With the devastation of olive trees in southern Italy, European agricultural experts are gathering in Brussels to develop an action plan to save the continent’s olive trees.

The meeting was called after leaf scorch (xylella fastidiosa) was found in four ornamental coffee bushes at Rungis, an international food market on the outskirts of Paris, a fortnight ago.

Italians in the southern region of Puglia reacted with anger when officials began to cut down olive trees there.

The trees, some centuries old, were sacrificed in an attempt to stop a deadly bacterium, xylella fastidiosa, which appears to have infected as many as one million olive trees in the region and could hit other parts of Italy and the Mediterranean.

The deadly bacterium which is wiping out olive trees in Italy has now claimed up to a million trees just in the southern region of Puglia alone.

Warnings are being sounded that Portugal’s olives could be endangered.

A deadly bacterium is likely to spread throughout Europe’s olive trees.

Xylella fastidiosa, also called olive leaf scorch, is destroying ancient olive groves in the Apulia region of southern Italy. Several thousand hectares of olive trees are now affected.

What an amazing day we had on Saturday, but, thank goodness we had sunshine - many of those attending remembered the deluges of 2012 at the same venue, so it was a great bonus to have good weather this year.

This was our first major event under the banner of our newly registered Portuguese association - The Mediterranean Gardening Association. The new group has fiscal and legal status and removes the concern of being challenged about our activities.

A new practical guide to the Invasive Plants of Portugal has been published

There is still a lot of confusion, ignorance and just downright bad advice flying around about invasive plants but it is a subject well worth investigating, and it is fascinating to see how some plants have taken extravagant advantage of us humans and our urge to try new things from other countries in our gardens!

Researchers at the University of Tras-os-Montes and Alto Douro have dated an olive tree situated in the Alentejo town of Monsaraz as being 2,450 years old.

This is the second oldest tree that has so far been dated in Portugal, the oldest is in Santa Iria de Azóia, Loures and is a venerable 2,850 years old.

This year we held our fifth garden fair on Saturday October 26th to take advantage of the extra hour of sunshine but, we had a particular challenge, to hold our event and to comply with the recent changes in local councils, and national legislation.  Everyone involved in the organising is very grateful for the help we received from the newly united Estoi and Conceição Junta and the Horse Association of Estoi. We hope to work with them again in the future. It was very disappointing that we could not return to the Palace Hotel in Estoi but the historic gardens there were so unsafe for public access that it was beyond our resources to prepare them.