Portugal and its Gardens - Madeira

I start the Portugal entry with the spectacular “Floating Garden of the Atlantic” - Madeira, a fascinating and very interesting microcosm, with moderate temperatures and a lot of precipitation. Surprise surprise - it is lush and green.

Monte Palace Tropical Garden in Funchal - is a beautiful palatial house modelled on german castles of the Rhine, once privately owned, then a hotel and now part of the Berado Foundation set up in 1987 for the community of Madeira “...exotic plants native to various countries (Cycads and Protea from South Africa, azaleas from Belgium, heather from Scotland, among others) and indigenous plants from the Madeira forest namely, "Laurissilva", such as ferns, cedars, laurels, Canary Laurels,. ..” Again the theme of the oriental is picked up not surprising given Portugal's past history. Berado the founder had this garden created to show the harmony of nature and Buddhism and full of the symbolism which expresses thie culture particularly of Japan. As one would therefore expect the element of water features with koi fish. Big spectaculars - the Dragon Tree. And well known – The Pride of Madeira – something that is going in my garden soon.

Here can be found a major specialism e in growing orchids as well albeit under cover.

Many of the indigenous plants of the island have been threatened to the point of extinction and the garden is very much in the business of preserving those species especially the Laurissilva. Since 1999 it has has been a UNESCO Natural World Heritage site.

Agriculture in Madeira

Over the centuries the people of Madeira have had to create thousands of polos or terraces in order to cultivate their vegetables commercially – bananas particularly a small variety, avocados, passion fruit, guava and other sub tropical fruits. At the highest levels the gardeners use vines that will circle trees for support. Necessity being the mother of invention...

Madeira has also held much meaning for drinkers of fine wines. Not particularly in favour at present I suppose this is as much to do with the length of time it takes to make a very good fortified Madeiran wine. Two things in particular make Madeira different: firstly, brandy is added to the wine and secondly it is heated. This process is known as estufagem, probably an accidental biproduct of casks travelling in the tropics and apparently being improved by it.

Winston Churchill was served with a Madeiran wine which was 158 years old and perfect when he visited the island in 1950. The world had been a very different place when that bottle had been laid down.

I remember that at military dinners the ladies were always offered Madeira whilst the gentlemen got their hands on the port. "Have some Madeira m'dear.." Personally I was always irritated as hell.

The Du Cane family is one of my finds who appear to have written, researched and painted about the Islands of Spain and Portugal. Florence wrote about a number of countries' gardens especially Madeira (1909) and the Canaries (1911). Ella, her sister was a painter/illustrator of Florence's quite famous books of the early 20^th century. Apparently these young ladies travelled unchaperoned all over the world, writing and drawing extensively about gardens.

There is also a famous Frederick du Cane Godman who was writing earlier about the Natural History of the Azores who I havent quite been able to work out the connection but I am sure there must be one.

Garden Tip: One of the garden hints I picked up in trawling the internet pages about Portugal and its gardens was a way that Madeiran gardeners use bamboo to help propagate roses. They create tripods with the bamboo for pots; then the rose branch chosen can be air layered until such time as the new plant is able to be separated from the mother plant. Fascinating.

My Garden and I - The Agave April 2009 - part three

We can now gauge the growth on Day Five - about 25 cms a day and now you can estimate the dimensions of the stalk of the flower. I guess I need to correct my original description as its other alternate common names are Century Plant or Maguey or American Aloe but there are others.

All parts of the plant can be used but one interesting medicinal use I read on a database but would like to find the full evidence for is that in Catalonia the bark is peeled and roasted in olive oil and applied to the chest in cases of pneumonia; also some reference to use as a steroid and in the treatment of angina.

The central plugof the plant is sweet and can be tapped by boring a hole in it.... more anon.

.

My Garden and I

My calla lilies

We are having an orgiastic time of planting roses and more fruit trees here. The weather over the weekend produced beautiful quantities of steady gentle rain to help everything bed in.

