Tuesday, May 29, 2012

27 May - Mr. Darcy has competition

Move over Mr. Darcy!
A bit of confusion this time around since some of us thought we were doing a morning run while others belived it was an evening run, which it was but hey ho!

Weeding was the first job of the day so lucky for us an additional bod (above) came along for the ride and ended up helping to weed half the plot!  And then, god forbid that we forget, dig a hole for his Mum so she could get rid of her vegetable peelings which had been fermenting on the home balcony for the last 2 years!  Yup 2 years!

Checking over our babies


An aubergine

Another hot pepper

Rocket
The beans planted at the same time as the rocket, show no sign of growing just yet.  Spinach was sown to go along with the rocket!

An expected outbreak of white fly all over our toms, so the potion was retrieved from various parts of the farm (our fat friend Attilla took an interest in the plastic bottles); all toms received a shower of magic nicotine potion!

Weeding completed, ladybirds checked out and a butterfly observed we had a rest in the shade of our faithful tree before taking one more look over our project.

Faithful Tree




and then our first little harvest,,,

Oops!

A few young lettuce leaves and basil for Sunday salad!
Tip for the week:

All hands on deck when it comes to weeding!

Note to selves:

Get more plastic sheeting!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Get Sowing Gals!

 Green Cross Parcels


All the way from the UK 
 with love from Annie and Jimmy who follow our blog faithfully.
Many thanks and we will start sowing on Sunday! 




All the way from Spain

Many thanks to Cousin Chris, luckily the instructions are in basic Spanish and have pictures!  And with the organic growth accelerator expect to see some amazing photos of large veg.









Monday, May 21, 2012

May 21st - Admiring our Work

Our humorous and enormously talented administrator, author and publisher of our blog is away for a few days so I shall try to fill the shoes to the best of my ability - I forgot to tell you in Growth Spurt as I also forgot to mention that we planted beans.

Anyways to get back to Mother Nature and our admiration of her and our work.

ADMIRING MOTHER NATURE AND OUR WORK
Helena showing us onions!

Relaxing or taking time out or sowing seeds in the shade of ye ol'faithful tree!

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm - no idea!

Teresa getting ready to rush off and cook a 3 course gourmet Sunday lunch (not for us)
Gathering ingredients for potion (see below)

Tip of the Week:

Well actually this refers to the first post of the blog with the first tip, but here the Collective (coven) has concoted a potion to adminster (spray form) to our plants.  A blast of nicotine water to keep those sticky b* bugs off of our food!



Bake in sun for about 10 days, strain and serve!

May 21st - Growth Spurt

Sunday morning saw us gather again for our weekly fix of getting up close to Mother nature and what a lovely sunny and dry morning it was too, the only thing lacking, and not missed, was the strong smell!



Mr. Darcy was waiting for us with open arms and a smile on his face when he saw how delighted we were to see that our plants had grown and some were in flower and some with fruit.



THE GROWTH SPURT


Pepper

Tomatoe

Cherry Toms

Pondering over the lettuces!

So after checking over the growth of all our plants and make notes about an aubergine plant starting with a pale yellow shade on lower leaves, a little bit of weeding, organic pellets of fertilizer put in ground near to each plant; we decided to get some more piping down, sow more seeds and general get our hands dirty!


 Thanassis kindly assisted us again in the laying of new pipes so that we can increase our crops, he also provided us with a tap so we can wash off our hands but must remember that it is NOT DRINKABLE!

The Tap
Seeds sown!  Pumpkin and Rokka (rocket)

More onions planted out

What will it be? - Lisa sowing more seeds to be carefully raised to seedlings before transplanting!








Tuesday, May 15, 2012

May 13th Meet Mr Darcy

One of the huge advantages of being out in nature is the contact with the wildlife out there.  One of the huge disadvantages of being out in nature is the contact with the wildlife out there.  Don't you just love life's inconsistencies. Well to minimize the second we decided to enlist the help of a protector, a comforter, a hero, a  larger than life presence to ward off unwanted intruders

MEET MR DARCY





Note the authentic C 19th blouse complete with period coiffure and overtly proud and arrogant yet tantalizingly attractive haughty smile

(I thought about quickly building a lake  throwing him him just to watch him emerge  but  weeding duties called)



So the first task at hand was the erection of Mr Darcy.  Teamwork and a bit of banging and the job was done






 First the metal pole to support his  spine






Then the raising








And finally   to a rousing chorus of Always look on the Bright Side of Life






Ok  now to the gardening side  of things this week  Well unfortunately we have had to say goodbye to a couple of lettuces,  they just couldn't stand the pressure and didn't make it.  Thankfully though this week they were our only casualties.  Everything looked fine and amazingly some things or should i say plants really  actually looked as though they had grown a bit



As you can clearly see  a few plants have increased their size or width and quite surprisingly seem to be fairly happy.

One end seemed a little water logged  maybe due to too much pressure in the pipe so we will have to investigate that and maybe move the courgettes but we will keep you informed about that.  It has rained quite a bit this week so may be it was just too much rain.






