What's GROWING in Our Summer Garden? (Central Portugal Zone 10a) 

My brother lives in Brooklyn, NY and is known as blue ribbon vegetable grower. Many newspapers in NY have photographed his 12 foot high tomato "tree." He grows tomatoes from seed. He leaves them in a dark basement and doesn't bring them out until June 1st. When he plants them, he put them in a trench longways leaving just the top leaves exposed. Well, this does grow into a huge plant and produces many tomatoes. He wins awards for his basil, which is more like a bush than a plant, peppers, string beans, and just about any vegetable. He does use horse manure. He has found that people go into garden and take soil to analyze what he is using. He only grows organic. Best to you, Jane, Philadelphia

Great video loved it when you were both working on the trellis and irrigation, no commentary or music just the sound of your surroundings. It felt as though I was there with you. The garden looks wonderful. ❤

We are in Tomar right now and can totally understand why you chose this location, it’s such a beautiful city and a great vibe. People in Portugal have such a wonderful way of going about things. Nice to see the progress you are making too 👌😊

Wow , your garden has come a long way! Congratulations, you two hard workers! Good to see you out side and making great progress!👏👍✅ Really tidy! Love the way you did the borders! Lots of yummy veggies! Watering system! You have developed your plan well! Always nice to see so many of you people on You Tibe making serious progress to build your home, rebuild and lots from scratch! Think you win the hardest job! But you sure show young energetic brave people what’s involved in restoring your castle! Even if it’s a house , farm or home! So know that YESyou are making a difference! Take time off to play! Health is so important and you both seem to be be taking good care of each other eating fresh! And balancing work , play , sleep! 👏👍✅😄😄❤️ Hope to see you Inside the house for the winter?! 🙄👍👏✅❤️

Your gardens are beautifully prolific due, in part, to all the compost you used when initially creating the beds. That, along with irrigation and Portuguese sun - and your hard work - provides you fresh vegetables for most of the year, and plenty to preserve for the winter months. You say you don't plan to live entirely on your own produce, but you must come pretty damned close!

I enjoy your remodeling videos the best but your garden is producing beautiful vegetables and fruit (ie tomatoes). I agree with a commentor above they need to be used as a prop for painters/photographers. I love when I see you post, God bless you both with good health and much success.

Lovely garden beds. One thing you might want to keep in mind is that if you allow the Basil to flower, it will become bitter. Keep cutting the tops during the season and don't let it flower.

Your efforts have produced a neat and organised display and a feast for the eyes. The blue/purple tomato 🍅 is beautiful and deserves to be painted/photographed.

With pumpkin 🎃 try to do filhoses for Christmas, a Portuguese must! It's like pumpkin donuts/fritters that we do and add cinnamon and yellow sugar to once fried, yummy 😋

Kylie never fails to amaze me! Here we have a person that rises to the challenge no matter what it may be! I wonder what she will come up with when she tackles a state of the art compost system? Guy is the perfect support!👍😀 I love watching you guys here from Cape Town South Africa!

My goodness but your garden is impressive. You've done a brilliant job 👏👏👏

Oh, aubergines! Thought you might like to try them stuffed, if you haven't already. 2 aubergines (works with butternut squash as well) 2 tbsps. chopped ham 2 tsp. chopped onion 2 tsp. chopped parsley 2 mushrooms chopped salt and pper to taste egg to bind 2 oz. grated cheese Clean and cut the aubergines in half lenghthwise, scoop out seeds, and pulp. Chop the pulp. Put all chopped ingredients in a large bowl, season well and bind with beaten egg. Pile into aubergine skins. Sprinkle with cheese Bake in the centre of a moderate oven (350 °F, mark 4) for 30-40 minutes. Serves four.

Watching this while I’m eating red pesto chicken and saucisson pasta, with the said sweet red peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, wwine, cream, parmesan, parsley and basil 🌿 delicious 😋

The lemon verbena is also good for keeping pests out of your linens and wool clothing items and it smells great! Enjoyed the video as always!