Utter joy this weekend - when we found an apple tree suitable for us and can you believe how two raspberry canes can produce immeasurable pleasure? Now if we can find a rhubarb plant......This really is a sad loss to me as in my Sutton Scotney garden people came to beg for our rhubarb it was so renowned.

I have just done some surfing to remind myself why I throw my banana skins under my rose bushes. Of course! It's the potassium - good for me and good for my roses. (Stumbled on a great site in the search which explains it rather well and there are other tips beside so will revisit sometime. )

The Gardens business in Spain is really new compared to UK. But there are green shoots as the current jargon would put it. Still it can be a bit of a lottery and probably all the more fun for all that.....

What is really interesting is the business of the no-name roses. Even when I think I have been given the name I find often it is wrong. Almost nothing has a name tag and research is via a lovely lot at the Peter Beale rose forum where opinions are also divided but they give me great clues and in the end we usually narrow it down. Whatever, I am learning a lot. The current bet is that this is "Teasing Georgia" although my garden manager called it Picolo. Feel free to join the debate.

Agave Americana - three days

OK, next photo I will put a human in alongside for comparison. This plant has so many uses - I have snitched this description from Wikipedia:

"If the flower stem is cut without flowering, a sweet liquid called agua miel ("honey water") gathers in the heart of the plant. This may be fermented to produce the drink called pulque, which may then be distilled to produce mezcal. The leaves also yield fibers, known as pita, which are suitable for making rope, matting, coarse cloth and are used for embroidery of leather in a technique known as piteado. Both pulque and maguey fibre were important to the economy of pre-Columbian Mexico. Production continues today to a much lesser extent. Agave syrup (also called agave nectar) has recently been marketed as a healthful natural sugar substitute."

This is not the agave which produces my favourite product tequila, which actually comes from unsurprisingly Agave Tequilana aka the Blue Agave.

I once had an online forum discussion with someone who complained bitterly about this "cuckoo in Spanish Nature" (my words). This successful plant has established itself all round the world, even in Australia and New Zealand. It has been in Spain for nearly five centuries now, brought back like so many plants by botanists like Ruiz, Banks, Nee, Darwin and others.

It is totally naturalised and if we started to write lists of plants introduced from the New Worlds it would make a nonsense of the whole business of how plants develop and move ie ie seed pods carried by the sea to another land; seeds carried by birds and dropped serendipitously; or seed moved by the winds and so on.

My Garden and I - The Agave April 2009 - part Two

...It's no good.... I just have to put up a picture 18 hours later....


....we are all mesmerised.



The other exciting thing about its arrival of course is that the wild bird population - and boy do we have wild birds! use them as their overlook

My Garden and I - The Agave April 2009

Yesterday I was talking to a friend who goes round their garden talking to their roses “Good morning Constance,,,, good morning Agatha...” And so we develop an intimate relationship with our garden. I understand her love of these delicate creatures, but at the moment I am having this same kind of relationship with an elephant of a plant and will try and show the extent of growth during the next month as I know it is going to be spectacular. The flowering of an agave in my garden. In fact the Agave Americana often known as the Century Flower. So good morning Centuriana!

That tells you much about this plant which is related to the lily and amaryllis family and not a cactus which many people assume. It will flower once and die, spending years and years building up it energy and drawing from the soil's nutrients and also a measure of what the climate has been like.

This plant was brought from Mexico to Spain during the 16^th century. Three years ago I included it in an early attempt at an oil painting of the scene to the south west of our vista.

Then yesterday noticed the eruption taking place from the centre of this one. During the day we could see a change so I have decided to try to capture the birthing and death of this magnificent plant. My partner says the dogs sit

there watching it or maybe listening to it.

There is a very good Wikipedia article for more information on this family of plants.

