About

Hi folks and welcome to Piglet’s Plot!

Gardening is my passion and every day I discover something new.

Gazania in Portugal

As a novice gardener with a tenacious spirit and a heap of enthusiasm I follow my passion with an element of frustration and humour. I laugh, rant or cry at my failures and celebrate my many successes with a whoop as I jump for joy! (I’m easily pleased) Of course, gardening in a foreign country when you do not speak the language adds a whole new dimension to the gardening challenge.

My urban garden is compact and manageable – just as well I don’t have acres of land to manage as it can be very hot here! However, if I did have acres of land I could keep pigs and chickens which I adore, so life is about compromise.

I grow (attempt to grow): fruit and vegetables, herbs, cacti and succulents, flowering shrubs and perhaps the biggest challenge – container gardening.

Despite my ongoing battle to dissuade the bugs that my humble plot is not a Michelin star restaurant I now endeavour not to use pesticides. So if you have any natural remedies you can recommend please share!

Visitors to “PiP’s” gourmet garden restaurant

Turn up the sound and listen to the poem I dedicated to some of the bugs that taunt me!

The Ugly Bug Spring Jive
by PiP

With the Herald of Spring the bugs start to arrive
in my Garden of Eden for the “Ugly Bug Jive”.

The weird and the ugly they give me the jitters
who may I ask invented these critters?

There are black bugs and green bugs and stripey ones too
perhaps they’ve escaped from the Ugly Bug zoo?.

Grass hoppers and spiders arrive at my door
the Jive’s in full swing so they take to the floor.

The Ugly Bug Jive is now the “In” thing
and a great way to cheer, the arrival of Spring.

The birds, snakes and lizards come looking for lunch
The “Ugly Bug” guests look an appetising bunch…

hmmmmm

Gobble gobble!

What's on the menu today?

Battling against the language barrier, uncertainty of what to plant when, humongous insects and a variety of diseases, cruel salt winds and high humidity my little plot in paradise at times presents quite a challenge.

Piglet’s Plot is a diary of my gardening “ups” and “downs”, tips and ideas based on personal experience.