THE EDIBLE GARDEN - Spring Garden Fair 2017

Saturday March 4th     11.00 – 16.00     Entry €1 per person

Quinta da Figueirinha, Silves 

One of the aims of the Mediterranean Gardening Association here in Portugal over the past few years has been to encourage, if not actively pester, local plant nurseries to widen their range of plants.   The smaller family run nurseries and garden centres which propagate their own stock have been responsive to our demands and, we hope they have benefited from the increasing demand for waterwise and  robust plants. Plants which are native to Portugal, and also the wider range from other Mediterranean climate zones, provide rich pickings for our Algarve gardens.

There will be more than ten specialist plant nurseries selling drought tolerant perennials, vegetables, herbs, fruit trees and shrubs a great opportunity to see a different range of plants from those offered at the Association’s popular Autumn Garden Fair.

The main aim of this Spring event is to encourage gardeners to buy the right plants for the Algarve’s Mediterranean climate. This year, apart from ornamental shrubs, trees and plants, the Association is focusing on The Edible Garden and so will have for sale fruit trees, vegetable plants and herbs.

There will also be a range of other exhibitors with organic products, wine, oils and botanical art with a demonstration of solar cooking.

In addition to the sale of plants there will be free talks on ‘Fruit’ at 11.30 by Jean-Paul Brigand, and on ´Permaculture´ at 13:00 by Julia Thiemicke and on ´Herbs of Portugal´ at 14.30 by Fernanda Botelho in Portuguese. There will be a speakers corner with a talk about the pH (relative acidity and alkalinity) of soils.

Visitors are encouraged to visit the very new ‘Demonstration Barrocal Botanic Garden,’ a new Association project at Quinta da Figueirinha.

Our special speaker on Fruit is Jean-Paul Brigand, participating in this event for the first time. He will come with examples from his own garden. Over the last ten years he and his wife Ann Kenny have created a lovely traditional Mediterranean garden near to the Alentejo coast with only edible or fragrant plants. The main collections are citrus (the largest collection in the south of Europe after l'INRA), pomegranates, mulberries (Morus alba & M. nigra), fig trees, abutilons, rare varieties of ginger, day lilies, desert fruits etc.

They accompany the work of planting with research on the use of old or not yet acclimatized varieties; how to grow, cook, store them, and share this knowledge. Jean-Paul has written many articles on fruit orchards, some available on our web site and his  Blog at http://olharfeliz.typepad.com

Best of all perhaps is the chance to see selected specialist nurseries coming together in one place to show the best of their plants for sale. At the same time you will have the opportunity to talk to them about those plants and how to get the best performance from them. Spring is a great time of year to see plants looking their best and ready to go into the ground before the summer heat, come along on March 4 and you will find plenty of choice for your garden.The Spring event for 2017 will once again be in the lovely rural setting of the Quinta da Figueirinha near to Silves. There will be small and specialist nurseries, natural history and gardening book sales and native plant seed sales and advice from members together with tours of the Quinta.  

The Fair will be open from 11.00 to 16.00. Free parking on site, plant creche and catering available. Entry fee €1. 

Directions http://www.qdf.pt/en/Contact_Us

and Quinta Web  site  www.qdf.pt