Vegetable growing in Spain, what to start sowing now.

2009-09-05

Adjusting to the change in planting times is one of the greatest difficulties facing novice vegetable growers in the Spanish climate.

Whilst the Gardeners World presenters are stomping around in wellies and waterproofs, dripping rain off the ends of their noses and talking about it being time to sow their courgette seeds, we're busy tucking into courgette quiche and wondering what to with the glut.

Learning when to plant what is done by experience, the first rule being to completely disregard the sowing times on most UK seed packets and plant when the locals plant.

Please bear in mind when looking at this list that things will change if you're up in the Sierra Espuna, as down on the plains we don't get frost or snow, so we struggle with parsnips , sprouts and Swedes, whereas yours might grow for gold and the lettuces or oriental greens that do so well down here wouldn't stand a chance in the snow.

Once the baking heat has subsided and we move into the unsettled September weather, the ground is still warm, perfect for sowing crops we would normally sow when the soil is just starting to warm up in the UK spring.

The warm autumn days are just like the British spring, only better, perfect weather for growing a good range of crops that like a bit of warmth, but not so much that they burn or bolt, and which don't need the cold or wet to be happy.

Look in the fields around this area.

Murcia is one of the biggest production areas for salad lettuce, broccoli, spinach and chards in Europe.

Millions of bags of luxury mixed salad leaves will be grown here throughout the next 6 months, together with baby spinach leaves and those lovely fat heads of broccoli that fill the UK supermarket shelves.

We start sowing veg seed in starter pots now, ready to plant out in a few weeks, and are clearing out the veg beds  ready to start sowing direct in about 2 weeks, as soon as the heat dies down

We sow these items now in starter pots for transplanting into either a vegetable bed or pot later on;

 Kales. These are fantastic for Spanish growing. We sow twice, once now, and again at xmas. Buy several types, they look gorgeous in the veg plot, the caterpillars actually don't seem to like them very much, the leaves can just be picked off as required, they're incredibly healthy, and the sheep and chickens adore them, so nothing goes to waste. They're wonderful.

Cabbages- open, pointed, fast growers. Why? Because they're less vulnerable to grubs which burrow into the denser hearted varieties. We sow 3 times at monthly intervals.

Turnips.Great for stews, roasts, grow really well.

Kohl Rabi. Lovely for stews, casseroles, roasts. Grow really well. The purple ones in particular look fabulous in a veg patch!

Both of these crops we sow just a few seeds - literally half a dozen as they germinate so easily, every couple of weeks.

Beetroot. We sow monthly right through to spring.

Lettuce. Essential. We pot sow a selection of different colours and shapes for transplanting, and ground sow cut and come again varieties directly.

Broccoli, 2 sowings, now, and November. It's safer to sow Calabrese with large central head, as sprouting tends to bolt.

Pak Choi, Chinese cabbage, oriental greens such as mizuna, mispoona, fennel. Just a few seeds at a time, in succession, as they grow so quickly, you'll have far more than you can possibly eat.

Herbs, pretty much everything except Basil. (too early).

 

NO GO's

We've tried parsnips, swede and sprouts 3 times and failed miserably.They either bolted or grew prolific leaves and no crop

 

Direct ground sow.

Carrots , in succession right through until April/May

Spinach. Unbeatable, we succession sow, although if outer leaves are taken for eating, they just keep on growing. A row of spinach can crop for a couple of months before flowering.

Chards, leaf beet. Grow incredibly well here, right through until the big heat kicks in next April/May.

Radishes. We sow literally a dozen seeds every 2-3 weeks

Lettuce. Cut and coma again varieties, which are wonderful as leaves can be taken off the plant as required and they just keep growing.

 

It may sound a little parsimonious to be saying sow 6 seeds, when there are thousands in a packet, but you'll be absolutely overloaded if you don't.

When we first set off on a manure search to start our first vegetable patch here, we were introduced to a couple who'd been here for a few years, and she showed me her tray of young seedlings and vegetable patch. I remember being surprised that she sowed 3 cabbage seeds at a time, and thought her maybe a bit tight, but having made the mistake of growing a whole row, only to find 80% ended up on the compost heap(pre-sheep and chickens - we now grow extra especially for them) because we grew far more than we could realistically eat, have learnt from my misjudgement and sow sparingly.

Water being in short supply, its far more prudent to grow 3 cabbages now, and sow 3 more to follow on 6 weeks later.

After all, a man can only eat so much cabbage.

We sow into small 9cm pots, then transplant into individual pots and grow on, before finally planting out when the plants are at a reasonable size.

We've ended up adopting this policy as periods of intense heat can decimate the very young plants when ground sown here, and we can still get really hot days well into October, as well as a greater concentration of butterflies.

 

We have a special offer for club members from Suttons Seeds, who've been supplying seeds for over 200 years.

As a club, they've offered us a discount of one third off their prices if we put together an order for over 50 pounds worth of seeds. The discount increases to 40% if we go over 150 pounds.

There are some lovely lines in their range, but please bear in mind, this is only for seeds. Other items are only 10% discount, but unless anyone is driving over here and would be willing to bring bulkier items, it may not be a good idea to order anything bulky as it will increase the carriage charges.

ABSOLUTELY NO PLUGS OR PLANTS!!!!

We'll bring the catalogue to the next meeting for anyone who would like to order from the hard copy, or you can look online, at www.suttons.co.uk and select the items you want, and order at the meeting.

Is anybody willing to help and co-ordinate this order? ( There are some free seeds up for grabs for the organiser)

Please volunteer someone, and we can get this going.

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