SEEOG member Simon Wallace presents an illustrated talk on “Gozo Growing: organic gardening on a Maltese island”. He might bring some free “Gozitan” food and drink tasters for people to try – things like olives, capers, dried sheep’s cheese, etc.
Back in 2016 Simon and Mary moved 1300 miles from Westcliff-on-Sea to start a new life on the island of Gozo. This smaller, greener sister island to neighbouring Malta measures roughly 14 km long by 7.25km (67 square km or about the same size as Manhattan). The island has a sub-tropical Mediterranean climate and is located just south of Sicily, enjoying very mild winters and warm/hot summers with long hours of daylight, even during the winter (10.3 hours in January).
On their small field they use no-dig systems and permaculture techniques – modified to cope with the summer drought conditions, strong winds and lack of onsite water (lasagne beds, mulching /recycling grey water/winter rain water capture/straw bale growing, etc).