As it throws up this flower,and they can go up 30 or 40 feet , the Americana is broadly six feet in each dimension. This is the photo from this morning the 22^nd of April.

will update probably every second or third day for a while. Be great to know if anyone is following us on this..... so please feel free to leave a comment

Spain - Lanzarote and its own garden persona

An extraordinary aspect of Spain are its volcanoes. For a strange natural beauty they can be breathtaking finds. Well I have always had a surprising interest and love of semi arid places.

Mount Teide, the highest Spanish mountain on Tenerife, was my first find in this part of Europe and truly left a major impact on me for its botanical jewels set against volcanic rock.

Right: A photo from the days of Tenerife when they had bananas not apartments

And of course the Botanical Gardens at Santa Cruz way back in the early 1800s were set up to establish and harden off finds brought back by Spanish botanists as they went on expeditions to new territories of the world.

Over lunch one day recently I found out about Caesar Manrique,1919-1992, a famous abstract artist of Lanzarote, one of the other Canary Islands. This conversation gave me a taster of the man and I started to look at his career. From his own writing this quote -

For the bareness of my landscape, and for my friends (...) My last conclusion is that MAN in N.Y. is like a rat. Man was not created for this artificiality. There is an imperative need to go back to the soil. Feel it, smell it. That's what I feel."

He began to feel nostalgia for Lanzarote.

" When I returned from New York, I came with the intention of turning my native island into one of the more beautiful places in the planet, due to the endless possibilities that Lanzarote had to offer. ".

Sculptor, painter, architect, landscaper, urbanist, environmentalist... César Manrique was each of these things and he mastered them all. However he said " Before anything I consider myself a painter. “ His old studio has become an art gallery with his works alongside Juan Miro and Henri Picasso.

However it strikes me that his contribution to Lanzarote clearly owes an enormous debt to him as his hand was felt on so many of the beautiful aspects and buildings of present day Lanzarote and of course the National Park of Timanfaya.

Some things to look out for or research:

The Garden of Cactus or El Jardin de Cactus was designed and laid out in a disused quarry – definitely my kind of man. More than 10,000 cacti.

His own house Taro de Tahiche is designed around volcanic flues.

Related sites:

http://www.cesarmanrique.com

www.lanzaroteinformation.com

http://www.europeupclose.com/the-art-of-nature-in-lanzarote-spain

Phenology - a great garden tool

Definition of Phenology

“What I seek is a scientific approach that takes into account information gathered down the ages by observant human beings – and goes on from there. ....phenology: the study of the growth stages of plants which can be used to predict the approach of sparing and all that implies about planting datestahe mergence of insects and other data vital to farmers and gardeners.” Eleanor Perenyi in Green Thoughts 1981.

She also writes how the Chinese and Romans were using phenological calendars several thousand years ago.

I decided to take a closer look because my instinct says this is good stuff. Then a little more delving and I realised I had always had my own indicators when I live in the south of England.

The sight of Fosythia sprouting little yellow pointers drove me into positive paroxysms of excitement – Spring was on the way! We always wrote down the date that the housemartins arrived to reclaim their territory. And what about the cuckoo...? Under a bi -line "Silent Spring: Cuckoo Numbers are falling....." Birdlife International were pointing agricultural practices which are decimating bird populations through out the world - " ...we need to be looking at some of the policies and practices that affect our wider landscape..."

Here in Spain it is the arrival of cuckoos, swallows, martins and bee eaters arrival and departures which are my personal indicators, My english gardening neighbour is more dedicated and has started a weather diary, now into his second year. He provided me with confirmation that this year there have been much colder winds and and a lot more rain.

In the San Francisco Gazette last year I found this quote. "If there's a father of phenology, it's Robert Marsham, who began recording "Indications of Spring" on his Norfolk estate in 1736. (His correspondent Gilbert White, author of "The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne," kept similar records but published only the earliest and latest dates.) Marsham, an arboricultural pioneer, tracked the flowering dates of four plants and leafing dates of 13 trees, as well as the seasonal activities of birds, butterflies, frogs and toads - in all, 27 "Indications." After his death in 1797, the Marsham family kept the tradition until 1958.“

Ooops - I just realise I havent put up the stuff I had prepared on Gilbert Whyte whose estate was close to us in UK - will rectify.

