Gardening in Italy

This special "guest gardener" segment is brought to you by the whole country of Italy! 😁

Yes, one year ago today we had the unbelievable privilege of getting on a plane bound for Italy for 10 incredible days!
So crazy what has happened there in the year since. 😞 I'm hoping they bounce back quickly knowing that people just can't stay away from that gorgeous place!

So much to see and do!


While there, husband took pictures of art and architecture and I took pictures of.....

..... weeds. 😆

I just wanted to show that they have the same weeds we do! I felt so connected!


Although their dandelions are a bit different 😄

It's crazy - you'd be walking through the streets of Rome and in between the sidewalk and building or in a crack overhanging the Venetian canals  -  little bits of life peeking out!

I have hundreds of this same looking weed clogging my gardens all year!

I also took endless pictures of people's balconies, stoops and roofs because it seems that every residence and even businesses have potted plants - sometimes even trees!

Trees on balconies were common!

One neighborhood in Rome had lemon trees lining the street!

In the middle of a square near Roman ruins - beautiful arches!

Or above a cafe - glorious garden on a balcony!

Every balcony overlooking this canal in Venice has flowers!

 And we turned down a deserted little street and found this magnificent hotel entrance!!

Or got lost (intentionally) in a Venetian neighborhood and suddenly popped out from narrow lanes into this wide open courtyard!

There were many beautiful flowers blooming while we were there including poppies everywhere!
Lining the railroad tracks on our way out of Rome...

We took a day trip to the coast and got to hike through the fields where I was in awe that they are farming and gardening on these man-made terraces on cliffs!

That's not landscaping for postcards.....they are actual, working farms!

Our bus ride there also yielded views of the endless Tuscan farms, orchards and vineyards...they're known for their excellent soil, so agriculture is in abundance!

And then there were the Boboli Gardens at the Pitti Palace in Florence!

Ooooohhhhhh, I could have gotten lost in there for days!
Absolutely huge and absolutely gorgeous!

The delicious freshness of the food is testimony to their gardening and local sourcing lifestyle. And yet again I am amazed by the amounts of green found everywhere in these large cities overseas...come on, America, get it together! 😞

Well, for my part, I'll just have to enjoy my own little slice of accidental / imperfect paradise and fondly remember the gorgeousness I was able to enjoy overseas!

Spring Clean-up

I started my spring clean-up a bit later because we've had more chilly days and because last year I read that leaving the leaves and debris and such should be left until April to make sure insect eggs and such nesting in them have had a chance to hatch.

But I finally got out a few hours at a time and got to the weeding!

Every year seems to be a new culprit and this year was one of the worst!

There are these little weeds I remember having a few of last year, but this year they were everywhere...unless they're just starting or dried past their peak, the second you touch them, the spiky seeds SHOOT OUT!! 

I'm talking like shrapnel flying out of an explosion...these things fly a few feet in the air! (Extra impressive considering the plant is usually only 4-8" tall!) It's a good thing I wear glasses because some have hit my face!  

(I tried getting a video, but you couldn't see the skinny seeds flying...but looking it up, apparently it's called shot weed 😆 Appropriate!)

So that was painful as I tried to cup them individually with my gloved hand to minimize the shooting (versus my normal aggressive, grab handfuls of weeds and yank method).

They were the worst in the long wildflower border, but I finally got it cleaned up!

(after photos are much more dramatic when you take before photos! 😑)

I then moved to the front beds and got them all spiffy...

My honeysuckle had exploded way earlier than I thought (below shows it by the 3rd week of March!) and I had kept delaying pruning :-/  

So I had to rather aggressively cut it down, knowing (though always with some concern!) that it would come back vigorously and sure enough, within a few weeks (pictured above) it was growing quite profusely again (though this time with me actually training the vines around the trellis!)

That one shoot is reaching his little arms to the heavens just waiting to grab the house. Sorry, fellow...NOT happening!

Taken from the porch; this entire corner was covered in sprawling weeds! So I cleared them out and looks like we'll have a spectacular lily year! I still need to clean up the rock debris leftover from our stoop restoration, but I did at least get all the cat poop cleaned out and black mesh put down to prevent them in the future 😑

I was counting the number of days I thought I would need for cleaning up all the beds. Most went even faster than I thought, which I totally credit my Mom-in-law and her spectacular  fall clean-up  for! 

In the count was 2 days for the shade garden.

Ha!

I was out there for about 2 hours one afternoon and got about a 5 foot section done! 😵

It was a mess!

It was also because there was also an accident. 

I talked about how I'd totally ignored this garden last year and as a result, tufts of grass started growing. Grass has the most substantial root system of any plant (root to plant ratio, grass surpasses trees in terms of root spread and hardiness)....sooooooooo, you can imagine what happens when huge chunks of it have to be dug out....

I suddenly realized that normally my favorite little groundcover is visible and blooming by now. I cleared away the leaves I leave on for the fall and sure enough...nothing. The 1-2' strip along the front of the bed was groundcover free. Whoooooops! 

The good news is that I have it growing elsewhere, including in the back of this bed, so rather than just yanking out weeds and not worrying about pulling out some groundcover that always needs to be thinned anyway, I tried to remove them in such a way so as to leave any groundcover that was growing nearby and then I'd transport groundcover from where it shouldn't be or was abundant down to the front again. So yeah, weeding took a lot longer!

So yeah....liiiiiiittle bit messy! 

But after several days of several hours at a time, pulling out weeds, thinning overgrown plants, husband trimming his prized "cylinder bush", relocating a few other plants to more suitable spots, and starting (or at least planning where and how) on adding and redoing my paths....

It was transformed!!

This garden is so much my happy place!!

Another update to come once I work on the paths and things fill in more (and I clean that poor bird feeder :-/)

Early Edibles

At the end of March things were already hoppin' in the garden...

My sacrificial kale was quite bushy.

(Thus named because caterpillars skeletonize it every year, and then it grows back and they feast again, and so on...all summer and fall long! But since they pretty much only care about the kale, I've decided to just let them have at it; keeps them from my other edibles, even though I'd love to have fresh kale :-/)

And since it was too early for the caterpillars to come steal it, I got a healthy little crop and enjoyed several salads!

And now it's 4 feet tall and flowering. Alllllrighty then.

It's also next to the sapling I've let grow for a few years waiting to identify it (it looks like some kind of fruit tree). This year we feel quite confident that it's a seedling of our cherry tree!!

We're going to re-plant it and hopefully keep it pruned to a reasonable size (our wacko cherry tree is crooked and scraggly and about 20 feet tall!) so that it can be netted from the birds and we'll get cherries!

Got the peas planted...

And now they are a couple feet high, though perhaps stunted because the cilantro shot up and will soon be going to seed in front of it...

And little lettuces!

I didn't get my tomato seeds started on time and found out I'm totally out of peppers and a few other seeds, soooo...this will be a buy a few established plants kind of year (if I can ever get to a store!)

I did plant quite a few flowers and two zucchinis (I really only need one, but two is safer in case one doesn't come up).

Several weeks in and only ONE of the flowers has come up!!! 😫 

But figures both zucchini did! 🙈

So time to just pop some seeds in the outdoor pots and they'll just have to be delayed this year 😒

My aspirations for edibles is minimal ... since that's my usual crop anyway! That bed really isn't great for anything besides accidental cilantro, some herbs, peas, and a few tomatoes that don't need to get bigger than cherry size. 

At least my flowers keep me sane!