The Sierras Magazine, covering the Altiplano de Granada

My intention when setting up this blog was to add information about the area but also to put my articles that I write in The Sierras Magazine which covers the Altiplano de Granada and also the surrounding areas.  We have just printed our 28th edition.  The articles are mainly anecdotal about my disastarous gardening abilities - but also they do give information about the climate and just generally about living in Spain.

The following went into August's edition 

CONTENTMENT! BY THE DESPERATE GARDENER

I must admit I am feeling pretty pleased with our garden at the moment. Although it is an up hill struggle to get everything watered, we do for the first time, have quite a selection of fruit and vegetables growing. I admit at this moment we are only half way through the summer and it will only get hotter but I am feeling pretty content, with the contents of my vegetable patch.

I think the wonderful thing about growing any produce in your garden is the speed it appears. One day you can be pricking out those side shoots on your tomatoes (some may remember an article I wrote when the Sierras first started many moons ago called To prick or not to prick! - this year I am definitely pricking, as they went completely haywire!) and the next day as if by magic little tomatoes start to appear.
We have quite a selection this year, from yellow pear - oddly enough yellow and pear shaped, San Morenzo - lovely plum tomatoes, Brandy wine - an older variety that is supposedly the world’s finest tasting ‘beefsteak’ to Purple calabash - and I quote - “What a tomato! Quite beautiful, complex taste, rich and delicious!” All of these we have grown from seed, they all started off brilliantly but the very wet May we had proved to be a problem - many of them drowned, poor things! The failures were Gardeners delight - a type of cherry tomato and sadly, although not a tomato - jalapeno peppers - they just couldn’t take all the rain!
As back up though I still bought a selection of ready grown seedlings from the market. Possibly I hadn’t noticed last time, but there seemed quite a good variety - if you know what they are in Spanish! I asked for pequeña and sure enough there was a ‘cherri’ variety, these are doing very well with lots of little tomatoes growing. I also opted, I think, for a large ‘beefsteak’ - great for making tomato sauces, some chilli peppers - muy picante and bell peppers - I normally get given tons of the papery green thin ones - but in my house we all prefer the lovely big juicy red peppers - so fingers crossed!
What else have we got? Well the rhubarb is still holding on, we have many still in pots but the success rate in the garden has been quite good, two have been planted in my ‘inner sanctum’ and if they do survive I imagine will take over, if my memory as a child of the huge rhubarb in my granddad’s garden is correct.
Broccoli, although flooded out in May, are looking positively perky in the garden, two have even started to flower broccoli!

Our sweet corn shot out from seed almost the instant it was planted in pots. I know the Spanish grow corn or Maize for their animals and this is harvested when the kernels are dry and mature. I was told years ago that corn on the cob picked fresh off the plant was the best thing ever - sweet corn is picked when the corn is immature and eaten as a vegetable rather than a grain and is actually a mutation of field corn.
As soon as it is picked the sugars start converting into starch, therefore sweet corn stores poorly and must be eaten, canned or be frozen before the kernels become tough and starchy. I hope this is successful because in South Africa I used to eat it all the time, shop bought and that was pretty delicious, so fresh off the plant - gosh who knows, I can’t wait! Sweet corn needs to be planted in squares rather than lines for pollination and I have just read via the internet that sweet corn has a recessive gene so needs to be separate from field corn - I hope there’s none to near - imagine my disappointment if I end up with chicken food!
Beetroot! These really struggled at first, planted into the grounds as tiny seedlings that we had grown from seed, they were almost washed away and at one point seem to have disappeared completely, but as soon as the rain stopped and the sun came out, they started to flourish.
Fruit trees, well success here is limited, our quince flowered or rather tried to, until the ants got involved. Apple trees, one has two apples! The other was attacked by those pesky aphids but on a positive note I sprayed them with very diluted washing up liquid and what was looking pretty ghastly now has lots of new green growth - but alas no fruit! The pomegranate has an abundance of flowers - so only time will tell. Apricot or albaricoque - I never remember that word, is flourishing but again no fruit. Our nectarine was attacked early in the season by aphids and I thought would not survive, but again a spray of the washing up liquid seems to have done the trick and it has lots of new growth.
Strawberries fruit but we seem to have a thief in the house because before either myself or my husband manage to get one, they mysteriously disappear - Roxy (4)!!!!!!!
And finally this is what makes it all worthwhile, our lovely plum tree not only looks great but is covered in plums, all ripe for the picking. And yesterday while watering the garden, I couldn’t resist sampling one of those luscious plums, still warm from the heat of the sun, a little bit sweet and a little bit tart but absolutely delicious - sheer bliss!