A day in the life of a Spanish Garden

Boy am I glad the weather has cooled down, I just couldn't wait to get back in the garden!

Granted the weather hasn't been so hot for a while now in Spain, however, it took me and Campo Girl a while to get motivated to get back out in the garden.

We have both started planting again and potatoes have been the main issue for us both this Autumn, with the credit crunch evident all around us, growing vegetables and fruits ourselves is paramount.

This is my first attempt at growing potatoes and thank goodness we have a valued member on our gardening forum to help us out with that, good guidelines and help where that is concerned!

I also planted Bell Peppers, Cauliflower, Leeks, Tomatoes and Carrots, I really hope we have some success with this little lot, it all went in from seed so who knows!

We turned over all our soil before planting and spent a good hour or so weeding the area and preparing, hard work but if we get good veggies from it I am all for it.

On another note, we had 2 very gorgeous birds land in our garden on Saturday and then again on Sunday, we think they are from the parrot family but not sure which exact breed.

We have posted pictures on our Flickr album of these beautiful birds and we have also posted pictures of a Gold Finch on a thistle.

Any tips for gardening potatoes? Come join us in the forum, discuss and help others.

What a week

Well, we have had a busy week planting and weeding, our plam trees arrived that were given to my husband from his brother - Dan (the other hoe's son) started his new job on Saturday morning working 3 hours every week, helping us in the garden.

They had some initial problems digging the hole! Where we decided to place the palms is a rocky area at the back of our garden which is a lovely spot for the palms and some cactus but it is very rocky and the soil could be better, although, now it is all weeded (thanks to Dan!) the plants will have some room to breathe and grow now - lots of water and perhaps some compost this weekend - we should be rocking!

He was bought 2 palm trees (2 are 15 feet tall) and then 2 small ones (which we plan on putting into pots), along with cactus and an Aloe Vera.

This back garden is not very well protected (security wise) so we thought cactus would be a great way of deterring the robbers - let's face it would you walk through a load of cactus to steal a TV or would you go next door where you can just walk through the gate? I know which I would choose.

Gina's strawberries are growing strong and she should have some lovely fruit very soon - mine are struggling a bit, the plants themselves look good but the fruit is very small and I need more straw because they are starting to rot! My tomatoes are also drooping every day and I am watering them, the tomatoes are gorgeous and tasty though - complete opposite to the strawberries!

Got any good tips for growing strawberries? Please share them ;)

Along with the tomatoes, cactus, palms, strawberries we also planted an avocado tree and a graepfruit - again the avocado does not look happy since we have taken him out of his pot - he is irrigated well every day, surrounded by good old horse poo and still he is weeping - I am sure that it is because he has only just been moved from his pot and sometimes plants take time to settle into their new home.