Planting pause

No post just at the moment: I have been travelling (on business) last week to Tunis and at the moment I am in Perth WA. So no planting right now. I have managed to get some liitle plants in the ground already but mostly in sandy or stony soil where I confident that there will be good drainage. The area where I had wanted to put a collection of Teucriums and Santolinas is just too clayey and water logged so no progress until I can get a load of grit delivered. So in the meantime I am studying the plants in these far away places where the climate is truly Mediterranean but the indigenous flora totally different. Photos and observations to follow soon.
G'day to y' all (to be read in a comic zzie accent ...).
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Filippi plants arrive

My order has arrived from Olivier Filippi. The plants are very carefully packed and shipped by special courier. They seem to have survived the journey - but can I remember what I ordered? More crucially, can I plant them properly before they start to suffer in their pots ... a daunting prospect. All those special Teucrium, Santolina, Salvia, Oleander, Medicago, Buddleia, Lonicera, Coronilla ... reliant on me to do the right thing.
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Plant sale

The Med Garden Soc held their annual plant sale this weekend - it used to be in May when the weather was nicer so a sure bet for a good social event, but for optimum planting the autumn date is more suitable. Some of us find it a challenge to keep little plantlets alive through the heat of summer but we try our best.
Around 50 of us descended on Gary Gardenhire's house and magical garden in the hills above Spoleto (more on this later). It was 'dog eat dog' to get the best specimens but everyone came away with more that they had expected and usually with plants they did not already know. I tried to restrict myself and 'only' bought a Miscanthus zebrinus, 2 sisynchrysum, an Eryngium and a Kafir lily ... should I have got those Stipa barbata as well? Too late!
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Boring but important - Pyracantha

The bright orange and yellow berries of the spiny Pyracantha bush are everywhere at this time of year. Does that make it too boring? Well it seems to survive in my garden where all else fails - both drought and frost - and the splash of colour at this time of year is welcome. There are shorter varieties good for a low hedge and and tall, up to 4 m high giants for massive thorny barriers. Even Olivier Filippi has a tall hedge of un-clipped Pyracantha protecting his pépinière - so it must be alright then.
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Visit to Pépinière Filippi

My visit to the Olivier Filippi plant nursery was definitely an inspiration. At first I thought the place seemed smaller than I had expected but of course Filippi only sells small specimen plants in little pots but in an extraordinary range and variety. No serried ranks of identical pine trees in big pots as we always find in an Italian vivaio, even though the establishment is called a pépinière. The Filippi family's own garden is open for visitors and this is a magical maze of gravel paths between seemingly random (but actually carefully planned) plants which are never watered. the garden runs down to the edge of the sun sparkling étang where rows of oyster fishers nets are out across the water. The shrubby plants in this garden have all been trimmed ready for the winter and the effect of the contrasting tidy mounds of vegetation is very pleasing. There is also a 'show' garden where different varieties of plants are arranged and carefully labelled to demonstrate what is available and how they all grow. Everywhere the gravel is deep and large - no nasty small crunchy 'home counties' style gravel but big smooth river washed stones that are kind to the feet. Seedling of plants are encouraged and whilst the gravel keeps weeds down the seedlings often take in interesting and unimagined places. Now I am about to order a vast number of plants for my own garden - I hope that I can live up to this standard!
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Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day October 2009

I am just back from a trip to Provence in the South of France. More of a pilgrimage, actually: I went to visit the plant nursery of the specialist dry gardener Olivier Filippi near Montpellier. His is an almost evangelical mission to educate us in how to cultivate a dry garden that has colour and interest all year round. October is no exception - here are photos of four plants in bloom that I cannot find here in Italy. The magnificent climber Podranea ricasoliana was in bloom with huge swathes of pink trumpet flowers mixed with the white of Solana. Cheerful red Epilobium canum had self seeded all around. The lovely plump shrub Leucophyllum frutescens with purple flowers would look very nice on my terraces. His Salvia microphylla is of an intense purple-red that is far superior to the ordinary red and blue that I have.
I have plenty in bloom today too, as these photos below show, but nothing that Filippi did not already have only bigger and better. Michaelmas Daisies, of course. Campsis vine flowering for the first time in my garden - I don't know why I find it so difficult when it grows like a weed for other people. Two plants that have flowered continuously since early summer and are still going now: Tulbaghia and Verbena Bonariensis and both of which mix very well with grasses and other silver dry plants.
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Ornamental grasses round up

The ornamental grasses 'graminacei' have been a mixed bag: some of the tall feathery ones have been a real delight, Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Overdam’ has been in 'flower' since June and has provided reflections and movement against the water. Miscanthus sinensis ‘Yukushima Dwarf’ started to flower with different shades of plumes in September and is already forming nice clumps of grass. Miscanthus sinensis ‘Zebrinus’ is less strong growing but the striped leaves are very attractive. Deschampsia cespitosa and Panicum Virgatum are other feathery tall grasses which seem to have survived without much water. Andropogon scoparsi has interesting red colouration against the blue stems but is flopping about so rather untidy. The blue Elymus Prairie grass is also spreading well and provides a sharp steely blue contrast. Festuca is surviving and has some fine points of flowers but does not seem to be spreading much. Stipa also is surviving and sending up new green stems amongst the bunches of dry 'bad hair day' grass.
But anything in the Carex family has been pretty disappointing, despite copious watering (by my standards). Mostly they are dried up and it is hard to know whether they are dead or might revive with the winter rains (if we get any). Should I dig them all up now or wait until spring?
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Cobrahead weeder - brilliant new gadget

Carol at May Dreams Gardens organised a 'prize draw' to win a Cobrahead Weeder - and we all got one. They very kindly sent mine to me here in Italy and it definitely is the best thing - very simple but totally effective and versatile. Thank you!
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Terrace talk - end of summer review

We are at the end of September now and therefore nearly at the end of summer - although the temperatures are still in the mid 20s and no rain in sight. So how did the new plants get on during the long, hot summer? I never watered any of them more than once every 10 days and some never at all. Out of around 1,000 plants I think that I have lost no more than 10 - which is less than 1% failure rate. Not too bad - but now I have to plan what extra plants to put in to make the effect complete. The choice is going to be of course from the first group as follows.
Plants that never got watered and still did well: Abelia, Eurphorbia, Gaura, Santolina, Helianthum, Helichrysum, Teucrium, Lavender, Pistacia, Buddleia, Caryopteris, Mytus (small), Phlomis, Perovskia, Spirea, Ceanothus, Elaeganus macrophylla, Vitex agnus-castus.
Plants that only needed watering during the first month then were alright without: Cistus, Rosmarinus, Euonymus, Philadephus, Holm Oak, Laburnum, Arbutus, Verbena Bonariensis, Salvia nemorosa, Echinops.
Plants that seemed to be fine without water all summer but got distressed in the last couple of weeks: Senecio, Hypericum, some roses.
Plants that were surprisingly needy, especially if they were large specimens: Ulex, Pomegranate, Viburnum tinus, Laurus, Feijoa, Myrtus (large).
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Why can't I grow Crocosmia?

This is the third time that I have tried and failed to grow Crocosmia. Why?
I planted bulbs in winter and tried to keep them watered but not water logged. the Heremocalis (Day Lily) plants around the same bed are doing OK so what went wrong?
This month the RHS magazine featured Crocosmia and noted that Montbretia can often go mad and take over. Not here it wouldn't. But just to give the miserable sulking shoots in the Crocosmia bed something to think about I put the magazine with its glorious cover picture in there - just take a look at what you ought to look like!
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Belated Bloom Day September 2009

Sorry I'm late with my Bloom Day photos - these plants were all in flower last week - honest - but I was not at home to photograph them. Lots of late colour coming through now, including reds and strong pinks. Sedum is a great plant for this climate but I am also pleased with the Gaura which has formed decent sized clumps even in the first year and softens the shrubbery. A surprise to find the Philadelphus in flower but here it tends to repeat - aren't we lucky, even if the scent is not so strong as in spring. The Euonymus Europeus 'Priest's Hat' Spindle tree is rather fun and the favourite rose Phyllis Bide is coming back into flower. The Caryopteris is an exciting blue combination with the Buddleia which are still blooming and they are all covered with butterflies.
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Figs - main crop

The main season of figs is now with us - a little early but very welcome. The hot sunshine intensifies the sweetness and when they are ripe the fruit start to drip honey-like sweet juice. Nothing nicer than going into the garden and picking ripe figs for breakfast. I may even make fig jam.
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Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - August

