The Journal of Tim Roberts

It’s Sunday - gardening day. Except I don’t have much to do today. The sun is here and everything I set down over the past 12 weeks is coming on strong. The chilies are loving the heat and long periods of daylight, as are the tomatoes. The basil has been used in one of my mother’s pasta dishes, but has also had an agressive pruning to get rid of the final leaves that were destroyed by thrips. They don’t look too impressive at the moment, but the tiny leaves are already powering through. The good thing about basil is that the more you prune it, the more it grows back.

So today’s gardening involves getting some sticks to support the tall chili and tomato plants and repotting some of the cherry tomatoes into individual pots. I’ll sow a second round of basil and some more vegatable crop today. The rest will be happening in the kitchen where I am going to harvest some of my parsley, process it and freeze it in ice cube trays for later use

Last week was pretty bad. Primarily because my girlfriend had to return to the UK for an indefinite period- but on the gardening front two basil plants were lost to thrips and a chili plant blown over and killed by high winds. So it was good to wake up this morning to see the first flowering on one of my Cayenne plants. Most of the plants now how plenty of buds, but this is the first one to flower.

Also coming on are the “Tears of Fire” seedlings. These will hopefully produce small, but potent round chilies that have a vibrant red colour and provide both a cullinary and an ornamental use. Also coming on alongside these are some tabasco seedlings. I plan to use these two together to make a very special organic sauce that I will be selling here soon.

It may not appear that exciting, but it is significant to my chili growing project: the first flower buds are growing. Once they set flowers, with a little bit of help with pollenation (a gentle rub in the flower center), this is where the chilies will begin to grow from. As far as I am aware they will set off a greenish colour and, as they ripen, become deep red cayennes.

I have been comparing my chili growth with other users and most who sowed at the same time as me now have flowers at 12 weeks in. However, those growers are using hydroponics. So far my seeds have germinated and grown to their current state with plenty attention and only natural light.

2 weeks ago I received some “Tears of Fire” and “Tabasco” seeds from a supplier in Tenerife. I sowed them, somewhat nonchalantly, in two small plastic tubs that were lying around. Since then the weather has been wet in Spain, good for the soil, but not generally good for the poor seeds that were left out by accident result in drenched soil. I had given up on them. However two days ago the first green loop pierced the soil, and now I have 7 seedlings developing. Sometimes you just don’t have to try.

Due to space limitations I have had to move my lettuce, cherry tomatoes and herbs outside permanently. Likewise, I didn’t hold up much hope for them against the combination of hard rain, high winds (common) and the recent bout of thrips. Two weeks on, the lettuce are thriving; the tomato seedlings, although slightly damaged, are still growing; and the herbs are flourishing - so much so, we used some of our own corriander in yesterday’s evening meal. Just have a look at the photographic evidence below.

Those pesky little thrips hit my tomatoes, lettuce, corriander and chilies. All I have been able to do so far is to try the tiniest bit of washing up liquid in water and spray them a couple of times. Coupled with the removal of bad leaves this seems to be doing the trick, but for how long - who knows.

Saturday was a nice day so I did some planting with the kids. We put our first flowers on the terrace - which is pretty ironic as after my comments whilst watching Monty Don doing his stuff on the BBC on Friday night: “I don’t think I could get into floral gardening”. It is nice to have something in amongst all the green. I’m not sure what the flowers were as we left the kids to their own devices in the garden center. Their brief was most certainly pink and blue - which was achieved.

The rest of the planting involved repotting some of the 30 cherry tomato seedlings as they are starting to overcrowd each other. Additionally I set down some “Tears of Fire” seeds and “Tabasco” that I got from a supplier in Tenerife. I chose these more over look than usefulness. The Tears of Fire produce small plants with a few small, shiny, brilliant red round peppers. The Tabasco should give me bushier plants with small yellow and red peppers that grow upwards. The trend in the terrace garden, then, seems to be towards more vibrant colours for the summer.

When the weather is good in Spain, a week is a long time for the garden. Everything has thrived in the sun and with good watering. However, I am keeping the lettuce rationed to just a couple of hours sun every day so as not encourage bolting. There are so may happenings to report on, pictures are probably easier. In order of appearance below: Cherry tomato seedlings; young lettuce; Cayenne chili; corriander; basil and Plum Roma tomato seedlings.

On Thursday I noticed the roots of some of my chili plants were starting to appear out of the bottom of their fledgling pots. An emergency trip to the supermarket (most things are closed because of Easter) and I procured some plastic pots of a larger size. 1 hour later and all the chilies have a new home that they can grow into. Whilst I was at it I repotted all of my basil plants from their tub into the individual pots that had held the smaller chilies.

It’s the middle of march and the rain has left southern Spain again. The temperatures are the better side of the mid-twenties here which is great for the chilies.

Out of the 30 large cayennes I planted I now have 10 healthy plants. Sitting behind my glass doors on the terrace they are coming on strong. At 6 weeks they now have 5 or 6 leaves each and stand about 3 inches tall.

No pests, but some slight burning on the end of a leaf after watering them in the sun (won’t be doing that again).

Last week my basil crop took a hit after I left them out in high winds. Out of 20 plants I salvaged 10 and put them in intensive care. As you can see, a bit of TLC and repotting has brought the survivors round again.

The leaves are now giving off that beautiful aroma and I can’t wait until I can pick them and turn them into pesto!

Now it’s to the new recruits. After 4 days my newly planted escarole endives (a curly salad plant) have started to germinate. Alongside them I have some lettuce; cherry tomatoes; parsley; oregano and corriander.

Finally a big thanks to Chris from the Chillies Galore Forum who sent 4 varieties of plum tomato seeds out to Spain from the UK after her heard about my next project: a chili and tomato soup made from home grown produce. Look out shortly for my adventures with these and hopefully the world’s best tomato, chili (and probably basil) soup.