How to grow vegetables in Spain? - May '08

You may answer this, "Why would you want to when a visit to the market is so much easier" But just remember how those new potatoes tasted with your salad and you may decide to read on. Because of the climate in Spain it is possible for most of us to grow and harvest a wide range of vegetables every day of the year even if living in an apartment or small town house without the space of a large garden.
One square meter of space will grow a dozen types of vegetables. Consider growing potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, spring onions, radishes, beetroot, runner beans, broccoli and peas. For those with limited space the use of containers solves many problems, container growing of tomatoes is usual, a grow bag is a container and so is a large pot, there are few vegetables which you cannot grow in a container. Some crops do much better in containers than natural soil, like carrots, potatoes, all salad crops including spring onions and radish.
If you are cultivating a new area of land, you may well have to remove weeds before preparation of soil. Careful preparation is important, soil needs to be loose and free of rocks, dig in several inches of compost and some sand if you have heavy soil.
Water the seed bed before planting, sow seeds in a 1 inch furrow, an inch apart, with 6-12 inches between rows. Cover the seeds with light compost. Water enthusiastically, light watered plants scorch in the sun, so water in rain quantities.
Potatoes - With a hoe dig a flat trench four inches deep, place potatoes about a foot apart in the trench, cover with three inches of soil. When potatoes are a size of eight inches tall, hill them up by hoeing soil dug from the trench to just below the lower leaves of the potato plants. Repeat in two to three weeks, this keeps the roots cool and prevents potatoes turning green due to sunlight exposure.
Finally consider encouraging the children's involvement, you may find an improvement in their eating of vegetables and salad.

 

For more garden tips you can email: rosie@thesentinellamalaga.com