Tips for Planting in Portugal

Tips for planting in Portugal…

I’ve been sharing a number of posts on Instagram recently about how, what and why plant a certain way, particularly in Portugal and I thought’s I’d put them all in one place for you all in this blog (where I can also add to them as I think of them).

Consider water! Summers are a very long and very hot here (& many people run out of or low on water) so conserving as much water as possible is important when considering what, how and where to plant. And, also consider how much time you are willing to water each day, it can easily be 1-2hrs if you decide to go crazy and plant a lot of veggies and trees. Irrigation is great, but can easily get blocked and not work properly and then you loss parts of your garden.
Mice & Moles can be a massive issue here (as well as Voles & Cricket Moles too), companion plant with things like Marigolds and Mint and consider cutting off branches of Bay and stick in the ground all around your potatoes, sweet pots and parsnips every few weeks (once they are close to maturity) otherwise you may find the critters get more than you do.
Carrot flies are often intense here, so plant onions next to carrots to stop this. In fact, I have always planted onions or garlic in-between rows of many other veggies to reduce other things eating them (the Mole Cricket quite likes an odd onion though… arses!).
Cabbage Caterpillars can be reduced by companion planting and onions and garlic, but the only thing that really works is picking them all off every day! If you net your cabbages somehow and always the butterflies seem to ninja their way underneath them and have a party under there before you notice them!
If you have wood (raised beds and edging of beds) or mulch in the garden you will create a lovely home for slugs and snails, so just consider this, you may need to slug/snail-proof the area and//or go out later at night or early in the morning and pick them all off and feed them to your chickens.
Mulch is amazing here to retain moisture in the garden (however you do have the above issue) and also you need to make sure the mulch is not made of pine as that’s too acidic for many plants.
Strawberries and Blueberries love acidy mulch though!
Often people use old cardboard to get rid of weeds on paths etc, but again the slugs and snails love to hide in those lovely damp places, so you have to decide; do I want more slugs and snails or do I want to spend more time weeding?
To avoid weeding you see a lot of people using this landscaping fabric/weed barrier, I highly recommend you don’t use that here in Portugal and is disintegrates quickly in the intense heat here and then you are left with millions of bits of plastic all over your garden. They also leach plastics into your soil from heat, water, heat, water etc over the time you use it.
Chop and drop works quite well here. You basically weed (before things go to seed – this bit is important) and leave it on top of the soil to rot down instead of composting it. It gives some protection and nutrients to the soil.
Often the soil quality can be quite poor and very sandy, so you’ll want to add A LOT of manure and/or compost (several inches) everywhere you want to plant and do this at the end of every growing season before you plant in their again.
Consider composting all your animal bedding and food waste where possible (and even compost toilets too). You’ll want three compost bins/boxes/piles that are covered with thick plastic, wood or cardboard to keep the moisture and heat inside it. You fill one bin/box to the top cover. Then start on the next, once that is full (maybe 6mths) turn the first pile into the open bin/box and the 2^nd bin/box into the first one and then start in the next bin/box. So every 6mths you are turning one into the next empty one. You’ll have your first lot of compost ready after 18mths (as long as you keep it covered) and then every 6mths (spring and autumn preferably) you’ll have a new lot of compost ready.
Watch/ask neighbours what works for your climate the best. Raised beds (unless deep HugelKultural beds) for instance don’t work as well here as in the UK because they dry up quickly and take a lot of water. The summers here are long and extremely hot, so no matter what you plant you will want to consider if it is the most effective way to conserve and collect water. All the older people here plant in long trenches or HugelKultural-style holes and there is a reason for this, because this way of planting means that when you are watering your plants and trenches, the water is collected easier in the trenches and holes and does not run off somewhere else. It’s all about conserving water here and also time, so if you consider ‘old fashioned’ practices like this this ticks both boxes. Many of the people here use deep trenches to ‘flash-flood’ their produce every few days, which seems crazy with the heat here in the summer but that’s how much water these can collect.
Consider creating share for raised beds if you have them, grow beans, cucumbers, courgette, even sunflowers up trellises etc between the beds and the sun.
Older Portuguese people often have two different gardens, one with some shade (trees/walls/buildings etc) for their summer garden and a big open sunny place for their winter garden. So, the plants get a break from the midday heat. A lot of plants need this here!
Consider harvesting and storage before planting. It’s easy to go crazy when planting seeds etc, but if you have nowhere cool (but not damp) and mice/insect/animal safe to store it all long term then consider addressing this before planting, or at least whilst it’s all growing.
Learn food preserving/fermenting/canning/drying/dehydrating (maybe from me ha) and be prepared to have to preserve millions of kg’s of one type of produce all of a sudden on many days of the summer/autumn.
There is a reason why certain plants/trees (chickens and other animals too) tend to thrive more than others and that is usually because they are from that country. They are well adapted to that climate and also the potential diseases and insects from that country. If you start bringing in seeds, plants and trees (or chickens) from other countries because you like them, you will likely find them struggling in some way because they thrive (are adapted for many generations) where they are from but may not here because of (for instance) the long hot summers and perhaps a particular bug/disease here really likes them. Try to consider local varieties of the things you like and plant and you’ll most likely find they grow easier, stronger, quicker and with less watering and ‘attacks’ too. Life gets easier when we stop thinking we know better than nature and just support nature to do what it does best.
I wouldn’t buy anything plastic for your garden if you can help it, it will be destroyed in one summer season as plastic just does not last long in the heat we get here.
Consider the above for greenhouses, it’s better to pay out for a heavy-duty one than buy a cheaper option as the plastic on them and even sometimes the frame will be ruined after one year. Greenhouses are a great idea here for continuing to grow tomatoes, peppers, chilli’s and more right up until Christmas. So planting a few outside the greenhouse and a few inside means you have produce for longer. Or plant peppers and chilli’s in pots and bring them into the greenhouse and cut them back (this is called over-wintering) and then they will grow again next year.
Consider also your own resources, it can become a full-time job having a large garden. So, when planting maybe consider, will have 1-2hrs to spare every day to water? And another 1-2 hours to weed, harvest and preserve whatever grows? If not, then resist the urge to plant everything and focus on just a few essential things. Basically, it’s easy to go crazy, but that also easily leads of overwhelm. Focus on getting good at a few things and slowly build up each year from there.