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Gardening in Spain

Health from your garden

By Clodagh and Dick Handscombe Practical gardeners gardening authors and broadcasters in Spain for twenty five years.

Introduction

Now pensioners we have gardened ecologically for a combined 125 years and for much of our lives especially with more time on our hands in Spain we have searched out the healthiest foods that we can grow and the healthiest insecticides and fungicides to ensure that we live and grow our crops in a healthy atmosphere. Some of our ideas have been made by observation of what works in nature, others from watching and listening to villagers who have avoided the switch of ninety five percent plus from natural agriculture to chemical driven agriculture others by following research findings and others by trial and error. In this article we share some of our findings in relation to the environment in which we live and what we eat.

Mosquito control

We are amazed at the steps some expatriates have to take to avoid mosquitoes such as using expensive proprietary Mosquito Eaters, mosquito screens on all windows and doors, tropical mosquito screens over their beds, insecticide vaporising units that plug into electrical sockets and expensive mosquito sprays applied to exposed skin which is some 90% when sunbathing in the garden.

Our solutions consist of:-

1. Avoiding buying a house near lakes, salt marshes, sewage works and areas that flood after summer storms (the Romans, Visigoths, Arabs and Spaniards did for two millennium!);

2. Hanging up bunches of dried herbs on our covered terrace where we often eat as hidey holes for families of geckoes that come out at night and devour any flying insects that settle on walls and ceilings once the lights are on; planting lantana bushes under all windows ;

3. Having fish ponds where the fish soon devoir any surface insect or larvae as birds do in the marshy margins;

4. Avoiding the use of chemical insecticides that might deter geckoes lizards and birds from the garden.

5. By the way when we went on a walking holiday in Mauritius and Reunion Islands we were encouraged to rub lantana leaves on our skin as a mosquito deterrent. This appeared to work better than proprietary mosquito repellents and caused less eye irritation when we perspired.

Relaxing gardens

Real relaxing is vital to good health. This we achieve by having a garden full of restful coloured plants – not all vivid oranges yellows and reds -; the sound of water from fountains; attracting bird life and butterflies: hiding adjacent houses behind trees but protecting the view to a near by mountain to link the garden into the surrounding countryside even though the abandoned vineyards and fruit orchards that originally surrounded us are now a concrete jungle.

Growing our own food without using chemicals

We grow the major part of the food we eat and the drinks we take. We improve the soil with ecological composts and manures from the poultry and rabbits we keep for eggs and meat; the animals and birds are fed with home grown alfalfa, outside cabbage leaves, carrot tops, dandelions, tomatoes etc and some grain but without added antibiotics and growth stimulators.

The compost heaps are accelerated with comfrey leaves and the oldest and cheapest natural fertilizer known to man – pee. Comfrey leaves are harvested several times a year not only as a compost accelerator but also to produce a liquid fertilizer by steeping in water for several weeks and as a snail inhibitor - borage and nettle leaves are used similarly.

Nettle infusions and concoctions can be used as foliar feeds and as a mild insecticide – garlic and the leaves and fruit of the garden and street lining bead tree Melia Azedarach are also useful insecticides but poisonous to humans so not recommended on fruit and vegetables. It’s better to use Neem oil from the leaves and fruit of the related but frost tender Azadirachta Indica tree. We would grow one if we lived in southern Andalusia on the frost free stretch of coast.

Living further north we use purchased Neem oil widely. We used to use only a horsetail infusion as a fungicide on the vegetable plot and in the garden for flowering plants and fruit trees. But then we discovered propolis – a by-product from bee hives - which is better for severe problems.

Thinking about the fifteen year problem of the geranium moth which arrived in Spain with a batch of imported geranium plants garlic is a useful spray as is geranium oil or an infusion of the leaves of the Graveolens varieties of pelargoniums/geraniums.

Ensuring healthy vegetables

Each year we grow a wide diversity of the hundred vegetables included in our book ‘Growing Healthy Vegetables in Spain’ to ensure that the food we eat is appetising in terms of smell, taste and colour mix and that it includes the maximum natural vitamin and mineral content. To achieve this we grow and include the following bakers dozen of vegetables in as many meals as we can.

Beetroot, Broccoli, Carrots, Garlic, Globe artichokes, Onions, Parsley, Peas, Red lettuces, Shitake mushrooms, Squash and Tomatoes.

Individually and together they contain an amazing number and amounts of beneficial vitamins and minerals.

Dark coloured fruit are especially healthy

We grow a wide variety of fruits but those most essential for health are probably our raspberries, red and black currants, black figs, wild strawberries, black berries and dark red plums and cherries. As we live at the limits for mandarins they have a bright rather than insipid orange colour great to look at eat raw and in cooking and when dried as snacks when out walking.

Herbs

Herbal health drinks include a wide range of herb infusions commencing with mint, lemon verbena, rosemary and sage. A large collection of herbs are also used weekly in salads cooking and to flavour our home produced Kombucha drink.

Horse radish we use grated with olive oil for meat dishes and with lemon for fish. Not only is it naturally tasty but it has health benefits. For more about this visit our blog ‘Health from your garden’ on www.wddty.com. Click ‘communities’ and then ‘blogs’ to access.

We hope that has wetted your appetite for healthier gardens in every sense and to save money at the same time.

Clodagh and Dick’s books ‘Growing Healthy Vegetables in Spain’, ‘Growing Healthy Fruit in Spain’ and ‘Your Garden in Spain’ will soon get you on your way towards healthy and productive gardens to enhance your life in Spain. They will be found in bookshops and for convenience can be obtained from www.santanabooks.com, www.gardeninginspain.com and 96-485838.

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