Bush beans

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The bean which does not climb is the bush bean. This bean is usually eaten dry.

Regarding to the pole beans which climbs along stakes, the bush beans usually stays with their pods stiffer and fibrous earlier.

Our harvest is done when the pods are already filled, while they are not very dry, we thrash them up and freeze them for consumption either in normal meals or in soups. If the beans are dry, it will be harder to cook and therefore we must boil them.

Pole running green beans

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One kind of bean that is used a lot in Portuguese cuisine are the green beans "feijão verde". The development of the plant which gives this kind of bean is made climbing along stakes. That's why they are called climbing beans.

After the beans germinate and after chop beans which are too close to each other, it's time to put up stakes for the beans so they can climb up as they wish.

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This type of culture needs to be watered more often than other types of beans.

The most important pest of these kind of culture the bean's lice, which we need to be very careful and staying alert.

The green bean "feijão verde" is usually eaten while they are green, usually used in soup or included in a boiled fish meal. But if the aim is to have beans for the entire year, it is best to let them dry first one or two days and put them in the freezer just after. In this case the bean is harvested as dry as possible, threshed, packed and ready to go to the freezer.

Peppers, problems with the freeze

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The peppers start well, but cold nights stopped their growth. Now, with the days beginning to be warm while Summer is arriving, we hope that peppers awake and begin to develop strongly. As you can see the leaves are shriveled and with a withered aspect due to the cold.

Sowing pumpkins

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Pumpkin is a fruit very important, especially for its nutrition values and by its diversity inclusion in meals. The pumpkin seeds are considered protein supplements.

Most soils can be used for growing pumpkins, if properly prepared. The way the soil is dug, its fertilization, the sowing, the weeding, the watering and the area of ​the ​land required for the pumpkins to develop and expand themselves are important to have the expected good results.

The first grape berries rise

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With the beginning of June the first grape berries rise.

The vine is subject to attack by many pests or diseases which must be protected specially in the vegetative cycle.

Weather conditions greatly influence the mode and intensity of the attack, but the conduct of the vineyard, its sanity, the quality of prevention and caste whose resistance to diseases and pests can be very different from each other, also determine the severity of the occurrence.

The primary treatment phase takes place in a relatively short period of time: from the cotton bud till the closure curl, i.e. the first 3 months of vegetative cycle. The long, hot and dry Summer, main characteristics of the Mediterranean climate, usually does not require treatment between the close of the berry and the painter (the moment when the berries come color), and from then to the proximity of harvest limits the application of most treatments.

Broad beans: end of the harvest

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The beans came close to a month to be taken and 90% went to the freezer to be consumed throughout the year. The beans are a vegetable that does not require great care in their development. In the end there are only the branches that will be buried to enrich the soil.

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Potatoes branches to be buried

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This year the potatoes were not watered. The weather was very rainy, and too much water does not favor a large production of potatoes, in addition of being smaller than in previous years. After potatoes uprooted from the land, they were left a day in the sun to dry. The next day they were collected, cleaned and stored in a clean and no light environment, while the branches remained on the surface of the ground to be buried in the future.

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Broad beans best fixing nitrogen plant

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Broad beans is the best fixing plant of nitrogen because it fixes the nitrogen from air into their roots. Plants need nitrogen and much of them are not that really good nitrogen fixing plants, so the farmer needs to give nitrogen to their roots. You will enrich the soil it you bury the board beans plant after the harvest to recover the levels of nitrogen. Culture after culture the soil will need more nitrogen so it is better if we rotate between a culture of board beans and a culture of plants which needs much nitrogen. You will enrich the soil and it will thank you for that.

Spinach for soup

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Like popeye the sailor man, we all eat spinach at home. Spinach is a weed originated in South Asia and we usually use it for soups. It is important you clean it well before cooking and the cooking water should be discarded. This vegetable has a high number of nutrients that makes us stronger.

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It is planted in a shaded area with easy access to water. Throughout the year there is a good production of spinach with the exception of the colder months like December and January.

Digging up potatoes

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After two days digging up potatoes, it's time to pick them. First were harvested the larger potatoes, then the smaller and finally the trimmed ones and the potatoes which were tapped by the hoe. The big and small potatoes were cleaned and placed in a clean place with low light to avoid becoming green. The trimmed ​​potatoes or tapped by the hoe were cleaned and separated from the rest to be eaten in the short term.

Little beans are born

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The cultivation of beans, starts in the month of March and can go until September, the process always follows the same principle: DO NOT LET THE SEED IN CONTACT WITH THE FERTILIZER.