Something I pulled out of the above article was to do with carbon dioxide encouraging the early budding of plants and larger size faster growth and so on. In my mind that means that they will at risk of frosts as the proper rhythm has gone or maybe there wont be frosts because it is much warmer anyway....

In February 2004 this area of Spain was decimated by a late frost striking down old almond trees and other plants, fundamentally killing the landscape. The good news is that I see that nature is recovering but it has taken years for this to be achieved and is only partial.

Now a big warning to myself as much as anyone else – this is such a tricky area and it so easy to be manipulated by the “facts”. However I am swayed by these kind of facts pretty succinctly summed up here but you pays your money and makes your choice. http://www.bagley123.wanadoo.co.uk/global-warming.htm for a good summary about carbon dioxide and global warming.

Reducing the world population – what a can of worms if you will excuse the gardening analogy.

*****

There has always been this interest and scientific diary-keeping in fact in UK and other northern European countries and there is a European Phenology Network which appears to have a vast array of projects mostly coming out of univerisites and forestry organisations with studies of particular trees and plants being scientifically managed. (I see mentions of lilac and birch for instance. Some UK examples are:

Research Armagh Observatory

Woodland Trust UK

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

I note Finland Germany weden and Switzerland are all part of this network.

There is also a great push to get volunteer observers in society at large who are interested in these matters and long may it last.

So the value of garden diaries is a worthwhile discipline. It doesnt have to be terribly sophisticated. At a time when we dont know what is happening to global climate change we may be our own best predictors.

England and its long distance relationships to gardens

A first stab....Early medieval period

The cultivation of plants is as a general rule is innately wrapped up with healing, herbs and foods, and later materials for the production of goods. At a later time we will take a good look at what the Islamic, Greek and Roman worlds were up to and their impact on what will happen in Europe even before the revolution of gardening and knowledge of plants had really got a hold in the more northern climes. There is just so much of historical importance that is already well recorded, the true student must look elsewhere for depth.

In England's case we can look far back into early medieval times with much important knowledge resting with the monastic orders, our early writers and recorders of just about everything. They were the Internet of all things cultural and knowledgeable (As deemed by them in power) Was it ever thus?

Whether it is the Austrian Abbot George Mendel who was experimenting with the genes of plants in the 16^th century or Edith Partiger's creation Brother Cadfael.of the 20^th century there are lots of ways to get a handle on the monastic impact on the study and

development of order of plants and gardens Many of the best gardens that are to be seen in England are those that have been preserved from that period; old abbeys, stately homes that were gained having been parcelled out to those favoured by the powers that be at the time of the Reformation.

Here are a few to get you going if you want to follow this line:

Abbey House Gardens Malmesbury In effect a town garden.

Shopping and gardening with the Naked Gardeners ,Ian and Barbara Pollard. They bought and have restored medieval Abbey House with 5 acres of land. Strong on garden design. Including a celtic cross garden. Gardens hav seasonal shows of flowers including tulips and maples. Open Spring and Summer. http://www.abbeyhousegardens.co.uk/malmesbury.htm

Nice quote:

We both try not to take ourselves too seriously although we take what we do very seriously. It seems a person only has so much control in life and when you work with nature, especially the weather you have to accept what happens because there is nothing else you can do!!"

The Museum of Garden History in St Mary Lambeth London. This is now a great museum of gardening but the deconsecrated church that it is housed in was where many of the Howard family were buried. - Like Anne Boleyn's mother?

www.museumgardenhistory.org

Now of course it is a good example of inner city gardening and allotments. Coincidentally the burial place of two famous 17^th century Royal gardeners and plant hunters John Tradescant and his son.

