Growing veggies in Spain is just fabulous fun – you must try it!!

If you are lucky enough to own a little piece of Andalusia, and you haven’t done so yet, you have just GOT to get veggie-crazy!  There is simply no excuse not to, as this wonderful climate that we live in is a vegetable’s idea of heaven.

The nicest thing about growing your own veggies here in Spain is that you can practically have vegetables and fruit ALL YEAR ROUND!  Find a good patch – it doesn’t have to be more than 4m x 4m, and if possible under a tree or some shade that moves around with the passing of the sun each day.  If your soil is not perfect, mix an area with good soil brought from outside, and if you are in an apartment or town house, GET OUT THOSE POTS!!  Don’t forget to set up some sort of watering system for your plot.  This can be a  hosepipe from an outside tap to your plot, with a central dispurser, obtained from any garden centre.  Water in the evenings during the warmer months and ensure the soil is always a little damp somewhere within one fingers’ length under the surface.  Watch out for green runner beans – unless they get a huge amount of water, even if they look good, they may be stringy and hard-skinned – so best reserved for Autumn and Winter growing.

Strawberries, lettuces, tomatoes, onions, spinach, carrots, potatoes, herbs, melons, green peppers, beetroot, beans – you name it, it grows here! 

Plant ‘delicate’ veggies in the Autumn – lettuces, spinach, peas, coliflour and other such tender species are best in the milder months, and there is nothing better than a fresh lettuce from your garden served on Christmas day!  And as each lettuce is pulled up, replace it with a baby one – that way you don’t get all your lettuces at once.

You can buy baby plants for cents at the “viveros” and garden centres, or grow from seed and then thin out later.  Put rows of onions and leaks with next to rows of carrots (the carrots you can sow from seed straight into the ground) – this will stop any carrot fly affecting your crop. 

If you are in an area where there are a lot of birds, you might stick a few canes in the ground and throw a net over the top until the plants are established and less tender – there’s nothing more frustrating than growing vegetables just to feed the local area’s bird population!  There are practically no slugs here, although snails  can be a problem at certain times of the year.   Put gravel around the veggie plot and crushed egg shells - they find it really difficult to get over this!  Also, sink clean jamjars filled with beer into the ground to surface level, at points around the veggies – snails will go to this, get drunk and drown happily - (typically Spanish!)

Try aromatic herbs too.  There is peppermint (menta) as well as ordinary mint (hierba buena), and try out hierba Maria Luisa, and camomile (manzanilla), great, medicinal infusion herbs and very popular in Spain.  In many parts of Andalusia you will also find wild esparragus growing – transfer some to your plot but watch out for prickles- and also the wonderful smelling and deliciously tasty fennel (hinojo).

By March, you should be planting more heat-abiding veggies, ready for the Summer.  Tomatoes and green peppers do well in the hotter months, but by this time there is little point in planting too many of the delicates, as they will “shoot up” and try to flower – not good!  (Having said that, I had NO IDEA how beautiful the lettuce flower can be, so you might like to leave one or two to check this out for yourselves!)  Melons and cougettes are fine in the hotter months too.

In July and August, apart from watering the above heat-abiding types, give yourself and your plot a break.  In late September, dig the plot over, add a tiny amount of natural fertiliser and start again! 

ENJOY – ONCE YOU START YOU CAN’T STOP!

Spanish Language Practice

Veggie vocab

patatas (potatoes)
tomates (tomatoes)
zanahorias (carrots)
cebollas (onions)
cebolletas (spring onions)
remolacha (beetroot)
coliflor (coliflour)
col (cabbage)
espinacas (spinach)
acelgas (a local spinach, with large leaf – very tasty)
pimientos verdes (green peppers)
calabaza (pumpkin)
calabacín (courgette)
lechuga (lettuce)
semillas (seeds)
manguera (hosepipe)
riego (irrigation)
irrigation system (sistema de riego)
planting soil (tierra para plantar)
verduras / hortalizas (vegetables)

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