Six on Saturday – Plant Share, Sea Mist and Harvest

Thanks to the weather, I lost my momentum in the garden this week. I now understand how the UK gardeners struggle when they experience weeks of rain. The drought here continues, and I have just been alerted that we are in an area of maximum fire risk. In fact, there was a fire very close to us today. Fortunately, the Bombeiros contained and extinguished the fire before it had a chance to spread. Maybe the days of sea mist were a blessing, and the wild shrubland was perhaps moist instead of very dry.

The West Coast Weather – Sea Mist!

Yep, once again, we have been blighted with several days of the dreaded sea mist, and it is playing havoc with our vegetables. The courgettes, which were surprisingly productive this year, are struggling. The leaves have developed the dreaded mildew and any courgettes that did start to form are deformed. The heavy sea mist is the kiss of death to my vegetables.

Plant share – Dragon Fruit Epiphyllum Pitahaya Cactus

This week, I had a lovely surprise. After reading about my love of the Queen of the Night flowers (EPIPHYLLUMS), one of the members of our local FB Gardening Group offered me several cuttings.

When I strike cuttings, I water from the bottom and then leave the soil to dry out and place the pots in a shady location so the plant can rest.

I have included a video as I had no idea what a Dragon Fruit succulent cacti looked like when in flower.

Plant Share – Further Cuttings from the EPIPHYLLUMS family.

They are from the same family as my Queen of the Night but yellow flowers

And this is a trailing variety and the flowers will be red.

NB. I’ve just read that the end of the cuttings should be allowed to callous over and be planted in dry soil and not watered for a couple of weeks. I’ve never taken my cuttings like this. Now I wonder if I should redo a couple, just in case. Sigh …

Mystery Plant in Need of some TLC – Senecio Archer?

I’ve ignored this plant for several years. It was one of those jobs … I’ll do it tomorrow.

I couldn’t identify this succulent, so I asked on my go-to FB group, Gardening in Portugal, and was offered the following suggestions: Tylecodon grandiflorus (Dwarf Butter Tree), Kleinia, or Senecio Archer and now Peperomia ferreyrae.

I am going with Senecio Archerii. Do you agree?

When I removed the decorative outer pot, I discovered … oops. Poor thing. I carefully untangled the roots from the pot. Removed the old earth and cleaned the roots.

Repotted in a larger container using a mixture of sand and multipurpose compost.

Let’s hope it survives!

Note to self. Sign up to https://myplantin.com/

Seed Share – Black Tula Beefsteak Tomatoes

This is a seed share from earlier in the year. A couple of weeks ago, I was going to abandon the project, but thanks to Fred, the French Gardener who pleaded for them to be given another chance, I heeded his advice. Despite the inclement misty weather, they have perked up, and one of the plants has flowered!

Six on Saturday – Piglet’s Plot in July

This Week’s Harvest

Sadly, most of the gloriously sweet yellow peppers ripened at once. We used a couple to eat in salads this week and froze the rest. I saved some seeds for next year.. Whatever variety these are they grow extremely well.

Black tomatoes start to turn red at the bottom when ripe.

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We also harvested a huge cucumber, a couple of aubergines and MORE yellow peppers.

That’s a wrap for this week, folks!

For more Six on Saturday gardens click over to Jim’s blog, Garden Ruminations.