y n o c l Ba s r e n e d r a G property
grow it!
M
ark, who lives in Watergardens, has a veritable feast growing on his terrace and some more unusual plants. “Swiss chard — acelga — grows really well and I plant them inside half a pallet (the ones used by forklifts). The plants do really well in those,” he explains. “All I do is line the pallet with the porous material you can buy in most garden centres to prevent excess growth of weeds. I have found that small melon varieties and pumpkin also thrive in pallets. The huge advantage of growing your own pumpkin, courgettes etc is that you can use the large yellow male flower which is edible,” he adds. “Delicious in tempura batter and I’ve never seen them in a shop.” The most commonly grown vegetable in Gibraltar from the responses I received, are tomatoes. It seems they are springing up all over the place, in pallets, in pots in grow-bags and in gardens. “Nothing like tomatoes that you pick up at the precise moment of ripeness and even if over ripe fantastic for sauces,” says Arturo of the Upper Town, who is lucky enough to have his own little veg-
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etable patch. In fact, the problem many seasoned balcony gardeners I spoke to had was, what to do with the excess tomatoes at the end of the summer? “I ended up with many more than I could use over the summer and decided to freeze whole cherry tomatoes and make sauces with the other varieties.
It seems despite the limitations on space and gardens in Gibraltar, the Rock is full of dedicated growers of fruit and veg. I am fortunate to have a tiny garden on Town Range in which I nurture organic herbs, tomato plants, lettuces, chillies and raspberries. Recently I posted a photo of my haul of tomatoes that day on a social media site and was delighted to find that all over Gibraltar little pockets of greenness exist in the most surprising places.
I didn’t regret it,” says Luis of Marina Court. “The cherry tomatoes were also wonderful straight from frozen when making tomato sauces.” Barbara is gowing grapes on her terrace in Rosia and says “Grape vines attach themselves easily but you can help by adding a tall trellis. The pot needs to be tall but
no need for it to be too big. The grapes taste wonderful and the nice thing is you can pick one as you go past it — that’s the most enjoyable bit!” There is nothing to compare to the taste of you own freshly picked herbs and most people have space for a few pots here and there. Maria in Ocean Village says mint
GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE • AUGUST 2013