What an amazing day we had on Saturday, but, thank goodness we had sunshine - many of those attending remembered the deluges of 2012 at the same venue, so it was a great bonus to have good weather this year.

This was our first major event under the banner of our newly registered Portuguese association - The Mediterranean Gardening Association. The new group has fiscal and legal status and removes the concern of being challenged about our activities.

A new practical guide to the Invasive Plants of Portugal has been published

There is still a lot of confusion, ignorance and just downright bad advice flying around about invasive plants but it is a subject well worth investigating, and it is fascinating to see how some plants have taken extravagant advantage of us humans and our urge to try new things from other countries in our gardens!

Researchers at the University of Tras-os-Montes and Alto Douro have dated an olive tree situated in the Alentejo town of Monsaraz as being 2,450 years old.

This is the second oldest tree that has so far been dated in Portugal, the oldest is in Santa Iria de Azóia, Loures and is a venerable 2,850 years old.

This year we held our fifth garden fair on Saturday October 26th to take advantage of the extra hour of sunshine but, we had a particular challenge, to hold our event and to comply with the recent changes in local councils, and national legislation.  Everyone involved in the organising is very grateful for the help we received from the newly united Estoi and Conceição Junta and the Horse Association of Estoi. We hope to work with them again in the future. It was very disappointing that we could not return to the Palace Hotel in Estoi but the historic gardens there were so unsafe for public access that it was beyond our resources to prepare them.