t’s been a sweltering hot ,hot July. And very dry. Have been mainly here on the homestead. Irrigation has been the main field activity. The olives grow slowly.

Bonji and I have been having lunch under the carob tree. Yes, unfortunately I have to keep ehr tied up now. Summer anthems have been lacking but I liked listening to bits of the International Music Festival at Sines transmitted by RTP3 radio. Limon and her girlfriends! 😀 . No beach as yet due to lack of time and logistical capability. I still have not found a Man and Van to transport my carobs. Not as easy to do as back in the UK if you require paperwork here.

So I have had some decent tomatoes. Could have been a better crop if I had looked after them better. Especially the giant variety ones.I am growing corn/maize for the first time! It’s going well. There were just twelve seeds in the pack. I got the growing tips from the BBC’s Gardeners World website. They also show you how to grow potatoes too. 🙂 Unfortunately I don’t have prepared soil for this. I planted some sweet potato but it’s not growing strongly.

Plums. I had some good early red plums. And then some very good yellow plums. But after these it has gone wrong. The Santa Rosa (red skin/yellow flesh) and the black plums are heavily infested. Looks like the same small white fly whose larvae eats the leaves. The plums get bitten and then spoil.

I have a pest problem with the peaches as well. They weren’t many to start off with. And then the insects. The yellow peaches were/are full of worms. I got a single good one from two trees after spraying 5 times. The paraguiaya (rosy coloured flattened ones) have the same problem. I will take them off early and salvage what I can.

The pear trees have a problem too. Looks like a fungal or mite infestation. I am not sure which as yet. I will try soapy water. The pears have already mostly dropped off. They are tiny but good. Been using them in porridge. Oh I finally have figs from 1 good fig tree. It grew slowly. I planted it in 2016. Lampa preta variety! They are very sweet.

The battery of guava trees is nice and green. That’s all for now. Have a good summer!