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

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.

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.