Feb 28th 2004 – The hopes of the Red Admiral, early wild flowers and the large bumble bee for a mild spring would have all taken a large blow today as snow fell this morning, and far from being a light sprinkling of snow as is common enough in Tuscany at the end of February, this continued all day and when I last measured it 4 inches had fallen and with the clouds now lifting, will mean a heavy frost.
The snowfalls we receive every winter are a good reminder that Tuscany does not have an all year round warm climate and can be uncomfortably cold. But snow helps keep the insect population down, there were too many last summer, even I was glad to see the occasional insect-munching grass snake then. These snakes aren’t to be mistaken for the unpleasant black adders, which are smaller but lethal.
I returned this week from England with a collection of bird boxes, a bird feeder and a bumble bee home. The latter is a simple house and is not (yet) any attempt to make honey. English garden centres are very good for ways of encouraging friendly wildlife, as opposed to the local garden centres. The only bird box I found locally was an unpleasant plastic container with fake flowers glued to the side. Encouraging birdlife fits in with our plan of creating a haven in the mountains rather than just having a pleasant garden.
I gave the bird feeder to my Mother as a present, a good move too and she has already taken the mission of feeding birds to heart. We looked for a good spot this afternoon, we didn’t spend long as the snow was very wet and plentiful and I placed it at an agreed spot from the Walnut tree overlooking the walled garden, doing a proper job too with a wire coat hanger. We can see it from the terrace and the Library, which we use as an office, and although no birds have so far discovered this bountiful feast I am sure it will be a big hit with the local birdlife once word, or ‘song’ spreads.
My Father worried about it being too low down, feeling foxes may be tempted to attack it, but I looked hard at where it is and my Mother and I both feel that for a fox to attack it they would need to make a flying jump from the slope alongside the Walnut tree. In a way I like the idea of such a challenge to a fox, and I hope we get to see a fox having a jump at the bird feeder, it would be good sport, even if it isn’t in the spirit of a bird feeder, or so my Father adds.
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Feb 14 2004 – Some mild sunny weather earlier in the week hinted of spring, it was quite pleasant to look around the garden and see how everything is looking. All in all the garden is looking pretty bleak, in a wintery way, but not badly managed or neglected at all. Lombardo kept the garden going well last season, despite his tendency to kill wildflowers with the strimmer. This is an Italian practice which is painful to watch as Lombardo diligently cuts up the undergrowth around the garden. The trouble is the wildflowers and growth away from the primary part of the garden is seen as a hiding ground for snakes, including the poisonous viper. I have not seen a viper yet so have not felt the instinctive subconscious fear people feel when they see one. The larger green Grass snakes are harmless and everyone likes them as they eat insects. The adders are smaller black slithering creatures that hide behind rocks and appear when it is really dry. Being poisonous it is better to keep away from, or better still keep them away from you, by strimming, sadly
I saw another Red Admiral butterfly, very early on, as well as several lawn flowers. Later on I put up some deer in the hill above the garden along with a jogger and a tractor with a trailer full of horse manure. I’m embarrassed to say that I was mildly, but only mildly, interested in where the trailer went and where it came from. Who collected the horse manure, why and from where, who knows? I never will. However I was not tempted to collect my bicycle and follow the tractor.
My Father and I repotted the Azaleas, Rhododendrons and the Camellia tree which was bursting out of an already large black pot, in the company of bumble bee which was already eyeing up the swelling Camellia flowers. I also set up a compost heap which is something more we need in the garden. The soil here is mountainous, so my soil samples tell me, and they need the rotting matter mulch provides, or so the soil samples have convinced me.
February 10th 2004. I Planted five Leylandii in the rocky ground around the unsightly oil tank on Sunday, hoping they will grow quickly, and I replanted the Japanese Maple at the corner of the walled garden, in a more carefully dug hole; filled with a mix of compost, white peat and fertiliser. In contrast to the Leylandii I have no hopes the Japanese maple will grown quickly, they are slow growers but interestingly no Japanese Maple is alike. A small glade of Maples growing together look beautiful and each one is slightly different to the next, but preferring acidic soil they will not find the land here ideal, even so I expect more to follow, their autumn colours alone justify them in any garden.
