Gardening in the East Algarve: April
Apr 23rd 2015, 9:47 pm
#16
Forum Regular
Joined: Mar 2013
Location: central portugal
Posts: 46
Re: Gardening in the East Algarve: April
Thanks for that info GeniB. Did you put the clippings from your hedges etc straight onto the soil or did you chip them first. our piece of land had eucaliptus trees on it which were all grubbed up about 4 years ago and the land just left to it's own devices so we have a real issue with lack of nutrients in the soil. What kind of quantities of compost do the co-ops sell and do they deliver in a huge truck or something.
Apr 24th 2015, 6:59 pm
#17
Smokn Joy
Thread Starter
Joined: Dec 2014
Location: Wonderful Portugal
Posts: 774
Re: Gardening in the East Algarve: April
Hmmmm So a cubic meter per 'unit' = 1,000L of water my bill says the cost of a 'unit' is 0.50. guess I'll go ask in person as we used 2,000L of water (according to the meter reading) over 2-weeks. Hmmmmm But thanks bunches EMR
Apr 26th 2015, 3:44 am
#19
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Nov 2013
Posts: 6,313
Re: Gardening in the East Algarve: April
Thanks for that info GeniB. Did you put the clippings from your hedges etc straight onto the soil or did you chip them first. our piece of land had eucaliptus trees on it which were all grubbed up about 4 years ago and the land just left to it's own devices so we have a real issue with lack of nutrients in the soil. What kind of quantities of compost do the co-ops sell and do they deliver in a huge truck or something.
Apr 26th 2015, 3:58 am
#20
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Nov 2013
Posts: 6,313
Re: Gardening in the East Algarve: April
Urgent you do that Munster as it's not unusual to find you have a leak somewhere.We had one.Only discovered by chance as we had actually not been on the 'grid' so to speak (previous owners) So we got to check our water bill from the get go.It suddenly went nuts one week.We called in a plumber who found water pouring down the wall of the boiler room He literally had to excavate under OH's study balcony. to find the source of this 'nile'.thereby discovering a 'tiny room' which had been walled up for some reason? It contained one of the houses main water pipes.It had been walled up with a ton of builders rubble which over a period of 12yrs had gradually tumbled down onto said pipe and created a miniscule puncture.Over god knows how long? the water built up and finally started to escape through holes made for the electric cables in the boiler room next door..Amazing. Our plumber was superb.Took him three days of excavations.Two more to repair the pipe,plaster the walls,put a new door to the outside of what we christened 'King Tuts other tomb.'.Put metal access grids in the flower beds underneath the balcony and finally re-paint the whole balcony wall.cost? 200 euros' .I DREAD to think what that would have cost in the UK.
Last edited by GeniB; Apr 26th 2015 at 4:04 am.
Apr 26th 2015, 7:34 pm
#21
Smokn Joy
Thread Starter
Joined: Dec 2014
Location: Wonderful Portugal
Posts: 774
Re: Gardening in the East Algarve: April
Wow GeniB, informative story, we're in an apartment right now...so no hidden rooms. On another subject, We are heading with Betsy (our Rhodesian Ridgeback) to meet the future father of her litter in Porto tomorrow afternoon. We've only been in Portugal since the end of January and haven't traveled farther then Albufeira, we plan to leave very early and drive slow and spend a couple of days looking around the area. Would love to meet you, see your garden/land etc. Either on the way up or on the way back on Wed/Thursday... or another time that suits, PM me?
Apr 29th 2015, 9:32 pm
#22
Banned
Joined: Oct 2012
Posts: 26,724
Re: Gardening in the East Algarve: April
Tomato seedlings we bought at Algoz market in mid march are flourishing with fruit already showing.
That is despite the odd weather this spring .
Some are in tubs in a mixture of growbag and normal compost and others just planted in the ground to see how they performed.
No discernable difference.
The worst performing plant is one I covered with a 5 ltr water bottle which I thought would act as a cloche and encourage growth.
That is despite the odd weather this spring .
Some are in tubs in a mixture of growbag and normal compost and others just planted in the ground to see how they performed.
No discernable difference.
The worst performing plant is one I covered with a 5 ltr water bottle which I thought would act as a cloche and encourage growth.
Apr 30th 2015, 8:51 am
#23
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Nov 2013
Posts: 6,313
Re: Gardening in the East Algarve: April
Tomato seedlings we bought at Algoz market in mid march are flourishing with fruit already showing.
That is despite the odd weather this spring .
Some are in tubs in a mixture of growbag and normal compost and others just planted in the ground to see how they performed.
No discernable difference.
The worst performing plant is one I covered with a 5 ltr water bottle which I thought would act as a cloche and encourage growth.
That is despite the odd weather this spring .
Some are in tubs in a mixture of growbag and normal compost and others just planted in the ground to see how they performed.
No discernable difference.
The worst performing plant is one I covered with a 5 ltr water bottle which I thought would act as a cloche and encourage growth.
The one under the cloche might be getting a bit of oxygen starvation!
My best performer is a tomato plant that seeded itself in one of my tubs last year almost killing off my basil plant.When I moved it last month to the veggie plot it already had two quite large tomatoes on it.Fickle