BBQ aubergine recipe, slice thinly lengthwise, brush with olive oil, cook on plancha, then roll feta in a sun dried tomato (the suspended in olive oil type) and wrap the aubergine slice around stick a cocktail stick in and warm on edge of bbq. They can be made ahead & are a great side.

oh THANK YOU for the update on the kittens and hens. 🥰🐈‍⬛

What a joy to see you guys gardening! I have been gardening for 4 years and is truly a therapy ! Every year even though I plant the same things , the results are different depending on the weather! I grow mostly from the seeds that I save, but is actually a lot more work and you have to care for the little plants like babies… lots of time ! I just made picked veggies and I use it for my salads …. I enjoy so much the renovation work that you two are doing ; I can’t stop watching your show ! Wishing you lots of success and good health!

Your garden is beautiful. Everything so organised. Lovely to see. Congratulations

Wonderful update on the garden. Thanks for letting us listen while you work. Love all the little quiet sounds of life. ❤

You should try Yard Butler IGBA-1 Gopher/Mole/Voler for killer bait. For some natural shade in your garden the Portuguese Laurel (Punus Lusitanica) or maybe a Japanese Maple (Acer).

It’s been a weirdly wet year, love the garden explanations and how the planting has fared to date. 👍🇫🇷🍷🇬🇧🇪🇺💚💚💚

Hi, Kylie and Guy. The gardens look great! The tomatoes and melons are fantastic! I see a lot of processing in your future😊

I always hope for lots more garden videos, cat and chickens videos too.

I like the energy you have to do what you both are doing, working in the garden and make so beautiful garden beds and more!!!! Congratulations you are amazing!!! I’m from Orange County California and I don’t miss any episode

First, thank you for the lovely videos. We both look forward to them. I watch only one other page that has garden content and since she is in British Columbia Canada (Little Mountain Ranch) she must use a high tunnel for her tomatoes. She has buried sturdy metal fence panels in the middle and then just ties up plants from both side with yarn. Since you'll always be doing tomatoes, it might save you some time and headache. Just trying to do something nice, as you bring us smiles each Saturday.

I'm new here, makes me very happy to see a channel that talks about agriculture in our peculiar climate. Thank you for sharing, a hug from algarve.

Never heard of a food dehydrator before. A very neat gadget for food growers.

At first you said you did not know a great deal about growing food....look at you both now!👏👏. I love the loofah idea for the dishes! If you see the weed 'horsetail' on your travels harvest some..it is good for scrubbing pans. ( PS. Gardeners dread having this weed on their plots...but it is Mother Nature's Brillo pad😁.)

Garden looks great, clean and beautiful

Beautiful garden! What a crop of watermelon!!!

Hi Kylie running flexible pipe hose eg 2 inch ag pipe over the plants that need protection is efficient and in the long run cheaper. With upright posts in ground, thread flexible pipe onto post, arch over gardenbed and thread other end on opposite post. Thread should be firm fit and long to be stable. Repeat down length of bed. Put high post in centre position at each end of bed. Lay rigid length of something and attach to those last 2 posts. Using durable twine join rigid 'beam' to arches. Beam should be under the arches to maximise slide. Now shadecloth can be dragged over and clipped into appropriate position. As season progresses you can unclip and drag the shadecloth further north, south, east or west and reclip. Also any overhang can hang down sides or be rolled up. When no longer required lift off undamaged shadecloth and put into storage. Posts stay in position, ready for next year. Or frosts or hailstorms. Your garden is magnificent. Congratulations. Drying eggplant cubes sounds like a winner. I buy dried tofu and use it in soups and stews as when it is reconstituting it picks up flavours - and saves me wasting fresh packets forgotten in my fridge. I wonder whether zucchini could be treated the same way.

Your farm area looks amazing

Guys your veg is amazing...congratulations on such a prolific crop. We live a low carb bio plant based diet over here in Italy and our health has never been better than it is now (we're both over 60 ). Good health!

you could do two or three episodes like this. it’s nice to see what you have going on outside

Watching you 2 working wether inside our outside makes me knackered while sitting down. I thoroughly enjoy you blog

I literally cannot believe that you don't have tenfold the subscribers you certainly deserve them. As always in every way a great video. Wishing you continued good luck in everything you do.

Those long peppers are our favourite on the grill. Highly recommended

Tomato jam is also something we do in Portugal, so something you can consider doing if you have a lot of and have the right variety of tomatoes for that. The best ones are the long pointy tomatoes 🍅 mu mum calls them " coração de dama" rough translation lady's heart.

