Little By Little

Gardens in Tuscany have never been so beautiful, in my eyes at least.  With the cooler air and the changing of the seasons the landscapes take on a whole new vibrancy.  Lately at Bella Terra we have been dividing our time between serious ground moving and hands on gardening.  Fences have been crafted from Chestnut poles in the traditional Tuscan style.  Hillside gardens have been shored up and secured using a no cement environmentally friendly system and a monastic inspired culinary herb garden designed and planted.

Over the Autumn our to-do lists are positively overflowing but all with good stuff.  Our sheds are full to the brim with 1000s of bulbs and corms and we are chomping at the bit to start on an adventure playground and tree-house fort for a family near Pescia.

For now though we are continuing our work on two wonderful gardens near Arezzo and Montespertoli both of which will in time grow to be truly beautiful.  We have planted climbing roses, aromatic herbs, lavender beds, Russian sage borders, banks and banks of iris, Box Hedging and now we are working on wild flower meadows.

Whilst I truly love working outside I am also looking forward to getting back to the drawing board this Autumn.  I have been inspired by a good friend to work on a collection of 'one stop pots' where we can provide 'instant' garden solutions for rooftop and patio gardens.  Lightweight, low maintenance and hassle free, so watch this space.

Below are a few in progress shots of projects on the go...

This garden was sliding down the hill

Chestnut uprights and horizontal metal supports secure the bank

This Eco method uses 'zero' cement

Terraces are manageable and ready for planting

Classic Tuscan fencing

The timber fence sits gently amongst the woodland setting

3 months old, the early stages of a formal kitchen garden

Dry Stone Walls, Herbs, Lemons, Apples and a quiet space to relax

Summer storms

My last post seems particularly premature as we have now had 8 days of rain, the new herb spiral survived, thankfully, and every other area of the gardens we work with are growing like crazy.  We are currently creating a garden for reflection including lots of medicinal and healing herbs, aromatics and traditional plants usually found in ancient Monastic gardens.  This week I am really in love with Greek Basil which can be grown in pots and trimmed into lovely curves and flowing shapes, the perfect pot to have on the garden table, it smells lovely when you brush the leaves.

Just lately I have seen some real garden disasters, all of which could have been avoided if better planning had been implemented early on.  Following the heavy rain so many pools have been filled with Mud as fast flowing streams of rain wash away soil badly placed around the pool.

Creating rolling banks may seem an answer to utlising the huge amount of excavated earth created when digging out a pool, but it is not, also this is not generally good to grow plants in.  Yesterday I saw a very very sad 'New' garden with mounds of stony earthy piled high and levelled off around the pool and bathing area of a Tuscan house near Poggibonsi.  The hedging plants were dying as there was not top soil or mulch and the swimming pool had been the recipent of streams of muddy water from the banks...tragedy.  Expensive and avoidable. 

However learning from our mistakes arms us with knowledge for the future.  when it has not been raining I have been taking a look around a few Tuscan gardens.

All go in the Tuscan Garden

Here the temperature has picked up as has the humidity, we are watering our gardens regularly and mulching furiously, the climbing roses are at their most beautiful and our vines are taking off at speed.  Here are a few pics from our garden near Siena, Italy.

Little forest strawberries -a gardener's treat

New Dawn - so delicate

Cherries in the making

English Rose

Basil in pots

Scruffy but very healthy strip of veg

Mosiac Reflections

Pots of colour

Passion Flower zooming up

Sunbathing

Grand Designs

Well at one of our busiest times of the year in terms of gardening work we have also been invited to write for the Tuscan Magazine which is really lovely and we are delighted to be putting together a feature on Tuscan Gardens for the next issue of the magazine.  Tuscany is a wide and varied region with differing climates and plants that grow perfectly well in the rolling hills of Siena may suffer in the more alpine areas such as the Garfagnana and Radda, therefore it is crucial to take note of your surroundings and draw inspiration from other gardens around you.  A classic rustic Mediterranean garden may not be possible and checking out the essentials such as water supply, protection from the wind, frost and heat will save you energy and money in the longer term.  Take some time to explore gardens and the landscape near your property and take notes and pictures of plants and architectural features you like, then put together a large scale board with images and plant names on.  Move items around and mix and match colours, textures and shapes, try to understand how you want your own garden to work, live with you plans for a while and research costs involved and labour.  The more research you do the better the approach you will have to creating a garden that will thrive and grow ever more beautiful with time.