Renowned landscape gardener Steve Townson, of Green Fingers’ fame, has launched a bespoke garden consultancy based on over 30 years’ experience designing, landscaping and maintaining some of the most prestigious gardens in the Algarve.

Working hand-in-hand with a keen, new landscaping and garden maintenance company, Steve offers everything from on-site consultancy to project management. Whether you are creating a new garden, or wanting to inject fresh life into an established one, Steve’s extensive knowledge and advice will ultimately save you time and money.

The Mediterranean Garden Fair held in São Bras de Alportel on Saturday October 28 was the most successful yet and attracted 1800 visitors, a record breaking attendance for the event in its eighth year. This is a wonderful response and we would like to thank everyone who supported our exhibitors and speakers.

The weather was perfect and the excellent help given by São Bras Camara, the Bombeiros and the Amigos do Museu all combined to make the day run smoothly. The organisers work with a wonderful group of volunteers who make the event very special by giving their time on the day to help visitors. When the gates opened to the public at 11.00 am the plant nurseries and other activities were all in place for the rush of enthusiastic gardeners.

Spring is a great time of year to see plants looking their best and temptations aplenty were on offer at the Spring Garden Fair on Saturday 4 March at Quinta da Figueirinha. The garden fairs, organised by the Mediterranean Garden Association for Portugal (MGAP), are popular fixtures in the gardening calendar and the hard working volunteers involved in the planning and organising really excelled themselves this time.
We were very pleased to have the support of Silves Camara and some great helpers from the local school (ESPAMOL), they are now all experts at organising a car park !

The largest collection of fruit trees in Portugal is in the Algarve, and the largest collection in the Algarve is at the Agricultural Experiment Centre in Tavira where 120 varieties of almond trees, 280 varieties of vine and 227 varieties of citrus are growing happily among many other unique varieties of trees that many thought extinct.

Agricultural engineers from the Regional Directorate of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Algarve (DRAPALG) have been collecting trees and vines from across the region, replanting and carefully studying specimens that form “the genetic heritage of the Mediterranean’s fruit trees.”

On Saturday 17th September, 30 members of the club plus 28 guests got together at the beautiful home of Torunn and Jon Lange to celebrate 25 years since the formation of Clube Dos Bons Jardins, which is the second oldest English speaking gardening club in the Algarve.
We were blessed with good weather so started the party with drinks and canapés on the terrace looking out over the beautiful gardens to the Atlantic Ocean. We then retired into the welcome shade of the enormous garages which had been transformed into a wonderful party hall.

The Mediterranean Gardening Association in Portugal extends a warm invitation to those readers who wish to attend the International Spring Conference weekend in Lagos on April 22nd to 25th.

The aim for this 5th annual conference is to reveal the practical and aesthetic benefits of making beautiful and sustainable gardens with plants of the Mediterranean and dry zone flora worldwide.

News of events coming up and a great start to the gardening year. If only it would rain, our happiness would be complete !! There is much of interest over the next few weeks.

September is one of the busiest garden months and heralds the switch from summer-blooming flowers to winter and spring ones and from warm-season to cool-season vegetables.

As the weather can still be very hot, start slowly by cutting down faded flowers and vegetables and preparing the ground for the best planting month of the year, October. Continue to water deeply, early in the day or in the evening. Check drought-resistant plants for signs of stress. One deep watering now can tide them, trees and shrubs over until the winter rains and help protect them from disease attack.