Getting Back To Our “Huerta” And A Stroll To The Portet Beach (Moraira)

Too much time had passed since we last ventured into our “huerta” for more than 15 minutes. Apart from untying all the tomato canes (not a nice job, it’s extremely long-winded) all we had done was collect the veg that we’re still lucky enough to be harvesting, mostly aubergines and peppers.

As you can imagine, our land was in desperate need of some TLC. Due to the non-existence of rain since the end of the summer, quite a few tasks had gone unattended. The earth has been far too dry to even consider rotavating, hence all our plots resembled mini jungles.

During the last couple of weeks we have been lucky enough to get a few litres of much needed precipitation. We could still do with a few hundred more (not all at once!) but at least it’s been enough to wet the land. So without further ado, and after allowing the land to dry out a little bit, we removed what was left of the watering system (riego por goteo), Pep pruned (podó) a couple of trees that, according to our moon diary needed pruning, and the rotavator got dragged out of it’s temporary “shed”.

Pep rotavates our land, I don’t get involved. I dread to think of the mess I’d make and seeing as he’s so good at it there’s not much point in me learning. That’s my excuse at least. I don’t think he’d trust me to manoeuvre the larger “mula” anyway, it’s a beast. Maybe one day I’ll have a go with the smaller one, on a patch where it won’t matter if I make a complete cock up of it. For now though, I’ll leave it to him.

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It took him all morning to rotavate our three plots, and the bottom one he mainly just “skimmed” over. When the pepper and aubergine plants have given up the ghost he’ll go over it again, properly next time. But for now though, they look so much tidier.

The following day Pep came back with a pressie for me. A fig tree from the Benissa “cooperativa”. The little baby one we planted three months back (post here) unfortunately didn’t make it. Hopefully we’ll have more luck with this one, although we forgot to consult the moon diary and when we looked later on we realised we’d planted it on one of the worst days possible. Oh well, time will tell. We found a nice spot for it at least, away from those dodgy magnetic fields (more about them on my post here) and proceeded with the usual ritual for new fruit trees.

Later on that day we made a little home for 14 lettuce plants that Pep had also acquired at the “cooperativa” in Benissa. Pep decided this time to plant them in little mounds, sort of lettuce volcanoes. Mainly to keep them from drowning every time we water them, but also it will prevent them from getting too muddy when they start to grow. We’ll see how they go.

With the land nicely turned over from it’s recent rotavation, it was as good a time as any to plant garlic. We’ve still got quite a lot from this year’s harvest, but seeing as it takes 8 months to grow (8 months!!!) we thought we best get a move on and get it in the ground.

Garlic is a super easy herb/veg/whatever to grow. Pep could almost leave me unattended with the planting of it (almost). It was the first thing he taught me how to plant, knowing that I couldn’t really bodge it up too much. If it wasn’t for my rows going slightly wonky you’d think I was a pro 😂😂.

I always forget one little thing though. Pep signals where the bed is by pushing canes in the earth and tells me to remember not to tread on the planted garlic. So far, not a year has passed without me forgetting. I’m often half way across the bed when I suddenly realise what I’m doing. I daren’t tell him but he always knows. I think he’s got cameras in the fruit trees.

We plant the smaller cloves of garlic towards one end of the bed. We will pick them when they are “ajos tiernos”, the tender garlic that us brits tend to mistake for spring onions when we first come to Spain. I love “ajos tiernos”, they’re divine in an omelette.

After our few days in the “huerta” we fancied getting out of the house to go for a calming stroll somewhere by the coast. Moraira is only a short drive away from us so that’s where we ended up. We often leave the car on the Moraira to Calpe road (near the Algas bar) and walk to the Portet beach from there. It’s an easy stroll, perfect for getting the legs moving after you’ve been in the garden. And what do you know? There’s a pretty good ice cream parlour there too. Right near the port. As you can imagine, it’s an obligatory stop for us on our way back from the Portet beach.

I’ve gathered a few photos from our latest walk in Moraira. If you think they look a bit odd you would be correct. I faffed around with them first in the photo app on my computer. Some look like postcards from the 70’s. Hope you like them, sorry if you don’t 😊. I’ll do a bit of explaining where needed.

Well, that’s the update on our “huerta” for now. There is still plenty to do but at least it’s looking slightly more presentable. And I’m happy ’cause I now have a fig tree (“higuera”). Pep has been against the idea of planting one at our casita. They need a lot of land to grow, primarily for their roots. We will soon be digging up two of our almond trees though. They’re on magnetic field crosses and are gradually deteriorating. A pity but it has given us a more ample spot for a fig tree. “No hay mal que por bien no venga”. A Spanish saying which is the equivalent to our “every cloud has a silver lining”. Just in case you wanted to know 😁

Right, that’s enough rambling for today, I’ve got work to do. Thanks for reading. Any questions or suggestions please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you. I’ll be back on Valley Fm this Saturday for my usual spot. If you’d like to listen to last week’s few minutes here’s the link. See you soon, lots of love, Georgie and Pep xxx

P.S Pep brought the “níspero” tree down from Pinos today and has planted it in the hole he prepared the other day. I think we have all the fruit trees we need now 😀