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The Journal of a Gardener in Tuscany - April 2004 Part 2
Lavender & Tourists Appear
April 24th 2004
This week we have made the garden ready for the busy tourist season, with just a few minor jobs, such as the new Lemon tree, left to go. La Doccia is full now for the first time this year. While every day this week I came back from my language course in Florence, arrived at La Doccia and found my Father pottering around with another car load of new plants from the Vivaio at Rosano.
Four types of Lavender were planted, all lavender attracts bees and butterflies, and with about 12 each of four different types of Lavender we should attract an eclectic mix of bees and butterflies. Lavandula stoechas is one type and already it is producing purple trumpet-like flowers across the front rose beds and the scent of Lavender is everywhere, especially on the rose bed along the terrace. This Rose bed lines the main terrace and fills the gaps from the Lavender we removed last Autumn and replanted in more shrubby flower beds. They grew a little too large so needed a more permanent position. The Lavender buying spree since has led to about 50 plants; this should keep the bees happy, and with some luck one might find the bee home I set up for them in the herbaceous border. This was surprisingly vacant when I checked on Tuesday and the banking business cards I used to create a split look dry and unused. The bees have yet to discover this palace waiting for them.
What is more, the bird feeder my Mother and I hung from a walnut tree on a snowy February afternoon is still untouched, this must be a record for failure in birdfeeders. I’d like to think I can change the food to solve the problem but the truth is I haven’t seen a single bird even approach the feeder let alone turning up their nose at the food we offer.
I will remove the bird feeder to a new spot if I have no luck. Needless to say the two birdboxes are empty as well. The birds are here, we know that as we hear them all the time. But the accommodation appears to be unsatisfactory, My Father’s generous advice of putting up ‘To Let’ signs next to the birdhouses were noted but I don’t think this will really help the situation. I could move them but as I’m in England next week I could also buy several more and then at least one should be filled with an adventurous bird in time. In the meantime I feel like blaming everyone and anyone, perhaps this is as they are too close to the house? Or the dogs are scaring the birds off? or general human activity, ie the strolling up and down the garden of us and our guests? Or my whistling as I pot another plant?
After a thunderstorm I replanted 31 roses from a flowerbed too shaded for them to flourish. After three years they have produced a paltry collection of flowers and they went into the new flowerbed Antonio built outside Larissa as well as some into a Wine Pot and the bed over Antonio’s wall. They will receive more sun here and have more space to grow into. The Roses look well but without the lawnmower the lawn looks like a meadow; all we need are a couple of cows with large bells round their neck.
April Showers and… April Showers
April 17th 2004
‘Brings forth May
flowers’ so the saying goes, I am looking forward to the May flowers for sure, with this rain the flowers should be visible from outer space. And gardening in heavy rain is not such an easy activity either. That said once you are outside it isn’t so bad, it’s the going out and coming in that is difficult, and the Labrador doesn’t mind, so long as she has a plastic flower pot to launch a frenzied attack on.
The lawn is looking a delicate soft green and growing fast, a mix of clover, grass, and newly planted grass is appearing too in what is excellent grass growing conditions. Grass grows so long as it is 43°F (6°C) or above and it likes damp wet conditions, which sums up the last two months well. It was a pity the lawnmower decided to die on me yesterday, now was to be its moment of glory, of total dominion over the garden, instead it is taking a break at the local Lawnmower Hospital. Strimmers are more popular in Italy and traditionally you wait until there are wild flowers everywhere before spending a morning ‘Cleaning’ the land, or cutting back everything pretty until lunchtime calls.
The new Azalea bed was completed this week, full of Azaleas and Rhododendrums in the special north facing flowerbed, (with slow drainage and acidic soil it should mimic the conditions Azaleas like in the wild as well as anywhere in Tuscany). All our temporary plastic greenhouses are clear of pot plants and to celebrate their freedom one of the two plastic greenhouses decided to fly off into the orchard during the storm last night. It is now caught up in the wild roses below, a hazardous place to go to without a strong scythe. I pinned the other one down with more stones, this one has my Rosemary cuttings for the new Rosemary hedge to go along the lawn at Francesca so is especially important. I planted the Rosemary hedge this week with 12 plants, along with hopefully 16 cuttings, assuming I lose only half of my cuttings, is this a fair percentage? I have absolutely no idea and would appreciate any feedback on what to expect. What I don’t want to happen is for Lombardo to strim the hedge before it grows to size, so I’ll have a word with him in broken Italian tomorrow.
The Arno and Sieve rivers are flowing faster than I have ever seen, their levels are so high that in Florence today people were standing on the bridges just watching the huge amounts of flotsam flowing to the sea. The heavy rain has filled many aquifers and will hopefully ensure there is no repeat of last year when it was so dry the wine and olive harvest were badly down everywhere. That said, the key months here are May to August, this is when periods without rain, like we had last year, are most needed. Two months without rain is hard everywhere and this year everyone is waiting to see how the weather turns out and whether we’ll have a better year.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rupert Mayhew recently moved to Tuscany, Italy, from a career in IT in London. He works in and runs an expanding agriturismo and this new role includes the task of creating a garden out of what is now mountainside.
http://www.ladocciawelcomes.com.
rmayhew@pemba-adventures.com
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