Rob and The Plants

24/12/2025

Wishing everyone a magic Christmas evening ✨️

01/06/2020

Batatas... the Portuguese word for potatoes. Growing nicely here, making use of the empty space in between the vines. 😀

21/04/2020

Hügelkultur. The fine art of garden upcycling. In simple terms, it's a compost heap which you plant into. A kind of raised bed. The secret is the layers. You often start with big carbon heavy logs at the bottom, then maybe leaf mulch or grass cuttings then maybe cardboard, then maybe a thin layer of soil or upsidedown turf. It really depends what you've got to hand. Good layering gives a structure and the right nitrogen/carbon balance to control the breakdown.
For our operation, we started with a septic tank. Or to be exact, the displaced rocks that we needed to do something with. So they became a retaining wall. Then we needed to do something with the building waste from the house- broken tiles, old concrete floor screes. They became a hardcore base. Then our fig trees were totally overgrown. The thick woody branches became our first layer of organic material. Then the pudada (pruning) of the vines had to be dealt with, they went on next. Their long strands gaves us a good matted structure we could even walk on. Next we had a lot of grass cuttings. A 6 inch layer of this spread all over the top and I'm hoping they've create a good sealed oven like structure to initiate a hot decay beneath. Next we had to remove turf beneath the vines. So on went upturned grass and soil, further sealing in the breakdown processes below. Lastly I'm levelling a terrace for outdoor dining just above here and just outside of the wine cellar (for all those bottomless brunches); the displaced soil from this terrace is capping off the raised bed. Next year we'll start a proper planting plan once it settles. This year I'll throw a few wild flowers over it so we've got something to look at from the dinner table. 🍷🦋🐝🐞🏵. Pleased that we saved ourselves skiphires and bonfires and get something for it. Don't throw things away until you've had a very good think what you can use it for. Don't panic when you've got too much crap to deal with. Sit down, make a plan. See if your problems are actually opportunities. It's worth it in the end. @ Paço De Sousa, Porto, Portugal

21/02/2020

Latest obsession. These photos from Stephen Axford. Oohoo. Almost daily it seems studies are finding that fungi hold a new secret weapon. Be it strength, intelligence, communication. Often they operate in totally surprising and deeply fascinating ways. The more evidence that comes along further positions them as the hidden backbone of most successful ecologies. (I could talk for hours about how cool they are and yet I know nothing). The reason they've been overlooked for so long is partly to do with our ignorant squeamishness. Locking them away in a dark little mental box along with faeces, grime, p**n and toenails - welcome to the world of ick, get out get out. These photos would change anyones mind. Stephen captures these little magicians in all their glory, revealing their unsung beauty. What a trick (Also for someone who's colour obsessed, it's just simply pure indulgence). If you feel young enough to learn something new, become a mycologist. It's the future.




(He's not on instagram, you can find him on facebook)

16/02/2020

It's feet up on the farm time. ☕

24/01/2020

Getting us some winter sunshines 🍋🍋🍋 so many, the trees a real giver 🙏 it's been lemon and ginger tea morning, noon and night this month. Any tasty lemony ideas for the rest?

29/06/2019

Canastro. Espigueiro. Hôrreo. These wizard sheds are elevated to keep rats from getting to the corn stored inside. Ventilated to keep the harvest from spoiling. They litter the landscape of the Iberian peninsula and can be seen in wood, granite or xisto. Ours is an awesome red and needs a few tiles replacing. For now, we don't grow corn so it may just have to be upcycled for another purpose, any ideas?

08/05/2019

I've ordered my first batch of Crocus sativa bulbs for the farm project. Not only is Saffron amazingly yum, it comes from a beautiful plant too. (These are Persian ones we bought back from Oman and bottled today). Our climate can work for the plants with the right care. Harvesting them is a ridiculous ordeal however so I'll let you know if I can convince someone else to do it 🙂

30/04/2019

Spoiler Alert! GOT. dragons. Yeah we have. We've got them. Little baby ones.

16/04/2019

The court is open!! These are the keys to our new house! (Ok, we have a chubb set too but come on- how beautiful is this!) We're super excited to be moving this week. It's been a long road finding the right place, we left the UK in June last year and have been scouring half the country in search of our grail. Turns out, when your two criteria are 'courtyard' and 'waterfall' you can find something magical. It's got plants, its got colour , it'll soon have a whole bunch of people . We've decided creatives deserve a fun place to work, so we're going to give it to them. Lot's of work to do and we'll be asking for help along the way, so here's to the start of the next 10 years! Enough over-enthusiastic instagramming for now, we've got 9 bedrooms to clean.

25/03/2019

Hi guys,
Here's some plants all over a ceiling! And the very reason I didn't go to bed last night 😅 It should be worth a cocktail, go check it out if you're downtown. The views in this place are amazing. X

Green fingered enthusiasts and cocktail lovers alike will be thrilled with the latest addition to London’s drinking scene: a bar where guests can hand pick the ingredients for their cocktails. Set to open on Thursday March 28, the 'living bar' – which takes over rooftop spot B&H Garden Room .....