I also mulched the herbaceous border, both Rose flowerbeds and lightly mulched the flowerbed built by Lombardo; no one has put down any mulch in years and the two new flower beds are simply made of mountain soil. Piling up leaves and grass cuttings over time creates mulch, which provides high volumes of organic matter and will seriously enrich the soil. The herbaceous border was built by my brother in law Marty and to fill up the stone perimeter he built we both hauled heavy wheelbarrows of soil from a lower slope last winter. It was painfully slow and hard work hauling barrow after barrow of soil up from below. But the border we produced was surprisingly good given the soil was nothing to be proud of, and a little mulching over a few years could turn this flowerbed into something very rich. At least Marty took the large rocks out of the soil before carrying it up to the border. We replanted the Rhododendrons and the Azaleas in large pots with special acidic Azalea soil which was rather expensive, but a makes pretty sight in June.
Crocuses are coming out in the sun and retiring at dusk, also the lawn is beginning to pick up and show signs of growth. Saw a butterfly, the ever ready Red Admiral, flying near the swimming pool and having fun in the sunlight.
Lombardo built a protection against porcupines on the herbaceous border, but a little too late for the many irises eaten one night in December by a particularly peckish porcupine.
It was sunny and pleasant for two days following several days of cloudy stormy weather and there is plenty of snow further up the hill, especially in areas the sun won’t reach. We put up two hares on the way to town on Saturday and put up a deer in the woods above the stream yesterday. In the meantime we are planning the landscaping of the gardens in the much larger longer term plan, which will mean not just pleasant flowerbeds, but several small arboretums around La Doccia acting as boundaries with the wilder woods beyond, as well as water plants and use of our plentiful water supply to create pools and fountains.
February 3rd 2004 - Over the last week I walked around the property to get a feel for what is here, what grows, what the soil is like and above all picturing ideas in my mind’s eye a vision for the garden in the future. The soil is not rich, yet not sandy and so capable of maintaining water. This week I decided to collect a soil sample so I took with me an old jam jar and headed down to the three fields at the lower part of our land. These fields were once olive groves but have overgrown badly, and so what olive trees remain are covered, sometimes drowned, in brambles, and they produce no fruit, having been unpruned for many years. The fields are now visited only by Signor Borselli’s sheep and two loud guard dogs, who live among the sheep and provide protection for them when Borselli is not with the sheep. The sheep help keep the grass growing strong in the face of the ever growing scrubland.
I headed down with Claudia, my parent’s Labrador, managing to avoid the sheep and the two guard dogs, who have thrown themselves at my car on occasion. I soon reached the field on the left of the stream with my camera, taking photos of the scrubland on the way. It was only when I looked for a suitable spot for a soil sample that I realised I had forgotten a trowel to collect the soil, annoyed I walked to the old stone road, that once was a pilgrims route, and collected a piece of stone chipped off a rock. This worked surprisingly well when I tried it on the soil back in the field; I dug and collected a sample of what looked like wet claylike mud with a few roots in.
I am not sure quite what to do with this sample, but I have the sample now and this can only help. The memory on my Camera ran out in this field so I headed home, having got a good view and plenty of photos of what is there. I later made some interesting panoramas and views with photos, I also noticed a tree badly stripped by a deer, it even dug into the leading roots of this young sapling. I later saw a small collection of yellow buttercup flowers, the Lesser Celandine, growing among the scrubland, they looked tubular and were not fully grown, but they are the only colour I found all day.
The next day I returned with my camera, fully charged, and took several photos of the flowers. I also went back to the fields below for a look, these are where we plan to plant olive groves and restore them to their former use.
The olive trees that remain are in good health and look like they will flourish once the scrubland around them has gone and they are tended. There are two lower fields, the one to the left of the stream faces north and west, with a cliff behind blocking off the morning sun, while the second is much more exposed and could be a good spot for a small vineyard. I took many photos in the field on the left of the stream. Claudia joined me throughout and features in many of the photos, in one picture, which I merged from several photos, she appeared twice.
Each memory chip on the camera holds eighty photos which is an ideal number of photos to take in a day, while the simple process of walking the land helps me get a feel for it. The memory filled up again while in the same field, annoyingly, so I have named the field the ‘Field of Memories’, which is a bit of a trumped up name, but open to the imagination.
The second field I have named the Field of Orchids, as a stunning orchid grows here wild in July. My Father was so taken with these that he once tried to dig up bulb and take it back up to La Doccia. After digging down in the rugged soil for some 12 inches and still coming no nearer to the bulb he gave up, filled the hole in and walked home to a glass of wine, full of admiration to orchids. This name at least is accurate to a degree.
The last field, the field with the most mature olive trees, I have named the Field Above, as it above the field of Orchids, which is below it.
Rupert Mayhew recently moved to Tuscany, Italy after giving up a career in IT sales in London. He works and runs an expanding agriturismo and included in this new role is the task of creating a garden out of what is now mountainside.
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http://www.toptuscanyaccommodation.com
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