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The Cuban Gardening Revolution

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Introduction With changes under way within Cuba and other countries attitudes to Cuba one can only hope that the gardening and personal health worlds learn from the achievements of the Cubans following the post 1990 crisis when imported foods had to be rapidly replaced by home produced produce. Five years ago we made a months visit to Cuba . Not to the international holiday resorts but to the inner city and countryside garden and agricultural areas. Fortunately we had the chance to meet many persons active in the Cuban Agricultural Revolution which in some ten years made Cuba almost self sufficient in the availability of fresh vegetables, fruit, herbs for natural medicines, and flowers. At the time we wrote up what we had learned which would be of benefit to Mediterranean gardeners and smallholders. As we often reflect back to that holiday we have dusted our original article for a wider audience. What we learnt is reflected in the development of our holistic/slow garden and some
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Seven Useful Products for Spanish Gardeners

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Having recently given the garden shed a spring clean we thought it useful to share our ideas of the most useful products it houses. Products that over the past twenty years of gardening in Spain we have found the most beneficial in terms of reducing the strain of working heavy soils, pruning tough woody growth, daily watering of containers and the incidence of pests and fungal diseases. We wish all had been available and purchased the day we came to Spain! FORK AND SPADES The several broken fork and spade handles and misshapen fork prongs thrown away highlighted the inappropriateness of both typical brands sold both in the UK and in Spain. Although a fork and spade are less used in gardening here in Spain compared to the UK we eventually came across and purchased the Fiskars ergonomically designed products. Both have strong adjustable ( for height) metal handles. MATTOCKS Many of the jobs done in the UK with a fork or spade are done in Spain with mattocks. The range we us
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Spanish Gardens – New Year Resolutions

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The annual baton change Phew, how fast the 2019 gardening year went but how yo-yoing the weather was. Depending where one lives there have been record breaking periods of sun rain floods and gales and shortly before Christmas most of Spain was covered in snow. Almost a white winter but for many rain except on the Costa Blanca that enjoyed a sunny period except for Boxing Day. We even had temperatures of up to twenty seven degrees centigrade between Christmas and the New Year. Did the vegetable garden good. Seeds sown in early November finally broke through and leaf crop plantlets sown in October are maturing fast. However some plants in the flower garden were caught by a night of minus three centigrade a week before Christmas so the major annual cut back started yesterday to recover from New Year hangovers is timely. Luckily we had harvested the thin skinned tangerines just before the frost as they suffer more than mandarins oranges and lemons. Now it’s on to New Year resolut
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Spanish gardening info in June

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  Weather After a month of very variable weather in May with more than a normal months rain June has opened with an overnight storm but at time of writing now have dry pavements and a drying sky. Hopefully sunny for the Costa Blanca Gardeners Circle Garden Party this afternoon.Have now completed our summer vegetable plantings/sowings and by now are normally into the summer watering programme but to date the soil has remained damp naturally. Remember that in 1988 we had 12 days of continuous rain in June. With the stratosphere full of dust particles from the Iceland volcanic eruption, the tornados in the USA, the Libyan war and Japanese atomic power station disaster could it happen again? Certainly many , especially those new to Spain , are asking ‘When will the summer start?’. In the meantime gardens are very green and colourful with the last of Spring and first of Summer plants. But much forming fruit was knocked off by the heaviest of May storms and winds. A recent email from
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What Is Organic Gardening?

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This is a special post from our friends at GardenHugs.com Organically Grown Gardening is one of the most popular and rewarding hobbies to pursue. One of the most rewarding aspects of edible gardening is that you get to directly control the quality of the food you eat. Produce which is purchased in a grocery store may have been picked days or weeks before reaching the store. Along its journey towards your plate, it may have been treated with chemical substances designed to reduce pests, increase the size of the fruit, or improve its appearance. Many people believe that this reliance on chemicals to produce our foodstuffs is dangerous to our health, and to the health of our planet. Gardening at home means that you are free to garden organically, using materials that occur naturally and have a beneficial impact on the environment. What Does Organic Gardening Really Mean? When we talk about organic gardening, what do we really mean? Organic gardeners have made a choice to avoid
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Raised Garden Beds Give Vegetable Growing A Lift

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Raised garden beds are exactly what it says in the name. The raised beds can be made any height you like - so long as they are made sturdy enough. This may help someone to enjoy some vegetable growing who is having health issues such as bending over. Raised garden beds are also a perfect solution for the keen vegetable gardener who has limited space for planting. This system of vegetable growing is a simple way of improving the health and productivity of your vegetable garden while bringing the soil up to a comfortable level to work at. Raised beds have the added benefit of good soil structure and drainage - because you need not walk on or dig it, which enables the soil to warm up earlier in the season, giving you a head start on spring. This system is especially handy for people who live in areas with poor or shallow soil. Making your soil a better medium to plant your vegetables into is very important and is much easier to control in a raised garden bed. Gardening and espec
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Where to Buy Gardening Equipment and Supplies in Spain

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Many gardeners coming to Spain soon run into trouble in finding out where to buy all their gardening supplies. Indeed the most frequent question put to us is ‘Where can I buy this, that or the other?’. The problem was even greater twenty years ago when we first came to Spain as there were very few garden centres and most only sold plants and did not have a shop. Today most have some sort of shop but rarely do they stock the full range of tools, fertilizers, sprays, vegetable seeds and plantlets, rubber boots for muddy days etc. that newcomers need to develop and maintain a new garden or revamp an existing one. And mail order and on-line internet gardening shopping is not as developed in Spain as in the UK and no allotment associations exist either. So where else can on go. The answer is to locate your local agricultural co-operative, animal food warehouse (normally signposted Pienso), irrigation specialist suppliers of garden/ small holding machinery such as rotovators, shredders, l
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