Have you tried Sheep wire, bent over the easy damaged vegetables by the Sun. Shading material can be rolled over and rolled up at your convenience. 🇮🇪🇪🇺

The garden looks beautiful . You guys did and are doing a great job.😊

Gives some peace of mind, watching you guys building something rather than watching the stupid news about war and self - destruction. Keep on keeping on. ❤

the long sweeter peppers are great to let stay and dry on the plant - then dry it even more and grind them to get the best paprika paste

Your gardens look beautiful. Bountiful harvest happening at your place. The tomatoes ❤

The bugs doesn’t like sparragus 😊

A good way of visualizing 40cm is, 30cm is 12” (a ruler) so 1/3 more is 40cms. We moved from imperial to metric in 1966 and still need to visualize the 12”/30cm thing.

Tootally not cheating! You guys are busy!

So enjoyed your gardening. It is doing so well. Great wor.

Lovely to see your garden and produce. You can slice melon in 2-4 mm slices and dry/dehydrate them. They taste great. A couple of years ago I bought several cantaloupes to a party, but got sick. I found a recipe for salted cantaloupe jam. It was delicious . God luck with your bountiful harvest. 🫛🌱🍉🍈🍆🌶️🫠 a good onion to grow is walking onion or Allium cepa var viviparum.

Garden looks good. So glade to see a garden video.😊

Bom dia meus amigos o jardim está maravilhoso gostei muito. Foi optimo ideia deixarem as obras na casa fazer outra coisa ao ar livre. Muito obrgado e espero brevemente por mais vidios 👍👍👍👏👏❤️❤️

Great work.

I both love your house renovations videos and I garden vicariously through your videos as I look at the indoor plants here in my flat in the UK.

Loofah... the Sri Lankan, or Sinhala name is Veta Kolu. As you said, eaten widely, usually in a mildly spicy coconut sauce seasoned with turmeric and as a side dish with rice.

I planted melons and created a scary jungle. There was no place to see or step. You do things much better than I did.

Best way to have some rain is to put the irrigation in:))))

*Kia ora (hello) Kylie & Guy, wow you both certainly have green fingers, as you have grown a great crop this year... so impressive. But can you PLEASE send the hot sun my way... as I am so over all the rain & more rain for almost a year now... nz*

You're garden is beautiful. I am so jealous.

Lovely video, those tomatoes look so tasty, yum!

Appreciate your episodes on youtube.looking foward see interior rooms done.take your time.thanks

Your house and farm is looking so beautiful 😍it’s amazing the Kobe you had done ✅ 😮

I dehydrate zucchini and tomatoes as well. Again, it won't work in all recipes but it works great in others and saves a ton of freezer space.

I need to get a t shirt because I love your channel. Thanks for your videos!

Just love watching the channel, very interesting and entertaining 🙂 A tip on getting your seeds to take...don't start them in the soil directly...do what the nurseries do, start with a seedling tray with a lid and let them start in a more controlled enviroment...six weeks later the plants will be strong enough to cope under standard weather...good luck!

Frezze dry slices of the melon, and have bags of melon crisps, my husband has only managed toms this years, we both thought it was the seeds. xx

Nice to have catch up on your garden.

Your veg garden looks great . 🌎🌸

Tomato jam delicious

I have nothing to say really, but I appreciate your content, and wish to help with the yt-algorithms.

In which Guy travels to drought-stricken areas & does irrigation stuff; thus bringing the much-needed rain.

Hello! I'm watching your video have a good day. It's great to see your video because it's so good.❤

I was thinking about the watermelons, maybe you can do a Turkish delight madre with watermelon. Its done by using the watermelon juice, sugar and starch, is like hard jelly. Once cold you can cut it in squares and save it in jars to enjoy with tea or coffee

I love, love coming to RU-vid and seeing an update video from you two. Whether it’s indoor renovations or outdoor gardening, you never fail to entertain and educate. I’m building a house this year (not me personally I confess but using a builder) and I will have a decent sized garden to grow ‘stuff’ - tho given the somewhat less sunny and much more rainy climate in Ireland, I expect a greenhouse or tunnels to feature. Keep doing what you’re doing. Can’t wait for the next episode where I can live vicariously (and with much less effort on my part) through you both!

