Comments on: Back from Lanzarote http://www.allotment.org.uk/garden-diary/529/back-from-lanzarote/ Vegetable Fruit & Herb Growing on my Allotment Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:50:32 +0000 hourly 1 By: Elaine http://www.allotment.org.uk/garden-diary/529/back-from-lanzarote/#comment-5234 Elaine Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:01:09 +0000 http://www.allotment.org.uk/garden-diary/?p=529#comment-5234 Hi John Glad you enjoyed your holiday - sorry, research trip. Your pictures reminded me of our holiday there last year. We loved Lanzarote, but also found it hard to imagine how anything could grow! Regards Elaine Hi John
Glad you enjoyed your holiday – sorry, research trip.
Your pictures reminded me of our holiday there last year.
We loved Lanzarote, but also found it hard to imagine how anything could grow!
Regards
Elaine

]]> By: susan hole http://www.allotment.org.uk/garden-diary/529/back-from-lanzarote/#comment-5206 susan hole Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:28:31 +0000 http://www.allotment.org.uk/garden-diary/?p=529#comment-5206 Dear John, You need to know what goes on in the other side of the island, away from the tourist areas. My partner, Julie has also just got back from Lanzarote, she goes to La Santa for her running. she has a local friend at La santa, who, with funding support via a friens of ours, has set up polytunnels on a 3 acre site for growing vegetables ( I send the organic seed over to her), for the local villagers and restaurants. From Teguise, via La santa, up to Soo you will find the villagers have poly tunnels and also grow fields of ogen melons, all irrigated with pipes. Christine has a large water holding tank on her site, which she pays to be filled up every month, which supplies her house and land with water, as she also has chickens and donkeys on her land. Everything is mulched with picon, and all the local villagers help her to run this new project, which is quite new. In the old days all that they grew was tobacco and sweetcorn, but not now, as all the veg shipped in from Las Palmas is crap and inedible by the time you get it, and too expensive anyway. Dear John,
You need to know what goes on in the other side of the island, away from the tourist areas.
My partner, Julie has also just got back from Lanzarote, she goes to La Santa for her running. she has a local friend at La santa, who, with funding support via a friens of ours, has set up polytunnels on a 3 acre site for growing vegetables ( I send the organic seed over to her), for the local villagers and restaurants. From Teguise, via La santa, up to Soo you will find the villagers have poly tunnels and also grow fields of ogen melons, all irrigated with pipes. Christine has a large water holding tank on her site, which she pays to be filled up every month, which supplies her house and land with water, as she also has chickens and donkeys on her land. Everything is mulched with picon, and all the local villagers help her to run this new project, which is quite new. In the old days all that they grew was tobacco and sweetcorn, but not now, as all the veg shipped in from Las Palmas is crap and inedible by the time you get it, and too expensive anyway.

]]> By: John http://www.allotment.org.uk/garden-diary/529/back-from-lanzarote/#comment-5202 John Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:02:18 +0000 http://www.allotment.org.uk/garden-diary/?p=529#comment-5202 Thanks Les - appreciate your comment. I've helped friends with a garden in Barcelona but Lanzarote looked well nigh impossible to me. I was amazed anything grew at all! The German guide on our tour was looking pretty pained at my endless questions! Thanks Les – appreciate your comment. I’ve helped friends with a garden in Barcelona but Lanzarote looked well nigh impossible to me. I was amazed anything grew at all!

The German guide on our tour was looking pretty pained at my endless questions!

]]> By: les waller http://www.allotment.org.uk/garden-diary/529/back-from-lanzarote/#comment-5201 les waller Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:55:16 +0000 http://www.allotment.org.uk/garden-diary/?p=529#comment-5201 Hi John I was interested to read you brief article on gardening on Lanzarote. I own a holiday home on the island just on the edge of Playa Blanca and the edge of the lava field, we can see Timanfaya from our garden. Yes we do have a garden which grows a lot of very good semi tropical flowers, three large palm trees plus Hibiscus and Bougainvillea, and so I thought I would just to add a little more information for you. The crushed lava which is put on the gardens is known as 'picon' and because it has a honeycomb construction it does actually store water to a certain degree. Underneath the picon we have a layer of sand and gravel and it is really this that stores the moisture with the picon acting as a barrier to keep the moisture in. We have a small bore hose pipe type watering system on a timer that provided water for about 5 mins each day Regards Les Hi John
I was interested to read you brief article on gardening on Lanzarote. I own a holiday home on the island just on the edge of Playa Blanca and the edge of the lava field, we can see Timanfaya from our garden. Yes we do have a garden which grows a lot of very good semi tropical flowers, three large palm trees plus Hibiscus and Bougainvillea, and so I thought I would just to add a little more information for you. The crushed lava which is put on the gardens is known as ‘picon’ and because it has a honeycomb construction it does actually store water to a certain degree. Underneath the picon we have a layer of sand and gravel and it is really this that stores the moisture with the picon acting as a barrier to keep the moisture in. We have a small bore hose pipe type watering system on a timer that provided water for about 5 mins each day
Regards
Les

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