August is a difficult month here for blooms - it is usually so hot and dry that almost everything goes to sleep (including people). Even the water plants are taking a rest, although the lilies keep going but not so many as in springtime. Thankfully the Oleanders carry their flowers throughout the hot season and the Rubeckia adds welcome colour to the 'hot' flower bed. Elsewhere it is almost all blue flowers: the Perovskia is finishing now but still creates a steely blue haze; Hyssop makes an interesting if a bit messy low hedge and Tulbaghia, a relative of allium, adds a zing to groups of grasses and Veronica Bonariensis which is still holding on. Ceratostigma is the star with intense blue flowers that come out just now. Last but not least, the ornamental grasses are starting to 'flower' that is show their silky heads which pick up the slightest breeze.
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Pond life - serene

Seeing Ingrid's post about pools which featured my pond - in the rain - I thought I had better show you how the pond is now in the hot dry weather. The pond has moods and often goes dark when there is a change in the weather especially after a big storm. But right now the water is clear and limpid even though the temperature is up around 35 degrees (95F). The underwater plants are busy making oxygen and the water lilies cast shade to help cool the water - the temperature of the water at the surface is nearly 30 degrees when in full sun. The water in the swimming zone is 2.5 m deep and keeps a lot cooler at that depth.
These photos were taken early in the morning, before the frogs had woken up, and everything was serene.
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Roses - end of term report

Now that high summer has arrived the roses are going to sleep until cooler weather returns - estivation, the summer version of hibernation - so here is my review of the performance so far of the climbing roses I planted around the pond area during winter.
Top marks - Phyllis Bide which has made good bushy growth and has been in flower without a pause until now. The individual flowers are not very spectacular but taken as a whole it is a very ornamental plant. I have already ordered some more to plant this winter.
Good flowers & growth - Old Blush, Pompom de Paris, Rosa Macrantha - all had a lot of blooms but only a single flush. Sally Holmes has kept going but it was a container plant put in at the last minute however it is taller than normal and has served a good purpose peeping over the top of a 'pretend' ruined wall (photo). Bouquet d'Or has had some nice flowers, so high hopes for next year. Rugosa Hansa has done well with a single flush but nice hips forming.
Good flowers, weak growth - Cramoisi Supérieur has kept in bloom throughout but on twiggy stems. Blush Noisette has flowered lots but not grown very tall, although it is supposed to be shorter than the others - I have ordered more of this rose.
Good growth but few flowers - Guinée, Cecile Brunner, Rambling Rector, Paul's Himalyan Musk, Zéphirine Drouhin, Gardenia, Devoniensis are all reasonable sized plants now so let's hope they turn their minds to flowering next year. Banksiae Lutescens only really started to get going once the weather had got really warm in July and now it is putting on a lot of good growth which ought to bring very early flowers next spring.
Disappointing - Mme Berard, Souvenir de Mme L Viennot both have done miserably but I think I have put them in the wrong places and perhaps I should swop them around this winter - one likes full sun and the other prefers a bit of shade. Rugosa Marie Bugnet has suffered badly in the hot dry conditions although I must confess that it is planted in almost entirely stones so perhaps no rose would have thrived.
So my rose order for this winter will contain a few repeats of these but definitely stick to Noisettes and Chinas.
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Figs - i primi

Figs have two fruitings each year - or at least they are supposed to, but usually we only seem to get the one later in the year. The first is the 'primi' in July, where the fruit have been on the tree all winter. This year we have loads of primi and I think that it is thanks to the generous winter rains. Quite a treat as these early fruit are especially juicy. Then just wait until September for the summer figs which will be a bit smaller but more intensely sweet.
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Well I suppose we all think that our problems with predators in our gardens are worse than anyone else's but how about this: a fellow Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day blogger in Alaska has moose in her veg plot. I will copy here part of her post because I could not have made this up:

"Harvested by me: red onions that have flower heads, 1 square of cilantro (drying in the dehydrator)

Harvested by the moose: broccoli (only one head and leaves), sugar snap peas (90% of plants and peas) Damn you! A young bull being “chased” by a woman in a car popped into my back yard while I was watering. A quick squirt of the hose in his direction sent him away. However, he must have caught sight of my succulent sugar snap peas and came back later."

For the full blog here is the URL http://myfolia.com/journals/64891-july-15th-update-including-moose-attack
Makes the porcupine seem almost cuddly.
You have to be tough to garden in Alaska!
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Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

I keep forgetting to do this but a great idea which has been started in the US by Carol http://maydreamsgardens.blogspot.com/
where gardeners who have blogs post on the 15th of each month photos of what is blooming in their gardens. There are participants now from all over the world.
Most of my garden is a weedy mess at the moment but here are some slightly different photos - a small rush in the shallow water of the pond is in bloom with dear little dark bobbles. Also my Stagazer lilies are doing the decent thing and full of scent. Meanwhile we are having (unusual for this area) a second flush of roses - in the photo is Michelangelo. Also an unusual blue Thyme is just in flower - it comes out a lot later than the others.
I hope to do this properly on 15 August.
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Caper capers

Here I am, back again. Not only did I have to wait quite a while for my new camera to arrive but there was a massive thunderstorm and a direct hit by lightning took out the internet for a fortnight. All back now and crossed fingers it stays this way.
A pleasing arrival during this blackout was the flowering of the caper plants that I planted in the crevices of the stonework on the terraces. Capers are very exotic looking plants but they have need no for water at all, growing happily high up on the walls of ancient Italian cities. So it is nice to have the odd specimen a bit closer to ground where the flowers can be appreciated. If a pot grown plant is too big to squeeze into the crevice then you can plant the seed pods in autumn pushed into a gap with a bit of compost. But I am told that they need limestone conditions so if in doubt stick a chunk of concrete in there with it.
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Pond life - frog spot

Whilst my new camera has not yet arrived, my friend Margaret Leon came to see the pond and with her zoom lens caught this photo of the frog - without her having to get wet.
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Foliar feed

No, not a dinner of leaves. It is one way of getting your plants to eat up their 'food' and a lot of people recommend it as a supplement to fertilizers in the ground.
I have always been a skeptic of foliar feed - why would the plants drink up through their leaves? Surely better to put it in the ground where their roots are.
Well I have changed my mind: the vines have grown a lot more strongly since they had a dose of foliar feed in their spray and the roses on the ends of the rows have also benefited. So now I am doing the same for all the roses and I think it is doing them good, especially when the weather is so dry they cannot 'drink up' anything through their roots.
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PS I have ordered a new camera

Pond life - Frog eyed

Just to add - if you look VERY closely at the last photo, you will see the eyes of the frog peering over the lily leaf. Probably watching his friend about to make a big splash.
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Pond life - frog scorn

I went out into the pond this afternoon on a float with my camera balanced ready to take a sneak photo of the frogs sitting on the water lily leaves. I took this (not very good) photo of one and then there was a mysterious wave - and the camera was soaked. I know that the frogs try to repel strangers by splashing and sinking them - they did this to a champagne cork that floated past them. But now my camera is useless and there will be no more pictures until I buy another. Frogs revenge!
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Showing off - rose arch

I know that I usually moan about my failures on this blog, but just for once I would like to show off. The local fabbro has made-to-measure a wrought iron rose arch with a gate for the entrance to the pond. He used his creative flair and I think has done a very good job.
The rose climbing over the arch is Felicité e Perpetué which flowers (usefully) late but sadly only once. The arch is quite deep so as to give an air of mystery about the approach and the rose is echoed within by Philadelphus, which has its white heavily perfumed flowers at the same time.
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Chinese rose report

Following a couple of days of heavy rain the roses are looking a lot happier. Even so, some are doing better than others.
Honourable mentions for climbers go to Pompom de Paris and Old Blush. Cramoisie Superieure Clg was a slower starter but now doing quite well and in flower.
Shrub roses Camellia and Beauty of Rosemaur have been flowering right from the start and growing nicely; Gruss an Tauplitz and Felemberg have taken longer to flower but are putting on good growth. Arethusa is growing well with nicely coloured fresh foliage but the flowers tend to fall very quickly; Perle d'Or and Queen Mab are being a bit slower and their flowers are also quick to drop. Sanginuea has had a terrible time and I think that I have lost half the plants after repeated animal attacks. By contract, the Mutabilis that suffered similar damage has pulled itself together and will, I hope, survive. Y

Pond life - rain check

After an entire month without rain and searing temperatures, the rain has arrived as a tropical thunderstorm. Just at the moment when a party of 35 arrived to see the pond. Wet wet wet.
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Terrace talk - watering update