UNESCO-listed Ruins of Fountains Abbey at Studley Royal Park, North Yorkshire

”...It is one of the few Cistercian houses surviving from the 12th Century and provides an unrivalled picture of a great religious house in all its parts. Fountains Abbey, founded in 1132, soon became one of the largest and richest Cistercian abbeys in Britain, before being close

d by Henry VIII in 1539 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. It was partially demolished soon after......”

The Studley Royal Park isnt to be sniffed at either from what the World Heritage site says:

''..Studley Royal Park .....combines into one harmonious whole buildings, gardens and landscapes constructed over a period of 800 years. All(.....) have been integrated into a continuous landscape of exceptional merit and beauty.”

Another small priory in Yorkshire the ruins of the 14th century Carthusian Mount Grace priory has a small herb garden. At Staddle Bridge, Osmotherley, Northallerton

And I must mention Mottisfont Abbey Gardens, now owned by the National Trust, just down the road from me so to speak before I left England and where I spent many an hour or a day and inevitably a few quid on their old fashioned rose plants

A 12^th century Augustinian priory converted into a private home after the Dissolution of the monasteries. the grounds have magnificent trees, walled gardens and the National Collection of Old-fashioned Roses. NT also own Mottisfont village and all its surrounding farmland and woods. There are magnificent walled gardens showing expaliers of fruit and a range of flowers to die for.

Note: As ever the photos were taken by me.

Slovenia and Gardens - a first look

The Austrian Slovenian border

Ok first surprise from my first visit for information about Slovenia prior to the trip I have just made was a corrective to my prejudices and a real history lesson. *** Please see map of Slovenia at the end of this post.

Firstly its recent past is connected to the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Eastern Bloc generally. Slovenia parted from Yugoslavia in 1991 and became a member of the EU in 2004.

The old Austro Hungarian Empire meant the borders kept moving so bits of Slovenia as of now had once been Austrian and bits of Carinthia, Austria have been heavily influenced/connected to Slovenia. An example of this is the name of my daughter's hamlet in Austria is from a Slovenian word.

The next thing was to look at a map – yes well, what does the odd mountain matter? Rather a lot actually and it wasnt until my penetration through a 7 kilometer tunnel through the Karrawanken range that I realised this to its full extent..

First impression from this northern route toward Bled,and its famous lake, my primary destination, was fruit trees in every garden. And every garden seemed to be a small holding. Second its so green! Then one remembers its long coastline, its other mountain ranges and it is not surprise to find diverse things happening with its borders.

My instincts are that Slovenia with its fascinating and interesting vistas into the past of Europe will be interesting to watch its hopefully green development from this point in time. In the past there have been lots stories of nasty chemicals being used in the forests.

For instance, hot off the press, a company specialising normally in orchids – they grow 1.3million of them – is starting to grow bananas within their tropical garden near Dobrovnik. They are also using renewable sources of energy including geothermal and solar energy. (Ocean Orchids). This company is also intending to go for pineapples as well.

Another interesting little story which brings some insight into the immediate past but has a direct connection to gardens and flowers is the Gorizia and Nova Gorica tale. You need to look elsewhere for the full story but here is a bit of it: -

Slovenia lost several major towns during the various wars the port of Trieste being very significant to Slovenia's survival and development. Equally Gorizia which had been known for its flowers had fallen to Italy. Tito having failed to get it back decided to develop a new Gorizia , city of flowers – hence Nova Gorica:

“...The two cities, Gorizia and Nova Gorica, existed side by side but worlds apart for nearly fifty years, much like East and West Berlin. Cooperation between them was rare, though after 1991 things picked up. Nevertheless, it was only in November 2003 that regular bus service was introduced between them. Though the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the fence between Italy and Slovenia remained firmly in place until 12 February 2004. ....“

when it was ceremoniously ripped down by the two mayors.