In terms of maintenance this week  we wanted to spread a little sulfuric happiness  We have an invasion of ants and the like and evidently they don't like sulfur so we dosed  'em  good and proper














A closer look at the sulfur spreading  hopefully this will keep the little pests at bay








Once the hard work was done we then planted a few onions and then time to test out our new rest area





It was of course mothers day so a toast was made to our all mothers present or absent, and another hard days work accomplished.









TIP OF THE WEEK

Keep ants and slugs at bay by lightly spreading sulfur powder

Monday, May 7, 2012

Phase 2 May 3rd to May 5th Buying and Planting

After all the manure spreading (see we're getting posh already ) of the previous week, we felt like we needed a little shopping therapy.   No not for us the posh boutiques and department stores  but  yep  the good ole garden centre.  The aim:  to purchase in small baby form   (no? not correct terminology   ok   puppy form... again no? OK bigger than seeds  smaller than edibles?) plants that would one day soon (perhaps even before Greece has a viable government) turn into delicious,  organic  and more importantly  quite cheap food!


So the rendezvous was set one Wednesday morning  Chez Marantos and the decision process started.










Decisions  decisions.  Is it to be  green or light green or red and round or red and flat  (Peppers)   or  Little or  oblong or round (tomatoes).  How many egg plants does one family need? Depends how may egg plants one family eats.  Well do you
stuff yours or not?







How big does parsley grow and how much do you use a year.  So this went on for a short while, somewhat like trying to predict the winner of the eurovision song contest we were faced with dilemmas involving local politics (red or green), location..  the (tomato block vote)  and stage presence (well marigolds look nice and they keep bugs away)


Decision however were made  quite quickly  being women the process was painless.  Perhaps that's also because wanting to stick to the healthy Mediterranean diet that we all  love, we know what we eat.


So to the list of what was purchased.  At this point you may beginning to realise the lack of expertise in some of us (me I'm a city gal) so in most cases Latin names have been avoided.


Veg n Stuff




17 Tomatoes
   10 Gali  (normal)
     3 Italian plum
     2 Cherry
     2 Beef




10 Peppers 
     1 light green thin-skinned for ye old stuffing of them
     3 dark green
     1 hot hot hot
     2 long green ones
     3 Florentinas
4 Cucumbers
    2 regular  and 2 mini
5 Egg Plants
    1 Tsakonis    (white and purple)
    2 long and purple
    2 round and hopefully also purple
3 Zucchini
    2 long and 1 round
Melons
3 Water Melons and 5 Honey Dew Melons


Bag of sulfur 5 Kg Organic Fertilizer and meters of plastic


 Total Spent    under 40 Euros


Then Herbs and Stuff

3 Parsley,  1 Sage  (I feel a song coming on here ),  1 Marjoram, 2 Oregano, 3  Dill, 7 Basil (including 2 kinds of pesto Basil) and 6 Marigolds


Total Cost  under 15 Euros










  Plants and Helena on their way to their new home,

















So arriving at the field  on Sunday afternoon we were ready to get stuck in and start planting.  It had been plowed over during the week by the intrepid Thannasis so all the lovely ripe manure would be at one with the rest of the soil  and we were amazed how it looked.




Our field,  neatly plowed.. and obvious pile of shit now really evenly spread.  But  the smell was still pretty potent even from a distance

















LET THE PLANTING BEGIN  AND THE FIRST BASIL GOES IN!!
















 Fiona  being helpful as ever










A few herbs  looks like dill and basil




 the plastic sheeting going down


 or not   as it was a tad windy
 ah yes  we were also given 70 lettuces
the idea behind the plastic sheeting is to keep the weeds at bay .  sounds good in theory   there may be a slight question mark over whether the wind may get the better of it and carry everything off to Kingdom Come by next week  (Bit of suspense here folks  comparable to  the Who shot Bobby   or  not.... )
 Discussion over how far zucchini should be from other plants of their kind.  Evidently they are not nice chaps and at the drop of a hat will try to cross pollinate with other similar veg. Well I never!!!
 Nearly done 
 Tomatoes going in.  they are fairly friendly and don't seem to have problems with anyone  but I have been told they need a good stick later on.






Finished Stage 2
























A big thank you to Thannasis for his support, . inspiration,  use of the land  but mostly his tractor , water pipes and water 


Next week  ...stay tuned.  ...Have they grown,, have any fallen by the wayside, have pests been kept at bay
the stress  the tension  Oh my God the suspense..


TIP OF THE WEEK


1.  DONT FORGET THE BEER NEXT WEEK


2. MARIGOLDS


Were you paying attention when I said we bought marigolds... Why  why  why you ask




Yes they are pretty  but more importantly.   and here I quote   Marigolds - The marigold is probably the most well known plant for repelling insects. French marigolds repel whiteflies and kill bad nematodes. Mexican marigolds are said to offend a host of destructive insects and wild rabbits as well. If you choose marigolds for your garden they must be scented to work as a repellant. 


I quite like the idea of watching Mexican Marigolds grow and drinking Tequila  with our own lime.. Note to self  plant lime tree.


so now you know
til next week.. adieu