I have been trying not to water the new plants more than absolutely necessary and after nearly a month without rain and temperatures up in the high 30's it is becoming clear which plants are surviving happily and which are suffering from stress.
Special mention for Abelia which although it looks like a normal flowering shrub most of the dozen or so that I planted have survived with little or no water. Teucrium, Convolvulus Cneorum, Phlomis, Helicrysum, Hypericum have come through well. Lentiscus Pistacia and Myrtus Tarentina have done well when planted as small specimens but the larger plants are suffering. China roses are doing well provided that their feet are well mulched - I have been using a volcanic stone mixture 'La Pillo' for the first time and it seems effective but a bore to apply as the bags are so heavy.
Surprising needy for water are Cistus and Rosmarinus Nano.
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Pond life - more 'firsts'

More 'firsts' in the pond and garden surrounding - this blog is starting to sound like the Obama household - first iris and first yellow water lily (only only flower on each sadly) and the Philadelphus is in bloom filling the garden with perfume. And for the first time ever, managed to pick some cherries from the tree next to the pond before the birds ate them all.
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Watering

It has not rained now for more than 3 weeks and the temperature is well into the 30s. We are still only in mid May and so I dread what the rest of the summer will be like. Plants that were planted in April are in need of a thorough soaking every week (at least) and I notice that larger specimens are suffering worse than smaller ones. This all goes to support Olivier Filippi's system of plant small; plant in October and only water infrequently but in copious quantities http://www.jardin-sec.com/.
With the hot weather arriving at least one month earlier than usual it is as if I had planted everything a month later and hence more need of water. It is really tiring and stressful having to do all this but I am adamant that I won't have a drip system. Last week the vivaista sent one of her team to hoe around every plant (so that water would soak into to the roots) and to water - took him an entire day but thank goodness I didn't have to do it myself. Praying for rain - but nothing forecast for yet another week.
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PS I ought to mention that this winter I planted nearly 1,000 plants so this watering regime plus daily watering of the Bermuda grass is getting to be quite a bore. But let's hope it won't be necessary next year.

Grass report

The Bermuda grass started to show little green shoots around 8th May so the seed took about 3 weeks to germinate. It needs 20+ degrees plus moist ground so this is most difficult stage. A fine green bloom is covering the seeded area but I am not sure how much of this is due to Bermuda or just the normal grass seeded from the soil that was brought in - a curate's egg.
The temperature has now soared to more than 30 degrees and it has not rained for nearly 3 weeks so watering is becoming a crucial task. I am also having to weed the grass, but life is too short to do very much of this.
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Pond life - wonders of nature

The water lilies are now blooming enthusiastically - the photo shows just one of the five groups of pink lilies. But the yellow waterlily still has yet to put in an appearance, even though it has a lot of leaves.
The first dragonflies have appeared - both the huge blue ones and the little damselflies. I now understand what the prawn-like creatures were that I saw rushing around under the water: these are larvae of dragonfly. The other day they crawled out of the water up the stems of reeds and the the dry husks remain there whilst the dragonfly itself zooms around in the air. Magic.
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Pond life - water lily

First water lily flower to open.
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Pond life - flowers, some more welcome than others

Just when I thought that I had got rid of all the oak leaves that had blown into the pond during the winter, the trees have started to flower. Yes I know that they have to do that in order to have acorns, but I had no idea that they would be produced in such vast amounts nor that the spring storms would blow tons of them into the pond. Back to work with the fishing net.
But much happier is the first sign of pink buds bobbing above the lily leaves. Hurrah!

Back into the trenches

I have been corrected - I misread the correspondence on ammonia as a weapon in the War on Terror and I am now going to have a go. Thank you for the advice.
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Chinese rose torture

The first set-back to my China rose trial - the boar have dug up vast tracts of the earth where they are planted and thrown plants everywhere. I hadn't the heart to photograph the disaster zone.
Interestingly, those roses which were planted bare-rooted seem to have stood their ground whereas the ones which came in pots have been dug up completely. I even had to go looking down the end of the garden to find some of them. Of course, the bare-rooted ones may still succumb from root damage but here's hoping. I have replanted them and put lights all around and so on but it is really dispiriting. I had a false dawn today when someone recommended putting ammonia in beakers covered with clingfilm nearby to ward the creatures off - but just now another gardener in the area has confirmed that it doesn't work. Another false dawn.
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Wisteria wow

Last year I posted a blog 'Wisteria woes' lamenting my inability to get Wisteria to flower. This month for the first time ever a wisteria has burst into flower. The happy specimen is a plant grown from seed by an American friend and given to me as a seedling some years ago. It was supposed to be coloured 'Chinese Pink' but until now I had no idea whether (a) it would come true to seed as Wisteria is difficult to propagate in this way and (b) what colour Chinese Pink was supposed to be. I do not know whether I got a positive answer for (a) and hence whether the colour in the photo is indeed Chinese Pink or something else, but it does seem dinstinctly more pink than other wisterias in the area. I think the abundant winter rains this year have been the key to success - and with other plants which are doing better than usual.
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Greens shoots

The drastic pruning and trimming back that the vivaisita did in February seems to have done the trick - see my blog 'Pruning Party' from 23 February - and the plants have mostly recovered with lush green shoots in rather professional looking clumps. A few did not make it, and this is the drawback of the technique, by the time it is evident that they did not it is too late to plant a replacement.
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Pond life - Bermuda shorts

The final task for the season is sowing grass seed on the open ground near the pond. I really do not want a lawn but recognise that there has to be something there to stop the dust blowing off the earth and into the water. The area is quite big - about 40m x 4m - so planting it all is a bit too much plus there needs to be access for a tractor or digger in case the well pump has to be lifted. The grass seed suggested by the vivaista is Bermuda Grass, variety Yukon. It is an experiment but we have high hopes as it is the sort of grass used for golf courses in southern states of America and is supposed to be very resistant to drought - in fact the grass was brought from Africa to America by Spanish settlers in the 16th century. Another plus point is that it does not grow very high (hence 'shorts') and may not need mowing. The only concern is that it dies down in winter and we just hope that the root structure will be robust enough to keep the dust down. Also the seed needs a month of warm wet weather to germinate, so bring on the rain.
The team raked the stones from the soil, sowed the seed broadcast then spread imported earth on top and rolled it down - all in the space of 3 hours. Mercifully the rain came later that afternoon.
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Pond life - On the home straight

There has been no rain for the past two weeks and a hot dry wind is blowing: the ground is now just about dry enough to start planting the area between the pond and the woods. The idea here is to use large shrubs and small trees that are either native wild plants or variants on them so as to improve their chance of survival as well as make a gradual transition from garden to woodland. There are also some of the same smaller plants that we have already used on the terraces to give a bit of balance and colour.
The vivaista's team came and planted about 200 shrubs in one day: the ground is awful heavy clay so each shrub had to be given its own hole full of compost. It would have been much better if we could have planted much earlier in the year but instead I will have to do copious watering - I refuse to have a drip system as I think it discourages the plants from putting down proper roots and it creates a 'dependency culture'. Let's see.
The shrubs include a rather tall exuberant cotoneaster in groups to give structure. Native type shrubs include Sambucus nigra (bronze leaved elderflower); Cornus sanguinea & mas; Euonymus europeaeus & alatus; Quercus ilex (holm oak) and Arbutus. Garden shrubs include Philadelphus 'Minnesota snowflake'; Spirea; Viburnum opulus; Eleanus.
I do hope that it rains soon.
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Chinese rose trial

Of all the roses Chinas seem to do best here. So I am holding my own little 'trial' of various types to see what there is beyond the usual Mutabilis. Most of them came by mail from Peter Beales - whose catalogue by the way, nowadays puts a sunshine symbol against roses that are suited to a warm climate, generally Chinas and Noisettes.
The trial roses are these rather wonderfully named ones:
Climbers: Cecile Brunner Climbing; Cramoisi Supérieur Climber; Old Blush Climber; Pompom de Paris
Tall shrubs: Fellemberg; Sanguinea; Beauty of Rosemawr; Camellia Rose; Gruss an Teplitz
Smaller shrubs: Louis IX; Arethusa; Perle d'Or; Queen Mab
The shrub roses are planted all together at the bottom of the garden in groups of 3 of each type, the climbers are dotted singly around the fence of the pond. Let's see how they get on.
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Pond life - grasses

Finally the planting around the edge of the pond can go ahead as the ground is now just about dry enough to work. My vivaista has decided to get rid of all her ornamental grasses to make way for other plants, so I have taken the lot. In fact this is a good way of experimenting as I have no experience of gardening with grasses. The vivaista team put in 150 plants and the effect is already pleasing: the fronds of the grasses reflect on the water surface and ripple in the breeze. There is a wide variety of leaf form, colour and height. Some of them are varieties of Carex and Juncus, which I am disappointed to discover need damp conditions but there is a boggy patch that might be alright.
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Pond life - Misty mornings

Spring has brought white mist in the mornings which blows away as the sun rises. Also the frogs have woken up and are now swimming around the pond making a deafening racket. Not sure whether they are chatting each other up or marking out territory.
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Pond life - new shoots

The temperature is rising and blossom is out on the cherry tree next to the pond - reflecting white on the water surface. In the shallows the reeds have sprouted new shoots and the Water Mint, Butomus Umbellatus, Pickerell Weed are sending up new shoots from what looks like a wider area than last year, so they must be doing OK. Even the Water lilies have woken up and are sending up new red leaves from the depths searching for the surface.
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Leaf appreciation

This is a lovely time of year, when the fresh green shoots are pushing out of the ground and springing from the branches. So many plants are as nice now as when they are in flower - in my opinion. Honeysuckle, for instance, is verdant and lush in early spring whereas it gets dusty and tired later. Many roses have deep red leaf buds. Even lavender is special at this time without its flowers.
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Camellias

The soil is too alkaline here to grow Camellias so it was marvelous to have the chance to visit Lucca this week with the Med Garden Soc to see the display there. Even though there had been a terrific downpour which had dashed a lot of blossom to the ground, the effect was still stunning.
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Official at last ...

