By PAUL McKAY
Teacher, Paul McKay, left London to live a self-sufficient existence in the Monchique hills with his partner Martyn. He keeps an assortment of animals and grows a variety of crops in an eco-friendly way – all on a limited income.
IT MAY not feel like it yet, but autumn is on the way. Very soon the days will become noticeably shorter and the night time temperature cooler.
This opens up the possibility of growing cooler season crops like cabbages, beans, onions and lettuces. The cooler, and eventually wetter, weather also makes it possible to start enriching the soil.
Compost of manure?
If you have access to farmyard manure, I would go for that option every time – the reason being that it speeds up the whole process. Most of my neighbours in Monchique leave their summer horta fallow over the winter, seemingly unconcerned that the plot becomes covered in weeds. Around February, they clear the weeds and dig the plot over. At this point, they add copious amounts of well-rotted manure.
If you have access to fresh manure it is advisable to leave it out in the winter to rot down – a whole year is recommended. If the manure has not rotted down sufficiently it can damage young plants. If you are fortunate enough to live near any of the Algarve stables, you may find they are happy enough to let you help yourself to manure.
If you prefer to make your own compost, then now is the time to start. The Algarve autumn and winter is warm and humid enough to make good compost. Clear a bare patch of earth and surround it with some wire mesh. Add a mixture of green materials (lawn mowings, leftover salads), dry materials (woody prunings, autumn leaves, old newspapers) and some in-between stuff (tea bags, cut flowers etc). Arrange them in six inch layers of each and add some soil between each layer.
The more you add in one go, the quicker the pile will heat up and break down. If it looks dry, add some water. Add any manure you may have access to. If you aren’t organic, you can add a little chemical fertiliser to get the whole thing started, if you are organic ask your dinner party guests to make xixis on it. From time the whole pile can be turned over. In about six months, you should end up with rich, black, crumbly, fertile compost.
Sowing for the autumn
Late August and early September are ideal months to plant more lettuces, some flat leaf parsley, quick growing radishes and some spring onions.
Lettuces and salsa
Dig over the bed, add compost and water well.
Scrape off the top one centimetre of soil, sprinkle the seeds close together (lettuce and salsa in separate rows).
Cover with soil and keep moist. Germination takes a week or so.
When the plants have about one centimetre in height, thin them to stand six centimetres apart.
Harvest by cutting off leaves or salsa sprigs as you need them, the plants will replenish themselves.
Onions
Use spring onion or normal onion seeds, prepare the bed and sow in the same way as lettuces.
Thin to two centimetres apart. Harvest when they look big enough to eat.
Radishes
Prepare the bed as before.
Push small holes into the soil one centimetre deep, four centimetres apart – drop a seed in each hole, then cover
Keep the bed moist and weed free.
They are ready for harvesting in about three weeks, as soon as the radish swells, don’t leave them too long or they become too chewy.
These few vegetable beds will keep you in salads throughout September and October, maybe into November.
