Gardening in Portugal. Sailing in Devon.

[veggiechicken]

My sailing/fishing experiences have been around the South Devon coast. An Uncle-in-law had a Westerly Berwick ?32' moored off the end of their garden in Saltash. We'd sail around to Dartmouth and Salcombe, often towing a couple of mackerel boards to catch dinner en route. I don't know how wellknown these are but they were shaped like small water skis with a couple of spinners dangling from the back, all attached to a fishing line trailing off the back of the boat. When a mackerel took the hook, the boats would flip over and surface and it was usually my job to pull them in. The boat had to be travelling at the same speed as a mackerel - that's all I remember - apart from the taste of fresh mackerel.
Its a beautiful part of the world.

[Jay-ell]

Around the World in 80 Plants Stephen Barstow is another good book on perennials

PFAF do a couple of useful books
Edible Plants: An inspirational guide to choosing and growing unusual edible plants
Edible Perennials: 50 Top perennials from plants for a future

and there's Martin Crawfords How to Grow Perennial Vegetables: Low-maintenance, low-impact vegetable gardening


Suggestions for perennial veg? Well I have 2 types of perennial kales - Daubentons and Taunton Dean, the latter of which is massive and filling up most of the bed by itself, both are tasty.

Alliums generally die back during the hotter months and go dormant until it gets a bit cooler in the autumn.

I thought I had 5 different types of perennial leeks but I've recounted and was wrong - I have 6. These can be harvested by cutting the stems off at or below ground level above the bulb and they grow back.

1. Babbingtons leek - the "usual" perennial leek mentioned;
2. Elephant Garlic - usually grown for it's massive mild garlic cloves but is a leek and can be harvested as a leek;
3. Sand Leek - small salad leeks that can be used in the same way you'd use spring onions or chives
4. Oerprie - a little known leek that comes from Belgium/Netherlands/Luxembourg area. Can be used as a small leek but traditionally grown for the "Broodballs" - the bulbs swell up to the size of pickled onions (eat the big ones plant the smaller ones) with a sweet mild flavour.
5. Three Cornered Leek - A VERY tasty leek but can be invasive (ask VC) which is native to the Mediterranean area. This is my mothers favourite leek.
6. Allium Polyanthum - although called many-flowered garlic it's a leek that grows around the mediteranean countries. The french call it "poireau des vignes" which sort of means leek of the vines so I just call it Vine Leeks

For onions there's a few options there

1. Welsh Onions - bunching onions that you cut off above the bulb for spring onions.
2. Perutil - a variety of Welsh Onion that doesn't flower
3. Walking Onions - looks similar the Welsh onions but are top setting growing bulbs in the flower head
4. Potato Onions - these grow like shallots but taste like onions. I'm still experimenting with these. These are replant perennials going in earlier in the year and coming up in summer same as regular onions.

There's various leafy greens such as Good King Henry or Caucasian Spinach.

Herbs such as Rosemary, Oregano, Thyme etc will probably do well.

If you get the irrigation set up Sweet Potato might romp away.

You could also go down the self seeding rout - leaving lettuce, rocket, spinach, etc go to seed and self sow around the place

[nickdub]

Unless you have a water source on your land in Portugal, I'd think building a reservoir you can save winter rain water in, would be one of my first priorities.

[lottie dolly]

Wow welcome to the forum,maybe you could start a blog of your adventures,you sound very adventurus,good luck to you

[Jay-ell]

I forgot to mention Couve Galega (aka Portuguese Tree Cabbage) and Paul & Becky's Asturian Tree Cabbage. Both are short lived perennial (3-4 years) loose leaf cabbages.

[simplesamen]

Great to hear you enjoyed it too! Can't wait to get into it. Those are the best kinds of books...disguised as entertainment, but packed with knowledge!

[simplesamen]

Yikes! Hope not to experience the 'hook in finger' thing! Yes, I am enjoying the new yacht. Had the 27 for six years...my first boat...you know how it is with first loves and all that. So the transition to the Vancouver took a while. Much bigger boat to handle too. But now I'm really enjoying her! Funny you mention patience, the bass was hooked just after I'd given up on catching anything that day. Left the line in but started faffing around in the cockpit emptying lockers and having a general 'tidy' when, wouldn't you know it, amid cockpit chaos, damn bass grabs my hook! Landed it while stepping on fenders and mooring lines and all manner of general cockpit locker content underfoot! Was tasty tho!
Sounds like you have a sweet little set up there too. Can't imagine anything better than pottering and fishing! Maybe pottering and fishing and gardening!

[simplesamen]

Welcome
Sounds magnificent,best of both worlds

Thanks chillithyme, still bringing it all together, but yes, am enjoying the challenge

[simplesamen]

The Westerly Berwick is a lovely boat veggiechicken. What a great Uncle-in-law to have. I bought my boat from a little boatyard up the Lyhner (off the Tamar) and spent last year exploring the Plymouth area...some lovely little anchorages around there! LOTS of freshly caught mackerel was consumed! I'm now based on the Dart, near Dartmouth. I've heard of those mackerel boards, but never used one. I just drop a handline over with a weight on the end, but the paravane thing would definitely help bring the macks to the surface! It really is a beautiful part of the world.
On my way down I sailed my 27 footer into Dale (south Wales) fond memories of that little anchorage. And another beautiful part of the world.