The pond expert has featured my pond on his website (see the link to GART Luther).
In the German language version it describes me as 'eine passionierte Pflanzenliebhaberin' (plant lover).
So there it is - official at last.
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Snow

So much for my rushing about trying to get things done before the hot weather arrived... Y

Terrace talk - pruning the Big Olive

Time to prune the Big Tree - urgent because once the sap starts to rise up into the branches it will not go downwards to feed and develop the roots. The Professore di Olivi comes and cuts off loads of small branches and shoots. He decides to leave all the really big branches to give the tree a chance to stabilise, but he trims away one branch which got broken when the tree was lifted. Rather like going to the hairdressers, the job seems done and then .. he cuts off a whole lot more. A mountain of foliage lies all around but the tree looks happier already.
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Pond life - inspector's report

The Expert called round to inspect the pond. It scored full marks for water clarity and a bonus point for the landscaping of the terraces. But marks were deducted for leaves - far too many. Not the leaves in the swimming zone which the robot can pick up, but the millions that fell in amongst the underwater plants and rocks. Also I still had not cut back the plants around the edge - tut. So I have had a major pruning spree and then spent hours on my knees fishing leaves out from between the rocks - not too bad as the water temperature has risen to 10deg.
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Terrace talk - moving the Big Tree

Finally, after weeks of thwarted plans, we have managed to get good weather with the right grounds conditions and the digger driver, vivaista and team of 3 guys all here at the same time.
The digger required to move the tree is massive - capable of lifting 3 tons - but even then we are not sure it can manage it as the selected tree has burrowed its roots into the underlying rock and the weight of the tree plus soil/root ball and rocks is tremendous.
He digs around the tree with a (seemingly) tiny digger then a net is tied around the root ball with wire mesh and the whole lot lifted up into the big digger's jaws and trundled across the vineyard to the pond where the team is making a hole of the right shape & size and mixing in special bio nutrients to help the roots survive the first crucial weeks. The big fear is that the root ball will break and the trunk of the tree give way.... tension mounts as the huge assembly approaches the site and gently lowers the tree into position. More worries as we have to straighten it up without causing damage. Finally it is there and perhaps a little high but the team build a mound with stones to hold the soil in place and a dish shaped zone around the trunk for watering, which I will have to diligently throughout the summer.
The tree miraculously looks like it has been there forever and casts its reflection on the surface of the pond.
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Bonfire Party

The olive pruning this year has been especially drastic - largely because because the olive pickers were far too rough and damaged a lot of branches which now have to be cut out. I am not allowing them to come back this autumn and am considering buying one of those mechanical picking devices - it can't be any worse than those heartless brutes. So now the prunings have to be burned - the wood is no good for the fire because it burns black and gives relatively little heat. Sounds a trivial job - just setting a match to a heap of branches - but in fact it is a couple of days work for two people. But at least it involves a lot less skill than the pruning or indeed the picking.
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Pruning party

The other day the vivaista came round with her squad and descended on my poor neglected garden. Without mercy they pounced upon all the shrubs and plants and trimmed them almost to ground level, or so it seemed to me. I acknowledge that the garden was a bit of a mess and needed knocking into shape, and I don't want to second guess an expert. In fact it was amazing how quickly they got through a job that would have taken me days if not weeks - and they picked up all the branches and twigs too. Of course they didn't cut back those plants which flower early - cistus and so on. I am usually far too timid at this task and even with roses I too often give the plant the benefit of the doubt.
Another sensation of being inside an episode of 'Ground Force' ... Now I need to go round and feed the poor liitle plants so that they have the strength to grow back again.... let's see how it comes through in spring.
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Terrace talk - olive tree beauty parade

Out in the olive grove to pick a Big Tree to move into the terrace above the pond. Criteria are very tight: old but healthy, a single trunk not a group, gnarled roots that show at the base, easy access for the digger and - most important - not going to leave a nasty gap. The gap will be filled with a new young tree, of course, but it will takes decades if not centuries to reach this sort of size and character. Three trees look promising - which to choose?
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Terrace talk - moving olives

Even though the weather is extremely cold - minus 5 deg at night - the ground is drying out (freeze drying in fact) and so we are planting the olive trees on the terraces. First are three young-ish but still charcteristic trees which have come in pots from the vivaio. So far so good. Now for the Big Tree.
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A false spring?

The birds have been tweeting cheerfully in the trees and sunshine has broken through after endless rain. The arrival of the first yellow species crocus is a real joy - a splash of vibrant colour that the porcupine has not (yet) managed to dig up. But the forecast is for -6 deg and snow. A false spring?
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Pond life - tidyng up

During the winter a zillion oak leaves have blown into the pond from the bosco nearby which I have not been able to clear up whilst the water has been frozen. There is also a lot of general silt and stuff probably washed in by the rain. During the autumn the water went cloudy - no algae just a natural turbidity caused by the combination of relatively warm weather and the plants being asleep. With the freezing weather the water has cleared again and I can see right to the bottom and realise just how many leaves there are down there. Today is chilly but bright so I have been able to go out and put in the robot. There is plenty for him to do as there are so many leaves but I want to try and get the situation under control before spring arrives and the temperature rises - a load of rotting leaf mold is not going to help with the challenge of keeping the water clean. Y

Terrace talk - 'carpet' bedding

The vivaista is back with yet more plants - this time it is to fill in the lower slopes nearer to the house which are to be a 'carpet' of interwoven zones of lower growing 'garrigue' plants. The colour scheme is alternating silver - teucrium, lavender, helichrysum - and dark green - thyme, rosemary, cistus. It is also time to start putting in some roses - tall ramblers to hide the fencing and groups of rugosas which ought to be able to survive in the rocky ground under an olive tree. The vivaista brings 3 workers with her and gives then strict instructions, so the job gets done at a remarkable speed. But I am starting to feel as if I am in an episode of 'Ground Force'.
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Terrace talk - shorter plants

The planting continues whenever it is not raining or freezing - the pond has been covered with ice for a couple of weeks now. It seemed scarcely possible but yet another lorry load of plants has been delivered and the task is not even half done yet - at least 500 plants are already in the ground.
The texture and 'movement' of the planting scheme is enriched by using some shorter - but still structural - plants. These are not just the ever-present lavender and dwarf rosemary but also a shorter Artemesia, Senecio, a low growing Hypericum and the silver leaved Convolvulus cneorum. I count Perovskia and Caryopteris as short plants because they get cut to ground level in spring but add useful tall blue and silver effects in late summer and autumn.
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Terrace talk - middle sized plants

Filling in the large areas between marker plants is a very enjoyable task - broad brushstrokes of texture and colour and - I hope - flowers. The types of plants are all rather ordinary: cistus, phlomis, senecio, abelia, lavender, helianthus. rosemary, artemesia and so on. But there are so many varieties of them that with any luck the final effect should be anything but boring. Cistus, for example, comes in different heights, spreading habits, leaf colours and textures and, of course, flower colours.
For a bit of variety there are also Raphiolepis and Ceanothus (repens), both of which have dark leaves to complement the predominance of silver plants.
I have tended to put groups of three of each type of plant in each spot as the main view of the terraces will be from across the other side of the lake and so clumps of plants are needed to make an effect.
I always plant in prime numbers: 1, 2, 3,5, 7 ... and especially avoid groups of 4. This is partly because the number four is considered unlucky (Chinese fung shui) but really because odd numbered groups have more 'movement'. The locals think I am mad but tempered their view when it was pointed out that Neapolitan tradition is that 4 is unlucky too.
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Pond life - winter perspectives

