This is a month when there are a lot of maintenance is carried out. It is when outhouses, gates and locks have to be checked, and there is pruning and tidying up of trees and bushes. We look after the patches of vegetable garden that are being used, doing weeding, guiding climbing plants, caring for planted garlic and collecting greens such as Swiss chard and a type of cabbage.

Weather permitting, we begin planting the first products of the year…starting with leeks, onions and spinach. Then, apart from the maintenance of what was planted in the previous autumn, the soil has to be prepared for the sowing of the new plants. It is the best month to plant apple, walnut and chestnut trees that are replanted every year.

The days are getting longer and the temperature is going up and more types of plants can be added to the vegetable garden. Radishes, beetroots, onions and sprouts (spring varieties) cauliflowers, cabbages, red cabbages and Brussel sprouts. If the temperature allows, we can start to sow the first lettuces. As more plants are being added, now more and more maintenance is required and the grass over our meadows is growing faster which means it needs to be cut back more frequently.

We now have temperatures suitable for the majority of the plants in the vegetable garden. Then we start sowing and transplanting the more delicate ones. Lettuces, marrows, cucumbers, peppers, buttersquash, aubergines…all these will be collected and taken to market in the summer. Common horsetail and nettles are collected and prepare the mixtures to be used against fungi and plagues. In ten days time, nettles will be applied to the plants as fertilizer.

Is the time for beans. We plant the flat green and yellow type. We continue planting lettuces, very popular in the summer months. We take advantage of the warmer temperatures to fertilize the lemon trees. They will benefit from the extra nutrients to strengthen them, very welcome after the long winter and before the spring and beginning of summer. With the rise in temperature it is time for more weeding in the vegetable and herb garden. We collect the last of the May beans and any remaining peas, the first onions can be ready for picking towards the end of the month the first radishes, spinach….

In July everything starts coming together. If all has gone well there will be garlic, leeks, onions, lettuces, the first marrows and cucumbers, red cabbages, cauliflowers, broccoli, cabbages…most of our time will be taken up collecting the crops and in the sale of the products but without leaving to one side the clearing of the meadows and vegetable garden. The first batch of cabbages and turnips are planted.

The vegetable garden is in full swing, now the collecting of the peppers, aubergines can begin towards the last week of the month. The second necessary break in the year comes in the middle of the month due to the celebration of the International Festival Descent of the River Sella. If it is a dry month the grass will stop growing - meaning there will be less need to do weeding and more time can be spent on taking our products to market. Beans, green vegetables towards the end of the month are collected and then put out to dry in a dark space so they do not lose colour. Now is when the lemon trees are pruned.

Is one of the months when there is more work to be done as the harvesting of the summer crops and the beginning of fertilizing the other crops and the sowing of leeks, collard greens, turnips, and swiss chard. Also the land where there are no crops needs to be cleared in order to start fertilizing those areas. The time has come too when firewood has to be chopped in preparation for the winter ahead.

If the weather is favourable, what was sown in the summer will continue to grow until the middle of the month and with the last batch of fruit we will make jams that can later be stored so they can be enjoyed all throughout the winter. Firewood has to be chopped as there is never enough. The work of fertilizing continues. This is the best month to start work on clearing the soil in preparation for the next planting process. It is also time to collect apples, nuts and figs of the variety Miguelinos.

Time for planting garlic, peas, May broad beans, onions and broccoli. Time also to finish stacking the firewood and moving the dry wood from the previous year nearer our house so as not to have it at hand during the winter. This is when we start on the jobs needed inside such as the repair and update of the outhouses and chicken coups while the weather is bad.

The days are getting shorter. It is time to plan for next year, to finish clearing the land and undertake all of unexpected jobs and catch up with other work that has fallen behind, as in January, a new chapter starts.