Did you know that daffodils and others from the Narcissus family If you plant it around your potatoes patch it'll help keep away the burrowing animals

Excellent work 🇬🇧👀🇫🇴

Beautiful! Thank you for taking your time and sharing with us. 🇺🇸

Tomato jam is a marvellous addition to the breakfast table.

You make a good team love your videos

Hey y'all great video you have an impressive garden. So much fun to hear what you are doing how and why. About the bolted radishes... You can take the runaway seed pods that develop as it bolts and use them for cooking they are a great addition from an otherwise failed plant. You will get way more pods than the one bulb of radish. Very nice to see a video beyond the build which widens the subject material for the channel. I am new to your channel this past several months. I discovered Maya building homestead in Portugal and since I have found about 5 new channels to follow. Who needs American network TV broadcast with men in suits deciding what I watch. Thanks to you and folks like you I can set the networks free to indoctrinate someone else and tell them what they should like and watch. Thank you for the video I hope you have a memorable summer full of safety!!

Very lovely 🥰 ❤❤

My nephew grows loofah in the Phoenix Arizona area. It is a lovely, crazy vine that took over everything. He loves it. Once you find the groove for growing them, you’ll have all of the cleaning sponges you could ever desire.

Hi, I think that you have one female asparagus ( the one with flowers and later red little balls) and many males, you can have seeds from those little red balls if you want to expand your asparagus beds

Great gardens!!! Weill😮 done!!! 😎🎶❤️🥰

Wife loves her garden ,it shows ,through the video ,just like the building of the house ,Lucky husband ,👍😊

You guys are amazing !

I loved this video! You have inspired me to get out in my garden this morning. The dishes can wait.

the struggle with connectors.... boil some water and pour into mug, put the pipe in the water for 30 secs and those connectors will slide on without a struggle. makes that job so much easier

Totally agree with your comments on growing from seed. Been a nightmare here in Aveiro with the seed compost from Siro, specifically the bio germination variety. Loving the channel 👍👍 Ps. You've convinced me to get another inverter too.....😁

Great to see you growing some Heritage Tomatoes (AND no dig) .....they are SO full of flavour I can't think why they aren't more freely available.

Strawberries are a cool weather, spring crop. We’re in S California, same kind of climate as yours, and strawberries always die back in the heat of high summer. Same with lettuce…

Your garden is looking absolutely amazing. You've just inspired me to revive mine because I absolutely hate supermarket fruit and vegetables.

The veggie garden has come up a treat this season!!

You need to have a stall with your market goods out on the road. The darker tomatoes.. I think we call black tomatoes.

One of your melons looks like cantaloupe, the rough skin one 🇨🇦

Re bagged soil: Here in US many compost companies are buying from municipalities yard waste. Unfortunately not every source is organic and many people and cities use herbicides and pesticides. So those mixes of course will never perform. And that has been a big problem here. However the 1# planting soil miracle gro still produces excellent soil. I suggest that you investigate where your bagged potting soil is actually sourced from. No one wants to spend money, time and energy to grow an organic garden only to find out they are buying soil contaminated with herbicides and pesticides. Best wishes in sorting it out.

I absolutely adore your content and would like to thank you for helping me getting through my anxiety peaks. Keep up the amazing work and know that you are medicine for some of us, just by trying, failing, succeeding, overall just keeping it real ❤

MY grandfather used TO GIVE HIS VEG AND FRUIT WITH GUINNESS FOR FOOD CRIKEY !!! THEY WERE GINORMOUS !! MAYBE TRY GUINNESS in your fruit and veg ???

It was great to see your garden, it’s been a while. I saw some great ideas with the trellis, il try next year! People don’t always realize how much work gardening can be, you 2 make it look much easier.

Great garden!!! Just two experiences I made: Verbena does not like to be transplanted, if possible, keep it where it is. For the basil you should cut off the flowers as soon as they show to keep the basil growing. If you like a description for how to preserve tomatoes for "sugo" for sauces, I can help. 🙂

Watermelon wine!!! Woohoo!!

Oh my goodness down here in the Algarve we have wild asparagus and it grows everywhere it’s so prickly we must have around 200 bushes on out land …..well done with your veggies looking amazing 🤩🫑🌶️🍆🥒🥬🥦