Even though the frost was not so hard last night the pond is still frozen over - and trapped in the ice are zillions of leaves that have blown in from the woods. I went out to break the ice and have been trying to gather up some of the leaves through holes in the ice - stupid or what. The olive grove has been cloaked in frost which melts quickly in the morning sun and lingers as twinkling dew drops.
The planting on the terraces is still OK as far as I can tell. The biggest risk to Mediterranean plants in winter is to have water at their roots which then freezes. In nature the plants are out in the rough stony terrain of the garrigue and with perfect drainage they can resist very low temperatures. The planting plan here started at the topmost terrace - partly because it was most practical to start at the far end and work back - but also because the ground is well drained here and the plants ought to stay dry, but also in this location they also should benefit from an early start as it is where the sun will be most intense in summer. For the next phase of planting we must now wait for the arctic weather forecast - minus 6 degrees followed by a week of snowstorms - to pass by. The absolute target is to get everything planted by end of March latest but ideally well before then.
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Terrace talk - structural plants

The first decision for the planting scheme was which tall plants and where. The major task is going to be moving in a big old olive tree from another part of the grove plus three new large-ish olive trees from the vivaio, so as to create the feeling of the grove reaching right down to the pond. But this operation must wait until after the frosts of January. Other 'structural' plants are being planted now - crucial to giving a skeleton to the scheme are two or three small scraggy juniper trees, the sort that occur locally in the garrigue, which I prefer to the ubiquitous Tuscan cyprus trees for this particular spot.
Taller 'up-accents' are also being provided by a large Punica Granatum (Pomegranate), a Vitex agnus castus (Monk's Pepper tree), Phillyrea, Feijoa (Brazilian guava), Ulex (ornamental gorse), Arbutus and Buddleia.
Tall dark leaved shrubs to give a background to the silver leaved plants include Bay Laurel, Myrtus tarentina (Myrtle), Viburnum Tinus, Lentiscus, Cornus, Osmanthus, Olearia and tall forms of Rosmarinus. For bulky sliver clumps, of course, the inevitable Teucrium fruticans.
Once all these are in place it bcomes so much easier to see how to fill the rest with lower plants to give colour and texture.
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Terrace talk - first principles

The work on the terraces above and beyond the pond has turned into a much bigger project than I had originally thought, and so perhaps I ought to go back to the beginning and explain a bit better what I am trying to do. Or rather what my garden adviser - the first time in my life that I have had any help in the garden - has been helping me to develop. My adviser is a local vivaista who trained at the famous gardens of Tor San Lorenzo south of Rome where she acquired a sympathy for the 'English' style of gardening which is totally different from most Italians'. The vision we have is for the newly created hillside to act as a backdrop to the pond and complement its 'natural' look at the same time as presenting colour and interest all year round. At the level of the pond alongside the wood we aim to put a barrier of plants that enhances the feeling of privacy that the woodland trees already provide and to soften the transition from water to woodland. The planting should mirror the local garrigue and bring the olive grove closer to the pond so it looks like it has all been there forever. Last but not least, the planting should be drought and frost resistance so as to need relatively little watering or maintenance. But whilst we have a very clear picture in our minds of what we want to create, neither of us wants to constrain our thinking by drawing up too detailed a plan. Y

Pond life - Iced over

I have been away for a few days over Christmas and the weather forecast was for cool and wet but no worse. But today I got back to find that it had been snowing and the temperature had reached minus 4 degrees. The pond is completely iced over. This might not have been anything to worry about but I had left the pump circulating the water and I am worried that it would freeze up and burn out the motor. It seems to have survived though by keeping the water moving below the ice sheet. The new plants seem happy enough and there is still snow all around them.
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Pond life - Planting despite everything

I am absolutely fed up with nothing happening with the plants. Now that we have had two whole days without rain I am determined to get some plants in the ground, despite the forecast snow and ice. Maybe a daft thing to do but I felt better the moment the vivaista arrived with a truck load of plants. Two of them spent all day arranging and digging and now it is starting to look like a garden.

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Pond life - Bogged down

The landscaping work has taken ages - no idea why. But now at least we have a series of 'pretend' dry stone walls and terraces leading up the hillside beyond the pond. Now it needs the final earth moving, hole digging and so on such that I can start planting. The roses have arrived from Peter beales and bulbs from Bakker so we really need to get on with it. Last week the weather was dry but nothing happened. This week there has been a continual deluge - and the digger driver says he can't do anything as it is a sea of mud. Indeed it is. But there is cold weather on its way and if we want to move olive trees and plant mediterranean shrubs and bulbs then it is almost too late. What a drag.

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October - olive picking

The olive picking season has started early this year - the olives are small and mostly stone due to the lack of rain but they have ripened in the hot autumn weather. Normally it does not start until well into November, but at least the weather is dry now. The specialist olive grove on Isola Polvese where they grow Dolce Agogia have already picked. A couple of local workers come here to to the picking and in a day manage to fill eleven crates - not bad, but it will be interesting to see what sort a yield this gives.

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Pond life - Octoberfest

After a chilly start to October, the weather has now turned really sunny and warm, up to 24deg. Today is Sunday and just for once there are no workmen, visitors and the hunters in their combat gear have gone off for their lunch. So no excuse, I must go in. The terrapin thermometer tells me that the water is 19deg. I gingerly edge my way in and swim a length or two. The terrapin now sheepishly admits that it is in fact on 17 deg which is prett chilly. I tough it out for a few more lengths but with quite a 'brrr-ivido'. But at least I did it - no photographic evidence though, you will just have to believe me.
By the way I later discovered that the Italian regulation temperature for a public pool is 27deg and no less than 24deg even for olympic events....
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September - reawakening

A modest amount of rain and a few degrees cooler - and there is a magical reawakening of the plants. The olive grove has a carpet of green in a matter of a days. Some plants that I had thought were dead and gone have started to sprout new green shoots. Not everything has survived but the damage is not quite as bad as I had feared.
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Pond life - getting down to the landscaping

The builders have been back on site for a few weeks now - like the poor.....? And they have done a nice terrace around the buildings that front onto the pond. A lot of angst whilst trying to stop them using the rocks from around the pond to build walls and from putting cement in the pond water. But that part is OK now. So time to start the creative part - landscaping the hillside that surrounds the pond. I have placed an order with Peter Beales for lots of tall ramber roses to (I hope) scramble into trees and over walls. I am hoping for a totally 'natural' effect. But first the builders need to construct a series of 'pretend' dry stone walls and terraces to hold up the hillside and stop it being washed down by the storms.
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Boring but Important - Sedums

Sedums are pretty boring most of the year but they do have the double advantage of being able to survive a drought and flowering in autumn. They like stoney ground and tolerate heat. The usual type has wide flower heads that start white and turn a hot pink, but there are lots of different onces - tall, short, green leaved, red leaved... unfortunately the varieties are difficult to find in Umbria so some Brits are considering sneaking a few plants over in their hand luggage. Beth Chatto has a fantastic range but doesn't mail plants outside UK. I tend to mix Sedums in with other 'piante grasse' which are more or less happy without water but have very interesting shaped leaves and flower at different times but don't always survive the cold winter.

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Nymphs

My search for terracotta pots to cover the devastation in the garden led me to this terracotta statue: rather more tasteful than most of the figures I have seen so far and not showing gratuitous amounts of terracotto flesh. This nymph now stands at the end of the pergola under an olive tree. This autumn I plan to surround her with chinese roses and build a pathway around to link up with the terrace below.

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Pond life - Insect life (4)

The first question that most people ask (me included) is Isn't the pond a breeding ground for mosquitoes? The answer is that Yes it might be except that it is also a breeding ground for the insects that eat mosquitoes, and they keep them under control. I found that in the first week or so of the pond filling up there were a lot of mozzies but then the water boatman population exploded and there was a feeding frenzy: no more mozzies. Also the dragonfly and the bats that take over from them at night eat their share. I even have found a ladybird on the reeds eating the blackfly. Isn't Nature wonderful!
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August - burn out case

When I look back at my first blog back in August 2007 it was full of ideas and plans for the coming year. But this August the garden is terrible: all dried up or dug up by animals or blasted by diseases from the vines. Really depressing - to the point that I couldn't face writing the blog this month and have not posted any photos. So bad in fact that I have had to go and buy a load of pots to plug the gaps. Well let's hope for a better year next year.

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Pond life - Insect life (3)

The plumber has called and he has fixed the faulty part in the pump control mechanism - so the water tank is starting to fill up again. Relief!