[simplesamen]

Around the World in 80 Plants Stephen Barstow is another good book on perennials

PFAF do a couple of useful books
Edible Plants: An inspirational guide to choosing and growing unusual edible plants
Edible Perennials: 50 Top perennials from plants for a future

and there's Martin Crawfords How to Grow Perennial Vegetables: Low-maintenance, low-impact vegetable gardening


Suggestions for perennial veg? Well I have 2 types of perennial kales - Daubentons and Taunton Dean, the latter of which is massive and filling up most of the bed by itself, both are tasty.

Alliums generally die back during the hotter months and go dormant until it gets a bit cooler in the autumn.

I thought I had 5 different types of perennial leeks but I've recounted and was wrong - I have 6. These can be harvested by cutting the stems off at or below ground level above the bulb and they grow back.

1. Babbingtons leek - the "usual" perennial leek mentioned;
2. Elephant Garlic - usually grown for it's massive mild garlic cloves but is a leek and can be harvested as a leek;
3. Sand Leek - small salad leeks that can be used in the same way you'd use spring onions or chives
4. Oerprie - a little known leek that comes from Belgium/Netherlands/Luxembourg area. Can be used as a small leek but traditionally grown for the "Broodballs" - the bulbs swell up to the size of pickled onions (eat the big ones plant the smaller ones) with a sweet mild flavour.
5. Three Cornered Leek - A VERY tasty leek but can be invasive (ask VC) which is native to the Mediterranean area. This is my mothers favourite leek.
6. Allium Polyanthum - although called many-flowered garlic it's a leek that grows around the mediteranean countries. The french call it "poireau des vignes" which sort of means leek of the vines so I just call it Vine Leeks

For onions there's a few options there

1. Welsh Onions - bunching onions that you cut off above the bulb for spring onions.
2. Perutil - a variety of Welsh Onion that doesn't flower
3. Walking Onions - looks similar the Welsh onions but are top setting growing bulbs in the flower head
4. Potato Onions - these grow like shallots but taste like onions. I'm still experimenting with these. These are replant perennials going in earlier in the year and coming up in summer same as regular onions.

There's various leafy greens such as Good King Henry or Caucasian Spinach.

Herbs such as Rosemary, Oregano, Thyme etc will probably do well.

If you get the irrigation set up Sweet Potato might romp away.

You could also go down the self seeding rout - leaving lettuce, rocket, spinach, etc go to seed and self sow around the place

Great book suggestions Jay-ell, and thanks for all those lovely perennial veggie suggestions! I was hoping to get a lot of garlic in so am excited by all your allium suggestions!
Do you buy locally, or order from an online source? Or indeed, better still, engage in seed swaps?

I'll sit down with my friend google and work my way through those suggestions, reading up on the growing habits as conditions of each. At the moment I'm building a list of plant natives as well as other potential plant options for the plot...these get me on heaps! Thank you!

[simplesamen]

Wow welcome to the forum,maybe you could start a blog of your adventures,you sound very adventurus,good luck to you

Hi lottie dolly, thanks so much for the welcome. It's amazing how many people there are here all willing to share their ideas and suggestions! Funny you mention a blog, I was over in the blogging bit earlier testing the water and have just poster my first page. Nothing too exciting yet, just getting to grips with the formatting and posting a bit about myself.

[Tripmeup]

Welcome along.
Sounds like a fabulous life adventure...I have a perennial spinach that refuses to die.
Chives are fairly tough and there are plenty of herbs that like the dry..

[simplesamen]

Unless you have a water source on your land in Portugal, I'd think building a reservoir you can save winter rain water in, would be one of my first priorities.

Hi nick dub, yes indeed, I think this is definitely high on the priority. I'd planned a rainwater capture barrel system, but your 'dig a reservoir' idea seems far simpler and quicker...given that I'll be arriving right on the edge of the rainy season. Don't want to miss a drop of that precious rainwater!

[Jay-ell]

Another allium to think about might be Wild Garlic - aka Ramsons. It's in leaf early on in the year and has a garlic flavour which becomes a mild onion flavour when cooked. The leaves are the part eaten - the bulbs are small and best left to multiply.

For chives there's the standard Garden Chives, there's also a Giant variety, theres Black Isle Blush (Like rfegular chives but with two tome blink and mauve flowers), Chinese/Garlic chives, Nodding Onions and a few other chive like alliums out there.


Some of the plants are a bit elusive to track down.

I've gotten them off the internet - sites like Pennards, Poyntzfield, rareplants.eu, Sainte Marthe, Garden Supply Direct and some other places I can't remember but were in Belgium.

[Jay-ell]

By the way how big is the plot of land you have? Is it land only or is there some place to stay as well?