The Journal of a Gardener in Tuscany - Early April 2004

The Journal of a Gardener in Tuscany — Aprilshowing young green or yellow buds, the diversity of
2004 part Icolour across the hillsides is a pleasant change from
Earlythe grey brown of winter, and even better is to know
March Winds and April Showersthat in a couple of weeks they will all be different
April 10th 2004shades of soft green.
I replanted two flowering trees at the request of myWine Pots
Father, he cannot remember their names but one hasApril 3rd 2004
yellow flowers and the other is a ‘pink thing’.A trip to the winery to buy a demijohn of wine ended
The ‘pink thing’ did not enjoy being placed inup in a large flowerpot buying session as well. The
the shade last year under Lombardo’s loggia, orFrescobaldis are one of the largest wine producers in
shaded terrace, so we have planted it with theItaly, they make wine on neighbouring land to us and
‘yellow thing’ on the bank just above thehave a large local winery. We turned up hoping to fill
courtyard. This is a new area of the garden afterour 54 litre demijohn of wine and ended up buying
Lombardo build a flowerbed here in which he plantedsome ten half oak barrels once used for wine making
some tulips, his speciality which he brought to us fromas well.
his own garden.In many Agriturismos in Tuscany the barrels are used
With bulbs in the base of the wall, roses to be plantedfirst to store wine and then, when their winemaking
a few inches back followed by the slope of wilddays are over, as large flowerpots. They never seem
flowers then the flowering trees, or ‘things’,to hold more than a few dry pansies or geraniums at
and the cypresses behind (so typical of Tuscany) thebest, and the wine barrels, or ‘wine pots’ as
bank in the courtyard should become a pleasant site inwe christened them, are coated along the inside with a
years to come. The trouble with much of thethick hard coat of red wine sediment. The barrel smells
gardening we do here is that it is the future we mustof wine and whatever we plant will have to reconcile
think of. We aren’t just building a garden for theitself with the fact that it is living in a wine barrel, and
here and now, but one which will evolve, and I amquite possibly any blooms will smell a little of wine too.
aware of the three year law for any tree. That afterWe are avoiding Geraniums in these as it’s
planting we should wait three years before expectingtempting to plant lemon trees in the barrels, so we
to see anything happen. Painfully slow.have wine flavoured lemons jingling in our gin and
I have started to count and clear the olive trees on thetonics.
land. We have acres and acres of what were onceThe garden is growing frantically and the banks are
Olive groves but which have gone to ruin. Scrub andcovered in a multitude of wild flowers and wild mint, so
then woodland has invaded the land and it needs work,walking anywhere away from the lawn releases a
much of it consists of hacking through thestrong minty aroma underfoot. We took the geraniums
undergrowth, cutting away the scrub surrounding theout of the greenhouses and are scattering them
tree by hand, then pulling it away, an exhausting taskacross the property, nothing is left in the greenhouses
which simply cannot be substituted by any machineand we are now only waiting until May before we buy
without damaging the trees. We have a lot of land tothe lemon trees for the large pot in the car park.
cover, and every time I uncover a tree I see anotherA day in Florence with friends inevitably led to a long
top of silver and green shining among the scrub, I sighlunch at San Spirito Piazza followed by a walk in the
at the thought of the extra exertion and so I head offBoboli gardens just south of the Arno in Florence. The
to clear that too, then I see another, and another, but atgardens are filled with Italian curiosities, such as statues
least I’ll have oil lamps in powercuts and plentyand follies, and everywhere you turn you are greeted
of hair gel in the future…with another compelling view such as the Palazzo
Olive trees are renowned for longevity and ability toVecchio one moment, and the Duomo the next, or
produce fruit despite old age, drought, frost and fire, soboth. It is a stunning location and the gardens are full of
although many are covered in vines, brambles and evilplants that are so successful here such as cypress,
thorny wild roses they should still produce fruit oncebay trees and wild flowers. The latter would seem to
they are pruned, a task Lombardo and I will start nextfill the area to many that should be a lawn, but a
week. A count revealed 120 trees outside the youngformal wild flower lawn, in April, can work.
olive grove below the garden. Once pruned we shouldWe are planning a row of lavender in front of the rose
see some fruit in about 18 months, painfully slow again,bed on the terrace, as well as a hedge to line the lawn
but as farms go, at least it is low maintenance, andin the garden of Francesca, beech is a candidate for
olive groves look beautiful all year round.this, as is something slightly herbal, such as Rosemary,
The PH Sampler from the garden centre proved funwhich is flowering across the valley. The plum trees by
and I spent an afternoon sticking it into the ground andthe villas were pruned heavily, in the hope they will
checking the results with my PH Chart, this useful chartproduce some fruit for the first time in four years, and
tells me, for instance, where I can plant rhubarbelsewhere fruit trees are making themselves known
depending on the soil, or artichokes or potatoes, shouldby showing off their bright blossoms, allowing me to
I feel the urge. I don’t really trust it though, as itplan where to cut away scrub and prune next winter.
was so cheap, but I do look scientific as I walk theThe next few weeks will be busy in the garden now
lands, instead of looking like a neaderthal with stoneas we bring the garden up to scratch and carry out
age tools. The hill sides all across Tuscany are nowthe plans we made over the winter months.