*****

The Capital: Lublijana –

this has a famed botanical garden, now coming up to its 200^th anniversary..

I also found this interesting celebration of the Common Snowdrop and a great link to the botanical gardens here http://www.botanicni-vrt.si/content/view/1/3/lang,en/..

This site is a great entry point for those interested in botany and alpines both in Slovene and English at the very least.

Lake Bled in March 2009

The Juliana Botanical Alpine Garden in the Trenta Valley Slovenia http://www2.pms-lj.si/garden/excursion.html looks like a great find for botanists, alpinists, walkers and general lovers of the mountains and open spaces as well.

It is while visiting this site I found this quotation which hit the spot:

The lofty, glittering crests of Prisojnik, the Velika Dnina's mighty depths and the tower-like parapets of Lepa Špica gaze into the Juliana Garden. The panorama from the Garden extends far into both reaches of the the valley. This mountain jewel is bounded by the jutting rock walls of the golden alpine meadows and the steep forests, gigantic cushions lying against the soaring slopes and reaching down into the blue ravines. It is as if all the overwhelming beauty of Trenta was gathered around this mountain Garden, encircling it as a magnificent crown. May the benevolent stars continue to protect the Garden!

Julius Kugy: Toil, Music, the Mountains

- Julius Kugy – 1858-1944 Author, mountaineer, poet and botanist. His father was a Carinthian Slovene, his mother was a daughter of a poet. A definite tempter of things literary and well as botanical. Please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Kugy. The entry is in a number of languages. He helped to create this alpine garden with Albert Bois de Chesne.

Ptuj – one of the oldest towns in Slovenia is well known for the Dornava Manor Gardens.

For Wine and vineyards -

Slovenia not only has its vast quantities of fruit trees but also has many vineyards. In some place s Italy and Slovenia share vineyards so closely are the geography and history of the two connected.

Brda -

”There’s a lot of the Secret Garden to rural Slovenia, nowhere more so than on the wine road in Goriska Brda. A popover-shaped bulge against the Italian border, Goriska Brda (Gorica Hills) is known throughout Slovenia for the quality of its cherries and peaches ("Brda grown" is a selling point in the markets of the capital, Ljubljana). But within Brda, the grape takes unquestioned pride of place. “

http://www.igougo.com/story-s1209348-Goriska_Brda-On_the_wine_road_in_Brda_Slovenias_secret_garden.html

Skalce -

famous for its flowers and wine. In fact very good wines which have been in production for centuries. Along with good wines goes good food I understand.... mmm in north eastern Slovenia? A visit in the near future methinks.

Agricultural Traditions

Mistletoe on trees at Bled

Five interesting sites I have discovered:

Diana and her self sufficient small holding written up here:

http://www.self-sufficient.co.uk/Small-Holding-For-Sale-in-Slovenia.htm

Close to Nature Forestry – some information of Slovenian Forestry (Slovenia is one of hte most forest countries in Europe.) and some indications on the importance of the existing farms and farming.

http://www.fao.org/docrep/w7170e/w7170e0h.htm

An article sketching out history and change but also Slovenia's rising and glowing future

http://www.acp-eucourier.info/Ljubljana-a-gateway-to.157.0.html -

Wines gaining a global reputation -

"...Shelves in Slovenian supermarkets are not stacked with wines from the new world but ‘Produce of Slovenia’ fermented on home soil. Slovenian shoppers are loyal to wines from the country’s three main growing regions; Podravje in the north-east, Posavje in the south-east and sunny wines from the hinterland of the Mediterranean coast in the south-west.

There’s a chinking as visitors leave; the sound of bottles of great tasting finds uncorked during their stay. Wine growing has been going on for 2,000 years in Slovenia. There are all varieties of wines; dry to sweet, red to white and some that sparkle. “We have fantastic natural conditions for wine growing,” says Dušan Brejc, Director of the Commercial Union for Viticulture and Wine of Slovenia, at his office in Ljubljana.