Covering the fertilizer to place seed

Placing the seeds in the intermediate spaces between fertilizer or the first covering with a little soil and then the seeds.

Own seeds of portuguese kale

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This year we will enjoy the old spindly kale to sow seeds of their own. After all, we have the seeds ... and is simple to remove the small pods after completely dry. If we succeed, we will of course do our own crops.

Has always been our option to purchase these vegetables to plant in the garden here, to private producers in the area.

They can have larger stalks, be more open or closed, with leaf more or less dark ... I believe that much of the population does not exempt the Portuguese kale, above all, cooked with cod.
To protect the kale seeds from the wind we involve the pods with a kind of net so they don't be destroyed.

Tomatoes beds

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There are two ways to get the tomato plants needed for planting: acquire in any store dealing with farming products and usually are already highly developed, bringing the roots wrapped in a piece of substrate which doesn't interrupt the development process for being transplanted, or alternatively, you can acquire initially seeds, which are also available in these establishments, in small packages, which can be seen the reference range and the description of their characteristics.

Small tomato seeds, also can be obtained, if desired, from some previously selected tomatoes, leaving them ripen until they are soft, juicy and red. Faced with the possibility of inclement weather will be advisable to harvest them, to avoid rot because of the rain and leave them a few more days in a dry and airy environment so that the maturation process is completed fully, but only if it is quite mature already. Next, cut them to remove the tomatoes pulp which lodges the seeds, spread it on a plain place, allowing it to dry in the sun, one or two weeks or in a dry and ventilated place, then keep it in a dry closed container.

Seeding the beds of tomatoes, the sooner it are done, the sooner the plants will be available for planting, usually they're done at the beginning of February to be available for transplant at the beginning or at the middle of March, and we can make a small bed rich of substrate moistened with a little water on a sheltered location with good sun exposure or using a small box-shaped tray made of styrofoam, because the thermal properties of this material, by covering with a little plastic allows to develop a greenhouse while maintaining a temperature inside, which it's an advantage to adequate germination and plant growth.

Planting lettuce

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The planting of lettuce can be done throughout the year. Its seeds, because they are too small, can be mixed with fine sand and spread best if sowing in beds.

The germination takes 4 to 6 days. The lettuce prefers sandy-clay soils, rich in organic matter. When they are 6 to 8 leaves and 8 to 10 cm, they must be transferes to well fertilized plots, so that the plant keep the neck above the ground and distance between plants of 30 cm. Only the seedlings more developed, strong and healthy should be planted . Another important is that we must be careful is to plant the seedlings with roots tangled or bent and they should not be planted too deep.

The fertilization of the beds can be made ​​only with organic fertilizer, which is made with animal manure. When the bed is ready, we put a layer of manure evenly distributed over the surface, on the basis of 20 liters per square meter, spread it well and mix it at the surface layer of the soil, leaving her in planting conditions. To prevent the lowering of the land due to irrigation and rain, the soil should be slightly compressed, avoiding the vegetables from having their roots out of the ground.

The crop must be be cleaned, watered and irrigated as needed. All weeds that grow between the vegetables should be torn with their roots, with one hand or a hoe. This is necessary because they compete with the planting, stealing nutrients from the fertilizer and shading, avoiding vegetables receiving the amount of sun required.

Bordeaux mixture preparation

The formulation below is to make 10 liters, to make other quantities just keep the proportions between the ingredients. The "bordeaux mixture", calda bordalesa, is made of a dissolution of copper sulphate and lime water.

a) Dissolution of copper sulphate(1 liter):

The day before and four hours before the mixture’s preparation, dissolve the copper sulfate. Pour 100 g of copper sulfate within a cotton cloth, tie and dive into a plastic container with 1 liter of warm water;

b) Lime water:

Pour 100 g of lime in a bucket of 10 liters capacity. Then add 9 liters of water slowly.

c) Mixing of the two ingredients:
Add gradually and always stirring, the copper sulphate solution (1 litre) into the lime water bucket.

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d) Test of the knife:

To see if the final mixture is not acidic, we dive a clean knife made of common steel for 3 minutes in the final mixture.

If the blade is dirty, which means it acquired a brown color when removed from the mixture, indicates that the solution is acidic. It should be added more lime in the mix, but if not dirty, the “bordeaux mixture”(calda bordalesa) is ready to use.