The insects zooming around the pond were none the wiser, thank goodness, disaster averted. I have finally managed to get a snap of the big turquoise Dragonfly as he was soaring around the big yellow digger - somehow reminiscent of 'Diving bell & butterfly'? Also the yellow Damselflies have taken a liking to the reed that grows next to the big rock.

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Water crisis

I was just about to blog on the subject of water in the garden and how we all ought to learn to do without watering .... but I went up just now to check on the water storage tank and found it completely dry. Either the pump is not working or the well has dried up all together. Looks like I am going to have to practice what I preach, but I am scared that the pond will dry up. The temperature this afternoon was in the high 30s. And the plumber cannot come for another 2 days.
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Pond life - Secret life of Plants

On my morning swim today I took a photo of the water lilies as I passed them in the middle of the pond. Here it is...

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Pond life - Insect life (2)

The larvae in the water have now produced several little turquoise blue Damselflies - small versions of Dragonflies - the other difference being that Damselflies rest with their wings closed but Dragonflies leave them open. There is also a pair of brilliant red dragonfly which I think is called a 'darter'. There are at least two huge blue Emperor Dragonflies but they zoom around all the time and so far I have not managed to get a photo. Masses of Water boatmen on the surface who are doing a really efficient job of eating up all the mosquitoes. I have also seen a flash of bright green under the water as some small amphibian has been rushing to hide under the rocks - a small frog perhaps?

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July - saved by the oleanders

What happened to July? If it hadn't been for the Oleanders (Nerium) it would have passed without notice. Even so, poor show compared with the ones in Rome (the streets of Parioli are lined with standard Oleanders) or even the house down the road from me. I sometimes wonder whether it is worth the effort of nursing them them through the winter here but they do fill a difficult part of the summer. My current favourite is a rather nice creamy white/yellow which glows in the evening light.

The only plants to really put in adecent appearance apart from them were the Agapanthus - my white versions were slow to get to flower but this year have done well and a Bird of Paradise (Caesalpina) that I am growing in a pot from a seedling bought at an MGS plant sale: I am wondering whether to risk planting it out or maybe another winter indoors.

But the flower beds are looking dreadful not just because nothing's blooming - the porcupine has gone mad and has dug masses of deep holes everywhere. Even where there were no bulbs it has destroyed the roots of plants and wrecked everything.

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Pond life - water weeds

The underwater plants - so painstakingly planted by me - are growing. In some areas of the pond they have already reached the surface of the water. This is a good sign - they are generating oxygen all the time and I can see the bubbles rising. Judging by the pattern of growth, the plants grow best when they are near to the points where water is recirculated, which seems logical. I am keeping an eye on some areas though where nothing much seems to be happening and have some spare plants in a tank just in case.

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Pond life - taking the Plunge

Tired of just looking at the water and with the temperature up in the high 30s I could not resist it any longer. Even though there are diggers and trucks all around and heaps of earth, I went out at first light on Sunday when there was no risk of workmen turning up. I gingerly stepped down the rocks into the water - a lovely 28degrees - and pushed out into the middle of the pond. Just me, birds singing and water boatmen skidding around. No people, no noise, no notices telling me what not to do. Just me and the waterlilies opening in the first sunlight of the day. Perfect.

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Pond life - robotics

The robot has arrived and I plunged him straight into the water to make a start on cleaning the floor of the pond. But it's very slow work - such a lot of dust and whatever have fallen to the bottom during construction that I wonder whether robot is really making an impact. I have to empty the filter bag every hour or so and the robot seems to kick up a lot of dust as it goes along and makes the water cloudy. Cleaning has to stop for a few days then as the diggers are back and putting earth all around to make the levels right and get ready for planting. The plumber also is fixing up tubes between the well, a storage tank and the circulation system. Meanwhile there are flowers now on all the waterlilies - pink, white and yellow - and on the pink Butomus Umbellatus and the white Alisma Plantago. Blue dragonflies zoom overhead and waterboatmen skim about the surface.

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Pond life - Insect life

The water seems to be staying clear and whilst it is a bit green in tone there is nothing like algae, just reflections off the mud at the bottom. The robot still has not arrived to clean this up. In the meantime I have been going round with a shrimping net to clear any flotsam off the surface - leaves and such like. Horrified to see though millions of tiny wriggling insect-like creatues in the deep water zone. I took a look inside the box which houses circulation pump and it was completely jammed up with dead insects - too small to be caught by the skimmer. I have now to go and clean the pump chamber every few hours. Another email to the Expert - this time he takes a while to reply. The insects are probably dragonfly larvae - you ought to leave them to develop, but if you can't bear that then put in a trout which will eat them up..... Oh no, have I been killing dragonflies! Better let Nature take its own course from now on.

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Pond life - Circulating

The water is now up to the required level. We have started the circulating pump and the effect is very charming - no audible sound from the pump itself but gentle gurling as the water is recirculated under the rocks and gravel around the edge of the pond. Bubbles rise to the surface not just where the tubes are located but also every now and then above the aquatic plants - which means that the plants must be 'working'. Water boatmen and dragonflies have arrived to dart around on the surface.

The skimmer swirls the water inside a sieve which takes out the flotsam & jetsam. Unfortunately we still have wires draped all around because Enel have not yet installed the new power supply - they need to replace the pole to carry a heavier cable and the neighbour whose land it is on refuses to give them access. This means that to top up the evaporation the well pump runs at night otherwise it blows all the electrics in the house.

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June - Flaming damp squib

The rain continued through most of June and then stopped. The temperature soared to 38 degrees. The result? Rampant disease first in the vineyard then spreading to roses and shrubs and even the lilies in pots. Despite liberal doses of blue spray a lot of plants are looking pretty miserable - yellow leaves and shrivelled growth. Thos roses that have resisted the fungus have continued to flower much longer than normal so there is some compensation.

Scented flowering of lonicera (honeysuckle) and the jasmine-like trachelospermum jasminoides fill the terrace with perfume and the passiflora flowers at the top of a tree. Shrubs escallonia, lavatera and spirea put on an extra special show this year. Even the guava has flowered well despite the rain.

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Pond life - water lilies

As the water level rises the water lilies grow upwards to keep their leaves on the surface. Most impressive: some of them are now 1m taller than when first planted. One which is in shallower water is putting its energy instead into growing leaves laterally. But the best news is that one has started to flower - and this of course was the whole point of the project. In the end they should spread and form a canopy to keep the water cool. The pond level is almost at the top now and most plants have their feet either wet or damp (capillary action draws water up through the sand to about 15cm about the surface). The pump needs to start circulating as soon as possible but of course the electrician is nowhere to be found.

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Pond life - Keeping unwanted people out

It is the law here in Italy that pools and ponds must be fenced in - and they will send an inspector round to make sure. So immediately the fencing people came round and started putting up a 2m high chain-link fence. Ridiculous - and it made the place look more like Colditz than Umbria. So after wide consultation with others in the neighborhood I persuaded them that 1.25m would be perfectly adequate. The risk is that it will ruin all my attempts to make to pond look 'natural so I will have to try to diguise it with climbing plants. They have put the fence as far away as practical and now it is over 150m long. More expense.

Not a moment too soon though: the fencers reported that they had found 'footprints' in the sand at the edge of the pond. Feet? No: trotters. The prospect of wild boar getting in and ripping the liner is just too awful to contemplate.

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Pond life - Emergency plants

The aquatic plants have run out. The Expert has sent some more in a giant refrigerated truck and I have just been to collect them. The truck was destined for Rome so we met up at the autostrada exit. I hope nobody mistook me for a drugs dealer (picking up my consignment of weed?).

Last night there was a massive thunderstorm which had the strange effect of clearing away all the bio agent that had been clouding the water surface. Today the water is clear and I can see right to the rocks at the bottom. The trees are reflected in the surface which is sky blue. Unfortunately it also reveals that I have missed a patch of sand and there is a gap in the planting - now a couple of feet under water. Does it matter?

