our veggies

Are you giving it a rest or still trying to grow this and that when it gets even warmer, Chrissie?

In Hungary, we do plant short season broccoli in August for autumn harvest, so you are looking to sow a suitable variety in late July or early  August  - at a guess - as you are quite a bit warmer.

Should say on seed packet days to harvest, no other way to know.

Hi Chrissie, up north there in Halkidiki . . .

The best way to grow vegetables here in Crete, and I suspect where you live as well, is to just buy the plants on offer at the agricultural co-op or similar. Using seeds from the UK is risky because it is simply a different climate and the needs of the plants differ accordingly.

Here in Greece you can buy plants of caulis, broccoli, cabbage etc about now, ie in late October, November, because now is the time to plant them. They cost around 20 cents a plant. Lettuce you can grow all year round but it is winter lettuce in autumn and summer lettuce in spring. Soon we will plant the greek broad beans but the seeds are not the same as the UK although the beans grow and taste the same, but they are Mediterranean seeds.

If you must have seeds then buy Greek or Italian seeds, they are cheaper and much better. As for your sad tomato plants you must find a plant analyst in the village or nearest town that will tell you the problem and the cure. Plant analysts are easy to find, they are the people who check the acidity of the wine etc.

But do make sure that you plant local Greek tomato plants.

Ray

Well Steve the temperatures are lower now, around 21 degrees Celsius and tonight we are hoping, praying for rain for the olives. The wind is from the south, Gadaffi's Revenge, we call it and it carries the red dust of the Libyan desert. We don't worry too much though, we close the window shutters and it passes by until the meltemi winds come again from the north bringing the temperatures down even further. Luckily the same wind blows in the summer and cools us in the heat which occasionally reaches 40 plus.

Yes life is good here, and although we watch the news on the TV - BBC and Sky News, all the bad stuff seems to come from the UK.

But we carry on - there is a saying here in Greek - Ti na karnoume - what can we do?

We just keep on keeping on, but the summers are warm and fine and winter is never so bad as the UK.

Take care,

Ray

When i lived in greece i bought all my seeds online from seeds of Italy because their seed packets show sowing times for the med area (as well as for UK).
I used to grow calabrese,  If i remember right sown at end of august in boxes and kept fairly shaded and then transplanted out beginning of october. I did the same with swede which used to grow rearly big!
Most things have to go in either a lot earlier or a lot later than they do in the uk (to avoid the summer heat) seems strange  all the salad and veg seems 'out of season' to us.
I never had to add lime because the soil never needed it. Shouldn't think you will either if your water is as hard as it was on Zakynthos. Had to descale kettle every week, do you use vinegar to do yours like i did? Seems a funny idea but works.