have started a green compost heap to try and rapidly compost weeds. However I don't think it will be sufficient so I invested 30 evros in a metre cubed of “stumuâ€.

Stumu

Stumu

I think it is essentially bog. It smells likes the place in Kenya where we used to go to buy earthworms for fishing.

 

 

 

 

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I have applied some on a small vegetable bed where I have planted some cabbages and four cucumber plants. They are under the cut bottles. DSC_0398I am excited about the cucumbers as I have never seem a cucumber plant before!

I added the cardboard layer after planting as this is when I managed to get hold of some. It works very well as a weed suppressant.

 

 

 

organically grown cabbageOf the cabbages I planted in November I got only 1 badly eaten individual. But it was tasty. 🙂 I got some red cabbages growing at the Seven Sisters swale (ditch) so we'll see have they come along. I currently get a steady stream of lettuce leaves, even in winter.

 

 

Jamie Oliver Green Peas

Jamie Oliver Green Peas

The trees are doing well. I have planted another plum tree this weekend  as well as a couple more carob trees. One of the two lemon trees has actually flowered! This is just the beginning of it's second year's growth. I might a actually see a lemon or two this year 🙂 . I need to press on with grafting more olive trees this month as well as try and set some hardwood cuttings of fig and pomegranate.

 

 

 

 

almond bloom

almond bloom

The almond trees are in bloom. I planted 30 almond seeds in late October in fifteen holes. Six almond saplings are now growing! I have also been transplanting some of my young almond trees as I have quite a few of them.

Young almond trees

Young almond trees

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of the EIGHT Jamie Oliver greens pea plants are doing well. I should have really sown more. The Portuguese here grown them in clusters. I'll try this next time. I gt some gowning down at the Seven Sister's Swale too. I palnted 10 potatoes in the heavy clay just to see how they will do. Six potato plants are now growing slowly.

 

 

 

I haven't done much about the floor inside the house or built Primeiro his dog house. I need to built a chicken coop too. We eat a lot of eggs. Manged to solve the horrible smell you used to get after you emptied the urine tank by creating a simple U-bend in the flexible hose.

 

I am slow but I am having fun doing what I manage to do :).