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Pond life - plant (and knee) rescue

The little aquatic plants have started to look awfully sad. In fact quite a lot have lost their leaves and the water in their tanks is rather a vivid green. So another call to the Expert who recommends tranferring the plants to the pond where they can have more water and light - in the corner by the steps. So I spent an entire afternoon carting them round in a bucket and then emptying the tanks with a bucket using the water on the garden and flower pots (waste not want not...).
Meanwhile the planting goes on relentless and my knees are red raw with kneeling on the gravel not to mention the stiff muscles. But yesterday very kind neighbours brought me some knee pads and a foam kneeling pad. Brilliant - this has transformed the experience and made it much more likely that I will see the job through. My planting outfit is now Roller Ball meets Ground Force.
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Pond life - pressing on regardless

The Expert has been consulted and he assures me that the plants in the shallow zone will be alright provided they are watered once or twice (max) per day and their root balls are kept damp. Easier said than done with temperatures as they are at the moment - 37 degrees today. In fact the group of 3x Water Mint is also looking pretty crisped up but it was like that right from the start so probably I will have to find new ones to replace them.
I went round with a watering can at about 4pm trying to put water only on the roots and not to splash the leaves - it was like a furnace with sunshine reflecting off the gravel and rocks which are not yet submerged.
Local people are not worried about the performance of the well and rather tend to be impressed at the amount it has delivered so far. The target volume is somewhere in excess of 500 cubic metres, whereas a standard 12x6m pool would be a fraction of that, and we are in fact well on the way to achieving it. So I am going to have to content myself with only running the pump for a couple of hours per day and the process taking at least another 10 days. Meanwhile can I manage to keep the aquatic plants alive?
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pond life - water, water ...

The water level in the pond is rising slowly but not steadily. The pump is only working for a few hours per day but the level of water in the well appears to drop too fast to sustain it. This is really worrying. I am having quite a job keeping the plants around the edge damp - the temperature has soared to 35 degrees plus. Meanwhile I keep planting the aquatic plants as and when a bit more under-water space arives. At least the last of the water lilies has been submerged. The bio agent has created bubbles in the water which cover the whole surface in the cool of the mornings but fades away as the day heats up.

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Pond life - planting plants

And now at last they are putting in the plants. This is by far the nicest part of the whole project. Despite the fact that the water level is only rising v slowly (thanks to Enel) the gardeners have managed to put in most of the plants. Now I have to keep the ones around the edge watered regularly for the next few days – maybe a week – whilst the water arrives. The Expert has added a special bio agent which will stimulate the creation of micro organisms and help the plants to do their job of cleaning the water.

The Expert cannot hang around whilst the pond fills up, so as we go along I have to plant more of the little aquatic plants which cannot survive without being submerged. Every time the level rises another few inches I have to put in clumps of the weedy stuff, spaced about 1 foot apart just pushed into the sand. The trick with this, as I discovered this morning, is not to let it go too far otherwise risk getting wellingtons full of sand.

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Pond life - gadgets

It actually takes quite a lot of technology to create a 'natural' environment. The water in the pond will evaporate quickly in summer and needs to be topped up regularly from the well, so there is a control system to switch the pump on & off. The surface water gets warm and carries leaves and suchlike so it flows slowly into a 'skimmer' where the flotsam is screened off. Then the water is fed into a tube which pipes it round the edge of the pond and feeds it back in though the gravel past the roots of the plants. The pump that drives the process is very small and uses as much electricity as a light bulb. If the pump fails for whatever reason, the pond can keep going quite happily just with the action of the plants but this circulation process is to make sure it is really effective.
To pick up any mud or stuff that might accumulate on the floor of the pond there is a 'robot' which essentially is an underwater vacuum cleaner which walks around automatically and even climbs up the walls if you ask it to.
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Pond life - Rocks away

After four days of nearly incessant rain, the Expert and his team are back. They have started arranging the big rocks - a couple around the edge in the shallows and the others to make steps leading down into the water. The water level is rising slowly - we are lucky that the pump is workign at all though after power supplier Enel have utterly failed in their basic task of providing electricity in suitable quantities. The first aquatic plants have been placed in the lowest part of the pond and more are being planted as the water covers each area of sand and gravel.
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Pond life - Plant baby sitting

Just as the Expert was on his way off he mentioned that perhaps it might be a good idea to 'change the water in the aquatic plants and turn them over in the tanks'. Well, easier said than done. The tanks are far too heavy to move and so it was a matter of baling out some of the water using a small bucket then topping it up again with a hose. I do hope they haven't suffered during their wait and if so whether it will be my fault...
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Pond life - Rain check

Today is cold, driving rain. The forecast gives no hope of a respite for several days. The Expert and his team put their heads round the door at 8 this morning, dripping wet, to say they were off back to Bolzano and would be back when the rain stopped, probably Monday. Even later in the afternoon when the sun tried to peep through the clouds, the rain continued to fall.
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Pond life - sand & gravel

Today has been very busy but not always doing productive work. The power supply to the house is too feeble to drive the pump which has to fill the pond with water. Steaming rows on the phone with the electricity company Enel but to no avail. The liner was supposed to have been extended but the firm responsible did not show up - despite promises all last week to come 'subito'. There was also something of a disagreement about how the stone wall should link in to the other part of the pond and how high the water should come up - a bit fundamental I would have thought.

Undeterred, the Expert and his team started to arrange the planting material on top of the grey felt. They first of all put down some coarse gravel in patterns and left spaces for sand. Then there was silt and sand in round shapes where the water lillies are to go. Then follows more gravel of various sizes and sand in abstract shapes where the other plants will live.

The pond is now filled with water up to the level of the low wall.

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Pond life - getting down to the basics

The pond has to be cleaned before anything else is placed in it - so the team are scraping up muddy deposits that therain has washed in and hosing down the walls to make sure there is no cement left. They then fit a layer of thick felt over the liner to prevent sand and gravel tearing it. The silt, sand, gravel, pebbles and stones are being delivered by the truck load and this will take all day - the different sizes have to be kept separate. The well has been connected up to the automatic controls and the filling has already started because it will take a number of days and we don't want to put too much pressure on the aquifer.

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Pond life - Plants arrived!

The Expert has arrived from Bolzano with his team of gardners and a trailer full of plants. It's all very exciting: the little aquatic plants have to find a cool shady place where they can live in tanks of water whilst they wait for the pond to be made ready. The other plants sit in buckets and troughs of water of varying depths depending on their preferred habitat. I am most keen to see the water lillies - surely these are the whole point of the pond! There is a pink one already coming into flower.

The Expert then goes off to examine the various types of earth available in the locality and choose which is best for planting. He has brought big rolls of grey thick felt-like fabric which I presume is to put on top of the liner before dumping on the soil.

It has never stopped raining in the past couple of weeks so the pond is half full of dirty water which we are having to pump out before refilling with clean water from the well. The water sample is still at Gualdo Todino being tested and we all hope that they have not found anything too nasty in it. So tomorrow the work starts in earnest.

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Rose update

I have taken some more photos of roses in the garden this year and updated several of the rose blogs as well as adding some new ones in the Roses I have known blogs. Please go to the 'Roses' section of the blog and take a look.
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Invaders

Last night the wild boar got into the orto and dug massive holes. After all the rain it looked like the Somme. They did not actually eat any of the veg but the destruction was wholesale. Lettuces, french beans, swiss chard, courgettes all ripped up and trampled on. I have tried to put the soil back and re-plant any of the seedlings that appeared to still have some roots, but I doubt that they will re-take.
At the same time the porcupine has made a frenzied attack on irises and scratched up the gravel all around the new sedum bed. They had walked around the heavy stones I had put there and the moth balls were useless in the pouring rain.
Just as I was surveying the damage, a lad on a huge off-road motor bike came charging down the drive and rode right through the middle of the garden. He shouted at me 'where's the road' then proceeded to be sarcastic about my english-italian accent. A sure way to make me angry and I got rid of him rather more vigorously than perhaps was necessary.
I am really dejected by all this and I don't know which of these invaders I hate the most.
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May - days of rain and roses

The roses this year have been absolutely fabulous - thanks to the never ending rain. The blooms are short lived though as the petals get dashed to the ground. Flowering at the same time are Cistus, Salvias and irises of all kinds. The whole garden is an explosion of colour - wild poppies make red punctuation dots all over. Even the tall green Euphorbia is voluptuous and sets off the other plants around it.

The veg patch does not get the attention it deserves as the weather is still too bad and there are embarassing areas full of weeds. The broad beans have been good but the porcupine got in and feasted on beans and peas. Radish have thrived in the wet conditions and are less appetising to wild animals. I have managed to get some lettuces, tomatoes, aubergines and courgettes planted though and they are putting on a lot of growth. Question: should I pinch out the side shoots on 'vine' tomato plants?

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Ground cover

In a dry climate, mulching round plants to retain moisture is very effective and a real must. But what materials to use for this crucial mulch? Gravel, chipped bark, grass clippings and even shredded newspapers are often recommended. But I often try to use low growing pants to do more or less the same job. I have been a bit bashful about admitting this and tried not to draw attention to the thick mats of stachys, winter savory, convolvulus sabaticus and vinca major in my garden. But following a visit with the Med Garden Soc to the Taverna family garden at La Landriana (south of Rome) I feel able to 'come out' on ground cover planting. Their rose beds and the famous grey garden were planted thickly, with no room for weeds and no boring bare soil to be seen anywhere. How do they feed the roses? Their answer was foliar feed. So much for mulch.
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Pond life - tension mounts

All the stonework inside the pond is finished and we are now waiting for the technical expert to come and start planting. He says that 9th June is the earliest he can make it and it will take him about a week to get the job done. So if any of you who happen to be in the area at that time you might like to call round and watch the most crucial step in the whole process. I cannot wait. Unfortunately we still have to get the water supply working and the water quality tested. Not to mention the rest of the works with soil for the plants and the landscaping around the pond site. I have given up all hope of planting up the gardens before summer and think that it must now wait until autumn. It's all very tense.

