There is never a dull moment here in rural Galicia and the Ribeira Sacra.
The diggers have left, the guests have left and it’s back to “normal”.
This translates into working on the ever growing list of tasks and trying to fight nature to get a reasonable crops of grapes and veggies of course.
I hate mildew & Erineum Mite. The vines are doing their very best to take over the house and I have switched from sheers to a machete to keep it in check. When I recently visited Portugal and asked about what they do to their vines I was in for a shock. They gave me 2 (two!) A4 double sided sheets, with dates and chemicals. Wow, no wonder the pharma rep is driving a merc and the vinero just an old tractor. Unfortunately it is nearly impossible to not spray, even like us, only using minimal dosages and only when really really necessary.
I tend to use a mixture of copper, sulfate and a systemic insecticide. Believe me you can’t get it right all the time. Copper (the blue stuff) helps preventing / controlling mildew, the sulfate controls the erineum mite (damage as seen) and a systemic prevents other undesirables. When we spray we cover the ground, fruits and other plants with fleece, as for example fuchsias do not take kindly to such treatment.
I do love pallets
They are just so practical and not just for transporting and storing things.
When we obtained a stack of red and blue Euro pallets and a requirement to install
yet another border for easier management, I cut them up lengthwise.
Using just the double stays these make a very useful border and filled with gravel for example we can now plant some herbs in them as well.
Under the vines we have about a meters width black weed suppressing foil covered with last years hay. The colourful border should make maintaining this area relatively easy and a couple of herbs will come as a bonus.
The left overs make great kindling wood or stakes to fix the whole thing. Pallets used!
Mornings are brilliant, if one can get out of bed that is.
Yes the grass is still wet, and so are your feet. But some of the flowers are just at their very best, helped by the angled early morning sun light.
Couldn’t resist to pop this pic on here.
Expat
