64 EWN
29 August - 4 September 2013
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Growing tasty and healthy vegetables GROWING YOUR OWN: Start making preparations in order to have your first crop for Christmas.
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F you have never grown vegetables in Spain now is a good time to start making preparations in order to have some first crops for Christmas. If you are already an active vegetable gardener there is much to do from harvesting and storing summer crops to preparing beds for October plantings. We look at both this week.
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1. Starting a vegetable garden a. First decide on the scale of your vegetable growing. This can range from growing a few vegetables in a few large
Dick Handscombe
Gardening Corner By Spain’s best known expatriate gardening author living in Spain for 25 years.
pots and containers to a four square metre raised bed in a corner of a garden to a full plot of 100 to 400 m2. b. If you are planning a mini garden collect the necessary number of containers. Choose ones that will look aesthetic or can be disguised.
As a half way house to a raised bed an old bath is ideal as a mini vegetable bed. We assume that you do not have a compost heap so fill all con-tainers with a mix of potting compost and the worm humus that is now available in garden centres in bags, or use a bag of organic fibrous compost prepared from goat manure which is sold at many local agricultural cooperatives. c. If you plan raised beds start to build the walls as soon as possible. Aim at a 30 to 40 centimetres minimum height and a width of 70 to 100 centimetres wide. The
length can be anything from two metres to thirty metres! Why not a long raised bed along the back of the garden or along one side? When the walls are built fill the bed with a mix of compost and soil. If you have a compost heap use the next batch of finished compost. If you live near an eco park that sells inexpensive compost, buy that. If not purchase bags of organic compost from a garden centre or agricultural cooperative. Aim for a 25 to 35 per cent compost to 65 to 75 per cent soil mix. d. If you plan a large plot clear it of all weeds