Brejc says that Slovenian wines are on the wine lists of restaurants of New York, London and Berlin. So why are they rarely in major outlets in the EU?

Firstly, Slovenia cannot currently compete with the sought after easy drinking wines of the new world. “We could probably produce a blockbuster Chardonnay,” says Brecj, but neither the size of Slovenia nor its topography are in its favour.

Slovenia is a country of small-scale of producers, says Brejc. Some 20,000 wine growers have under 0.7 hectares of land, with only 400 owning over three hectares. “Sixty-six per cent of Slovenian vineyards are on steep slopes. It means that everything has to be done by hand,” explains Brejc. This raises the price per bottle above the UK sterling 4.99 buying barrier (approximately €7)*, which occupies a big share of the major UK market.

“State socialism was probably not a positive image for wine,” he adds. He says that wine producers in Slovenia are changing their marketing, including simple, clutter-free labelling with a more contemporary look.

Brecj adds that the fear of a fall in sales of Slovenian wine by 20% in the domestic market after EU membership did not happen, proving a loyal customer base at home. He now thinks the time is ripe to put Slovenia more firmly on the map as a wine buyer’s destination. And in 10 years time he says, why not a light, easy drinking wine to compete with the new world?

And this assessment from some years ago as Slovenia was preparing for entry into the EU:

http://www.euractiv.com/en/enlargement/eastward-enlargement-eu-endangered-agriculture/article-110217

“...Slovenia

At 3.6%, the share of agriculture in gross value added is similarly high to the Czech Republic, while the agricultural employment rate of 10.2% is average for the CEEC. Slovenia is one of the “wealthiest” accession candidates, with per capita income approaching that of EU members such as Greece and Portugal.

The farm structure is considered very unfavourable. Over half of Slovenia’s territory is wooded, making it one of the most densely forested countries in Europe, alongside Sweden and Finland. Moreover two-thirds of the remaining agricultural land consists of permanent pasture, which is extensively cultivated. Small, family-run farms hold around 90% of the acreage. Only about 20% of the farms are full-time operations. The low proportion of good soil and the mountainous terrain also reduce agricultural efficiency. While cereal yields in 1999 did at least reach 83% of the EU-15 level (107% in 1997), milk output at the end of the 1990s was equivalent to only 51 to 54%. Gross agricultural output posted growth of not quite 1% in 1999, compared with 2.5% in 1998. But bad weather conditions reduced the wheat crop by about 30%.

In 2000 the farm budget was increased by 37%. The major beneficiaries were recipients of farm subsidies, which were already approaching EU levels in 1999, at 47% of gross agricultural incomes. Payments are used mainly for guaranteed prices (milk, wheat, sugar beet) and support prices (particularly cattle breeding).

The complicated market price support and control system is driving producer prices for arable crops (wheat, cereals, oilseeds) way above the EU-15 level. Producer prices for livestock products such as pig meat, poultry meat and eggs are also significantly higher than the EU average, while for milk they are on a similar level. Only beef costs considerably less. Apart from with subsidies, prices are also kept high by severe import restrictions. As a result of this policy Slovenia’s farm sector is not competitive and the standard of living for farmers still low.

Unlike the other CEEC, following the collapse of the command economy agricultural output in Slovenia suffered only a comparatively slight downturn. Whereas the number of dairy cows was trimmed by only about 20% between 1989 and 1999 – with milk production almost constant – meat output and cereal growing have remained at roughly the 1989 level.

Accession demands in negotiations on the agriculture chapter consist of milk quotas beyond present output and premium caps for cattle and sheep. Slovenia is claiming direct payments in arable farming and transition periods for animal and plant protection....”

A personal postscript: -Two weeks ago I sat in an old watermill converted to a b and b at the edge of Lake Bled with local food, local wine and traditional cooking – it was smashing; it was real value for money.Slovenia is a garden in its own right.

Lake Bled and its forested hills

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