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Boring but Important - Alliums

Garden Alliums are a far cry from the onions they are related to. The Allium flowering season starts as the other bulbs are fading: the first for me is the little white Neopolitanum which spreads wildy where there is a bit of shade. Next are the taller globe headed purple ones which are supposed to flower in July but here are already going strong in May: the biggest and most impressive being the Gigantium but Globemaster and Stipitatum are also good. I like to plant them so as to show their heads above the foliage of other plants such as teucrium chamaedrys or to follow on from Iris Germanica which has similar shaped leaves (a trick I saw used at Tivoli). Finally the tiny pink Unifolium. Unusual but useful types include the starburst Shubertii and the tall pendulous Siculum. An Allium for every location. The bulbs don't often multiply unless they are in a really favourite location so I do replant quite a lot. The porcupine does not seen too care for the oniony smell but beware slugs, who ate all my (expensive) Gigantium last year.

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Boring but Important - Cytisus

Genista growing wild in the garrigue with its bright yellow flowers and rich honey scent in May is one of the great experiences of the Mediterranean. It also grows well here and is particularly useful for informal hedging and edging on dry slopes and next to dusty roads.

But the more cultivated forms of Cytisus (Broom) are also worth bearing in mind for the garden: the range of colours is very wide (reds, oranges and pinks as well as yellow) and the ability to flourish in poor soil, even pure sand, is not to be dismissed lightly. The plants can get leggy after a while and the RHS advises trimming the dead flowers and about 2/3 of the previous year's growth to keep them nice (how to tell what grew last year?). My only attempt at this resulted in the loss of the whole plant so be careful - perhaps better to just replace the plants every few years.
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Pond life - stone flooring

We now have a smart new stone floor to match the walls - indeed the pond is starting to look like a better construction than the house!
The new well is also being tested so that the expert can decide how the plants will like the water. If it turns out to be no good then I don't know what we can do about it as there is no real alternative. The plumber is fitting a series of electronic controls which will keep the water level in the pond topped up with well water and should stop the pump drawing down the water-table in the well.
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Pond life - stone walling

Stonework for the walls of the pond is reaching completion but there is still the stone floor to be put in. Unfortuately the weather is breaking and we are forecast to have thunderstorms and rain for the coming week.
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Boring but Important - Poppies

Wild poppies are one of the great joys of early summer. It would make weeding so much easier if I didn't like them so much but I think it is such a gift when they splash vivid colour over the garden and the olive groves that it must be worth the effort to preserve the little seedlings.
The tradditional red annuals Papaver rhoeas are very easy to get but the perennial Papaver orientalis also do well here and come in many subtle shades. Iceland poppies are also supposed to be OK but I have not yet managed to get the seed to take. Californian poppies are in fact Eschscholzia californica rather than Papaver but they grow so well here (see the display at Venzano) that we can forgive them their mis-naming.
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April - water water everywhere

All throughout April it has rained. And to make matters worse the rain was accompanied by a persistent and irritating southwest wind - rather like the mistral in France - which they call the libeccio. We even had a late frost which caused great damage because the plants had already started to put on soft new growth and so there is a yawning gap in one of the flower beds.
So planting was much delayed because the ground was too sticky to walk on never mind dig. Nonetheless the plants carried on bravely and all except the early bulbs (which were dashed to the ground) seemed to have appreciated their first decent watering this year.

The pomegranate burst into red leaf and wild flowers abounded in the olive grove. The earliest of the roses - banksiae lutea - became a torrent of yellow. Ground cover plants such as winter savory and saponaria became a carpet of purple and pink flowers. Iris arrived in waves: first the pale coloured dutch bulb irises followed by darker shades then the rhizome iris germanica. In the orto there was a late showing of leeks and the broad beans have set, with the first few pods ready at the end of the month. But the continual cycles of warmth, wet and wind have made the winter endives and beet run to seed before I had the chance to harvest them. I have sown a few beetroot and radish seed on a day when it was not so windy as to blow the seeds away and stood on the path to dig the rows.

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Wisteria wins

On an outing today with the Giardino Romano we saw some wonderful wisteria climbing up through trees - loaded with flowers, of course. I took the opportunity to get views on wisteria and the consensus was 'just leave it to its own devices'. Reassuring, but not so comforting as the letter to the Med Garden Soc Journal - from the Secretary of the society no less - begging for advice on how to get her wisteria to flower. Tee hee.
The garden we visited, by the way, was the fascinating La Cannara near Marta on Lago Bolsena, which is designed around the streams and pools of an ancient Etruscan eel fishery.
http://www.italiamagnifica.com/lacannara/
It deserves a visit.
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Porcupine - Zero Tolerance

I visited the garden of some fellow Med Garden Soc members recently and was mightily impressed with their assertive attitude towards porcupine, wild boar and any other animals (cats included) who might pose a threat to the garden. Bulbs were planted in raised walled beds (tulips thumbing their noses at the animals marooned below) and the veg patch was safely walled and gated. Anywhere that a structural approach was not possible they put down wire or plastic mesh that will repell inquisitive paws and claws. Zero tolerance: 100% effective. Forza!
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Pond life - will it never end?

The stone masons are working every day they can - holidays and weekends included - but there is still a long way to go. A friend enquiring whether the pond was finished yet (NO!) asked if this is what they call an Infinity Pool...?
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Pond life - covering the liner

The work has started to build stone walls to cover the liner (with a layer of polystyrene in between). It is very skilled and slow work. It looks very nice but I am worried that we won't be able to fill the pond with water and start planting until the end of May.

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Boring but Important - Geraniums

Geraniums are extremely common and yet so well adapted to hot dry summers they are hard to do without as a pot plant. Of course there are lots of different varieties and colours to choose from - not just Swiss chalet balcony red ones. I like the more purple tones rather than the orangey 'tomato soup' colours. Also there are the scented leaf types which have strong and distinctive perfumes and are supposed to ward off mosquitoes (had no effect on mine though). Some people manage to get their geraniums to over-winter but most of mine perish, even if I put them under cover, so in the end I buy a whole lot of new stock every spring. Which brings me on to a particular beef: why do we have to put up with these horrid plants with tiny roots stuck in a 'tea bag' where they can't grow properly? My attention was drawn to this miserable practice by Joan Marble in her book 'Notes from a Roman balcony'. She had to liberate her poor geraniums from their tea-bag prisons as they were dying before her very eyes. I am pleased to report that there do exist growers who propagate real pants with real roots in real soil, but they are few and far between. My favourite geranium nursery in on the lakeside road near Sant' Arcangelo. Hurry while stocks last!
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Wisteria woes

I have never been able to pursuade Wisteria to flower. I have tried to prune it 'properly' and then again I have tried just leaving it to its own devices. Not a bud, nothing. Hence no photo of wisteria in this Post. I have a personal theory that Wisteria grows best on garages - there is an old car repair shop near here that is completely enveloped in purple flowers at the moment, and the same goes for all the other petrol stations and body shops in the district. Thinking that I might be able to trick a Wisteria into flowering for me I have planted one against my garage. But nothing. Perhaps because the garage in question is to ricketty to risk putting the car in so its 'garage-ness' falls short of the mark?
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Pond life - just when you thought there was no more concrete ...

Finally there is a pause in the rain and the workers are back on site. They now have to cover the liner with stone to hide the blue and make it look like it is a natural feature. The challenge is how to do that without tearing the fabric. Answer: polystyrene on top of the liner then - concrete! This ought to form a base that the stone can be laid on. So back again with our old friend the cement lorry with the incredibly long delivery tube.
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Boring but important - Photinia

This shrub grows almost anywhere as a tough, traffic & drought resistant hedging. It is the sort of plant a snobby English friend of mine would term 'Waitrose carpark', or in our case Coop carpark. It has distinctive red foliage in spring. When the red leaves fade to green, give the plant a trim to encourage new red leaves.
Apart though from its undoubted usefulness as a hedge, why not consider it as a red feature to offset silver planting? At La Landriana in Lazio they have a red garden which features Photinia. Also there is a low growing variety which is good for ground cover.
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Pond life - good weather for frogs