How we have been sun-drying our cherry tomato harvest. To preserve our tomato harvest I’ve been sun-drying some of our cherry tomatoes. It’s been a very hot summer over here, so we have been hiding from the sun between noon and 4pm. Our garden has also been suffering in the heat, but our tomatoes have…
Growing in Portugal
DIY seed pots
It’s that time of year to start planting seeds for the coming season, so I have been busy making these simple DIY seed pots. We are always trying to re-use or recycle as much as we can, so when it came to finding seed pots I decided to make my own DIY seed pots. These…
February Portuguese Garden Diary
Things are beginning to happen in our Portuguese garden! We have had a very mild and dry winter, with very little rain. This is going to be a real problem later in the year as the fontes (wells) and reservoirs are getting low. On the plus side it does mean that the garden is springing…
DIY winter rosemary wreath
It’s been cold and rainy in Alentejo today so I decided to cheer up the house by making a simple DIY winter rosemary wreath. I love using rosemary for all sorts of things. The rosemary I planted a couple of years ago is doing really well so I decided to make a DIY winter rosemary wreath…
Growing rocket from seed
My first attempt growing rocket from seed has been a huge success! We finally have home-grown salad and the more I cut, the more it grows. It’s been a very hot and dry summer in our little patch of Portugal so the garden has really suffered. The land around us looks like a desert and the soil…
Make a pretty periwinkle wreath
How to make a pretty and simple periwinkle wreath. Our garden is still a work in progress. When we arrived here it was completely wild and unkempt. We’ve been getting it into some sort of shape over the past few months; clearing the terrace outside the house, weeding and replanting the flower beds, cutting back the grass…
4 herbs that grow in a hot climate
Find out about 4 herbs that grow in the hot climate of the ‘Desert of Portugal’. When we first found our house in the Alentejo, the garden had been neglected for years. There were lots of weeds and the soil was in a bad state. I love having herbs around my home to use in…
Starting our vegetable garden
We start a vegetable garden in the Alentejo, Portugal. One of my biggest goals in life is to create a vegetable garden that can feed us throughout the year. Everyone near us in Portugal grows their own, and every vegetable garden both in and around the Alentejo villages are a joy to see. All year they…