Sowing coriander

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Each region has its most appropriate time, but it is recommended to be done in the early spring. Sowing should be programmed so that the harvest does not coincide with periods of heavy rain, which damages the crop. You should avoid sowing on the winter period, mainly due to the risk of frost. For crops in commercial scale due to rapid ripening of fruit, it is suggested that seeding must be carried out gradually, in steps. Avoid harvesting the entire cultivated area being performed only once, because it cause losses during harvesting. If you don’t do so, the dry mature seeds fall into the soil, reducing the yield.

Preventing fungus attack

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The potatoes are really pretty now. About two years ago we weren't cautious and the potatoes foliage was attacked by the mildew and all the harvest was burnt.

This year we are being very cautious. We already have give them twice the bordeaux mixture (portuguese "calda bordalesa") which is a natural fungicide, made from copper sulphate and slaked lime, to prevent the attack of fungus, specially the mildew.

First meal of broad beans

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Yesterday I had my first meal of broad beans (fava beans) of the first broad beans harvest. Nothing like a meal of fresh broad beans from which we can feel them full of taste. Of course we usually freeze them to have full year of eating, but like any kind of food if it's fresh it tastes much better. It's a vegetable we really like because it gives us a good feeling of being well fed. The sowing was not different from the potatoes, they were sown just before the potatoes, in the last half of November, and in the same way. Even the fava bean seem to be more stronger against diseases than the potatoes and more stronger against the frost. The only problem now is they are too tall and the wind is taking them down. The lucky thing is that they already have pass the "flower" stage and they all already have at least little fava beans. It doesn't seem we would take much advantage from putting stakes into the ground at this time, now that were waiting for more two weeks to take the full harvest. 

Want to read about seeding potatoes?

So read and enjoy the following article

Preparing potatoes for seed

Organic fertilizer

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The soil organic matter results mainly from vegetable waste, although the animal remains contribute significantly in its composition. Thus cattle, microorganisms from the terrain, insects and man himself, directly or indirectly, participate in the decomposition of plant residues and their distribution through the layers of soil. For this and other reasons, we find plots with different levels of organic matter. These levels reach the maximum in peaty soils and down to the minimum value in desert soils. Manure is what is most precious on a farm.

Our garden is very well fed with organic fertilizer, most of it is manure. It is bought always in the same place because we trust on that person. It is important that the manure is of good quality to avoid diseases and have a good harvest. It comes always with many earthworms which is very good for your soil, a soil with earthworms means it has life and it breaths. Only one thing the seller told us, is that there are some plant roots inside the manure which are bad for the soil. That is because that kind of plant roots are not digested by the animals. To solve that problem, while we distribute the manure on the garden we are checking for the roots and we take them off and leave it in the garbage because it's not useful even for waste compound.

Hydrangea

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Known by the name hydrangea or hortênsia, it is native from Japan an China but now is cultivated as an ornamental plant in all temperate and subtropical regions. There are different species presenting blue flowers or pink ones depending on the soil PH, in acid soils there are blue flowers but in alkaline soils are pink ones. My hydrangeas are pink so it means the soil is alkaline. You can have a multicolored field of hyndrageas (hortênsias) if you control the ph of soil in different areas. Hydrangea can be shade or semi-shade plant. It is very difficult to have beautiful hydrangeas on a dry environment, hydrangeas only can survive on a hot and sunny climate if it has high humidity. Attention to winters too, they can't be too cold, temperatures lower the -3ºC the hydrangeas can freeze and burn because of it. They can recover just with a heavy pruning. In colder environments we can protect the stems with leaves wrapped in plastic from the late spring frosts. Thankfully in Portugal, this winter wasn't too cold and it was full of rain so we'll have beautiful hydrangeas because the well is full too for the summer.

Preparing potatoes for seed

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Potatoes are tubers developed after sown mature potatoes.They're called stem tubers because tops or sides of the tuber produce shoots that grow into typical stems and leaves and the under sides produce roots. If the mature potato produces with more than one shoot it can be separated into pieces, each piece may be able to give rise to a new plant. The mature potato is used as storage for starches, proteins, and other nutrients by the plant. These nutrients become useful for the plant when new shoots must be formed or when the plant dies back for the winter. This is a process known as vegetative reproduction and is used by farmers and gardeners to propagate certain plants. The mature potatoes are first prepared before going under soil. They're placed in dry and light environment to germinate previously. After germinate the ones which have more then two shoots and they're big enough are separated. The reason why it's better they have to be big to be separated is because they have to handle some cold when they're seed at the end of winter.