Back in March, I reported that Gozo was in the grips of a serious drought. This was confirmed shortly afterwards and 2015/16 was officially declared as the driest Maltese winter since records began. For us this meant employing some of the growing techniques we’d seen previously at Vincent’s Eco Farm, trial (trowel?) and error, and doing what most gardeners do… simply getting on with the job of growing and seeing what happens. Conditions certainly shortened the Spring growing season, and whilst some crops failed, it was still possible for us to cultivate others, albeit on a smaller scale or with a reduced harvest. On the plus side it did mean we didn’t have any snail or slug damage!The bigger issue on our plot was coping with the storm force North Easterly winds in early Spring, which damaged our emerging crops. These were then followed by the hot Southerly winds direct from the Sahara, complete with fine desert sand! We successfully used large Prickly Pear prunings to create small, “shelter beds” to reduce the worst wind damage, and by planting deeply in good compost, mulching and using a recycled grey water, and still achieved reasonable harvests.
Although Gozo is a tiny hot rock, the geology means that any rainwater that does fall, quickly seeps through the limestone surface. The island’s farmers have become expert at collecting, storing and channelling this vital resource through a network of underground cisterns, hand cut rock storage tanks, boreholes, tunnels and all-year-round springs. The island’s former coal-fired water pumping stations are a legacy of previous British Military engineering works and so large, they can be explored, if you like caving, are into industrial archaeology and don’t mind bats!
Another example of adapting to local conditions is a type of Gozitan “extreme growing” at nearby Mistra Rocks on the North East of the island. Here, the geology allows water to emerge at springs at the foot of North-facing cliffs. The farmers use a series of hand-carved limestone drainage channels raised above, through and below ground to interconnect and gravity feed this water to their fields and network of larger storage tanks. The rain water can take over twenty years to percolate through the rock strata, but when it emerges it is crystal clear and very drinkable. In the storage tanks you will typically find several goldfish, a simple biological pest control as they eat any emerging mosquito larvae.
The “fields” are in fact small, soil filled pockets, often only a few metres in size and located between boulders as big as your house (or larger). They are reached through a network of rock gaps, caves, rough tracks, and rock cut steps that take you over a labyrinth of dry stone walls. Protected from strong salt laden winds, crops such as bananas, vines, sweet corn, tomatoes peppers, melons, squash, peanuts, sweet potatoes, lemons, oranges pomegranates and figs are successfully grown in these “pocket-sized plots”. The setting is magical, but a difficult place to explore easily on foot without an experienced guide. To top it all there is a wide range of wild flowers, birds (Sardinian Warblers, Hoopoe etc), wild rabbits and you half expect to see Hobbits appear at any moment.
Our front courtyard garden continues to deliver a container grown harvest – thanks to a large degree because of the excellent home-made compost we produced using our Hot Bin composter, which came from the UK. We are currently enjoying tomatoes (Black Russian) – a purple beefsteak variety which goes well with fresh sheep’s cheese and Capers, Gardener’s Delight, Tomatillos, Cucamelons, (via James Wong seeds), Courgettes and herbs – including several mint varieties. We also grow Citronella, a small shrub with pungent lemon-scented leaves that also helps to further deter the mosquito. Earlier in the year purple-podded climbing beans hiked up our framework of Giant Reed trellis. so picking beans via a step ladder was in order. We have just harvested lots of Carob Tree pods and will be experimenting with making a first batch of Carob Syrup (Gulep Tal-Harrub in Maltese) and are adding our own salt-preserved lemons into veggie stews and curries.
Just before sunset we are now treated to a nightly fly past from several different species of bats. The Malta Bat Survey Group are visiting with their detectors to count and identify those that circle around our house. We also rescued a stranded Algerian Hedgehog hoglet and re-released it safely back into nearby car-free zone, following a fit to travel check by one of the island’s vets. In the cooler evenings Moorish Geckos can be seen effortlessly climbing up our house walls.
Simon & Mary Wallace, cats x2
Ta’Bepxi, Qala, Gozo
