Gardening Blog
Allotment Diary
August 20, 2008: gardeners' paradise
Terry Walton managed to escape the chilly rains of August in the UK, by taking a trip to the Garden Island of Madeira
I’m back! But there again you probably didn’t even know I had been away. It is a very unusual occurrence for me to holiday in the month of August, but my family wanted to have a holiday together during this miserable, wet summer. Also my wife and I have just celebrated our Ruby wedding anniversary and, as a long-suffering allotment widow, she rightly deserved it.
Where did we go? You will never believe it but we went to the Garden Island of Madeira, so I was never very far from the plants.
What a gardeners’ delight, no, not the tomato variety! The climate is fantastic with warm sunny days in the eighties and even better the pleasantly warm nights in the low seventies. I should have taken my French beans with me as they would have flourished in these conditions and enjoyed the welcome break from the cold, wet nights they have endured of late.
In these perfect gardening conditions everything looks terrific. There are swaying palm trees surrounded by bright, colourful borders of petunias, French marigolds, busy Lizzies and verbena and many others in perfect flowering condition with all the blooms at their peak of colour and best of all unmarked by rainfall. There are many strange flowering plants also in profusion but one of the most striking is the native Bird of Paradise flower which delights the gardener’s eye and soul. Yes I felt really at home there.
There are many little allotments dotted around the island many of them perched on little on precipices of rocky outcrop. That stopped my urge to go and weed a little.
Also to my amazement on the outskirts of Funchal at the base of some very steep cliffs, right up close to the sea were very many allotments. The access to these was by cable car down the face of the cliff, what a way to go and collect a few vegetables for dinner!
A wander around the many little market places showed the large variety of local produce that is grown. The main source of diet seemed to come from the red, knobbly tubers of the sweet potato which grows well in this climate. No sign of runner beans but many varieties of French beans and the red podded Borlotti bean. The other surprising vegetable in abundance was the carrot. There were large bunches of these bright red perfect roots and not a hole in sight, no sign of the dreaded carrot root fly in these roots. It appears that this island, set deep in the Atlantic Ocean, is too much of a challenge for this low flying insect.
All of these vegetables were locally grown and in abundance and all appeared to be grown as nature intended, that is organically and in very fertile soil. But where do they get all the water to aid growth in this somewhat dry island? The centre of the island is very hilly and the rain falls regularly in the hills. This water is then directed to the fertile areas by a system of man-made waterways called Levadas. So the crops have an idyllic lifestyle, sunny days, warm nights and plenty of fresh water. We'd settle for a climate like that on our little hillside.
On returning to my rain-soaked allotment in the valley, my neighbouring plot holders had looked after my plot well in my absence in what they tell me were monsoon conditions. The crops were harvested regularly and plenty was left for me on my return.
So my fears of leaving the plot at the peak of the growing season were allayed and I am sure that in future years I will be pressurised to take holidays at more popular times of the year. But we shall see!
More from Terry Walton
- August 13: don't lose the plot
- Read Terry Walton's allotment sagas archive
- Find out more about growing your own fruit and vegetables at our allotment section
My Life On A Hillside Allotment
Terry Walton is a regular contributor to The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2 and has written a book called, My Life on a Hillside Allotment, published by Bantam Press. The book is available from Amazon
