Tag: potager
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The Potager in Winter: Cabbage & Co.
Cabbage works like a charm here – at least if planted over the winter. I usually plant cauliflower and Brussel sprouts in early or late fall. They’re just fine with colder temperatures and as soon as the weather gets warmer you can watch them grow bigger by the day. Last year I planted a little…
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The Potager in Winter: Lamb’s Lettuce & Fedia
Growing vegetables during the Mediterranean winter is as easy as sowing/planting in October/November and harvesting from January. Last fall I sowed sugar snap peas, cima di rapa, wild chicory, salsify, purple cauliflower, radiccio, lattughino, lamb’s lettuce and fedia etc. Lamb’s lettuce is one of the easiest and most satisfying lettuce crops – it’s not prone…
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Rheum – Rhubarb
Planting Rhubarb in this Mediterranean garden turned out to be a successful experiment. In August 2022 I planted a “Frambozen Rood” in half-shade. Despite regular watering it did suffer a lot from the heat. During the garden re-ordering in December 2023 I moved it next to the wall of the garden shed where the soil…
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Goji – the Berry from Hell
It’s very difficult to cultivate small soft berry fruit here – too hot, too dry. Goji berries however aren’t scared of anything. Heat? Drought? No problem. Along with their dainty little flowers and pretty berries, they have the personality of a Mongolian conqueror and start spreading everywhere underground. I found that I didn’t really like…
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Tropaeolum
Since Tropaeolum majus stems from rather more humid and/or mountainous places in South America it’s easy to see that this is not really a Mediterranean or rather a drought-resistant plant. That said it will work in late spring and early summer as an aphid trap in the vegetable garden. In the heat of summer it…
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Spilling the Beans…
It was surprisingly hard to find the kind of beans or peas that will really work for us in this mediterranean garden. Broad Beans / Vicia faba Broad Beans at first seemed a really good idea. Especially because they can be planted over the winter when the dreaded black aphids aren’t around. I planted them…