And So We Enter July

June has finally departed and we bring our little gardening project into full summer.  July is here and boy is it hot.  This is a time in Greece for relaxation, beaching it, swimming everyday and of course wonderful Greek salads and tzatziki and bread. (More of which later)  Politically and Economically we are well and truly screwed so lets grow some more food folks


Although in theory it is holiday time  our members of the collective are still busy as heck, meaning that for a long time we have not ALL been up to the garden at the same time..  We have had a couple of weeks of successes and some increasing concerns.  As we all know in Greece when its hot  you need to water early n the morning and late at night.  You  cannot (Coz you will expire) and should not water in the heat of the sun. Not having an automatic watering system has meant that we are visiting the plot individually or in pairs maybe five out of seven evenings.  This is the result.  As you can see things are wilting a bit.  

 At first we thought it might be white fly

 As we did have rather a lot of them,  but with persistent spraying with water with a touch of liquid soap, and  then spraying water with marigold essence (sounds like a yummy cocktail)  I think we are holding the little buggers at bay.  Anyway  your opinions would be welcome.  We are also considering  due to the intensity of the sun here whether we should cover the toms with protective netting..
while we are on the subject of toms  A thought perused its way through my diminishing brain cells.  Some tomatoes we planted secondarily and without plastic sheeting to keep the weeds at bay,   do not seem so water starved  (if that is indeed the problem)  as those that have plastic sheeting down.  So,  I dug round the roots and widened the gap  round each plant  and lets see if that makes a difference
Again your feed back would be extremely welcome.


On to a  more happier note.  The lettuces and spring onion have been doing marvelously well and are now coming to an end.  while the other summer crops are not looking too bad.  Helena talks to them a lot, Brenda sings or hums and I  throw buckets of water

We are regularly picking cucumbers, and still have rocket coming up which although looks a bit mangy is absolutely delicious.

 The melons are growing   somewhat slowly though  but I guess that's what they do.  They just  don't appear overnight.  I don't know does anyone else  make the connection between melons and natural childbirth... may be this is why i expect the melons to appear fully grown???

 Courgettes and aubergines  (eggplants for US readers)  both looking ok.  Peppers need a little more lurrrv and attention  Helena  come on talk the talk here.  The basil is superb  (lots of pesto) but embarrassingly enough the dill has not taken  so I walked out of the filed and picked it from the hedgerow (DUHHHH).  Generally we are satisfied with our efforts and  still enjoying it immensely.  Oh a little old Greek village lady passed by last night and said how wonderful our Mr Darcey was and what a good job we had done on him  (She said nothng about the food we were growing !!! HUM)  The she pointed out in the inimitable Greek way of   .... Look I'm not really interfering but you could do it better if you did it my way.......   That Mr D had lost a glove  (we kinda knew)  and we should find him another glove so he was symmetrical (AGAIN not a word about the plants...)  the she toddled off.  I was tempted to shout after her  but instead  I offered up an extremely polite  ' thank you for your concerns and interest.  Have a good evening"   (But what about the plants!!!)   grr

Helena  watering

Brenda  spraying

Theresa  contemplating life I think

Mr Darcey   

The last of the lettuces

 so  Lettuce see what happens this week  (did you get that!!!!) meanwhile here is what you should be doing with those cucumbers,  Oh Helena is puzzling why our cucumbers are not straight..  I said surely better as they are not stuffed with GM   Some are quite curly  but I don't think it really matters

Ok  so  How To make Decent Tzatziki

Ingredients
Yogurt (Greek)
Garlic (loads)
Cucumber (from garden)
Salt n Pepper
Olive Oil
Parsley/dill (from garden) if you want

First peel and grate the cucumber

then using your hands  squeeze the liquid out of the cucumber.

Add Yogurt  to cucumber  I used 6 tablespoons

Add garlic , 6 cloves  more or less to taste, salt pepper then as much oil as you feel it will hold

Done   eat with crispy bread.  I added a bit of parsley and dill from the garden.  sometimes I add paprika .  You can add lemon juice if you like   or a bit of vinegar...  Delicious and very healthy