Hello from southern Italy!

15 years ago

I'm new to the forum so I thought I'd post to introduce myself.

We have about 1 hectare of land which includes an olive grove of 60 trees, a vineyard, 5 mature fig trees and some small fruit trees that we have planted ourselves over the last few years.

We have artichokes out at the moment and have just planted some summer veg. I'm also working on pruning the vines (our first year for this!) We make our own olive oil and this year the trees are looking really full of fruit.

When we moved here 4 yrs ago we knew very little about gardening and although we've learnt a fair bit we are still pretty clueless!

Luckily we have very kind neighbours and our friend Antonio who has a tractor and other tools.

Would like to know who else is out there, hope I can seek and give advice on this forum. Are there any other similar forums you recommend?

Best

Venice

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Comments (6)

amato
15 years ago
Ciao Venice,
anche se non ho tanta terra come te, mi piace di occupare col giardinaggio tanto!

Owwww welcome to the forum also.
I'm an agriculturist and I like dealing with plants in general.My climate doesn't allow much here.In the winter we have some heavy frosts that destroy the semi-tropical species.But I always test them to their limits.It not rarely that I lose lots of plants due to trying them here.

We do grow here in the northern Greece fig trees and some frost-hardy olive varieties, but their range is limited.

Sii bene
oriunda
15 years ago
I'm also in Salento - ish. Divide my time between the UK and Salento. 2 weekends per month plus holidays we are there, which tends to mean I spend the whole weekend (Italian in-laws permitting) maintaining the garden. No idea how big it is - but it is HUGE. We have figs, plums, cotognata apples, pears, apricots, lemons, oranges etc and that's just in the orto.

Gardening here is challenging. I've had my hands on the garden for 3 years now and it's only just starting to look good. Bulbs are my main thing - particularly spring bulbs. They really need no maintenance. First year I had the garden, I planted loads of freesias and have not added any since. This year we have our most stunning display either. Daffs do really well but tulips not so great - I think it's just too hot.

I'm lucky in that I can stuff my case with plants from the UK rather than rely on Italian garden centres. Not sure about you, but I find the choice down here pretty poor. I'm a big fan of Claire Austin Hardy plants and this year have stuck several in that fingers crossed should adapt to the climate here.

We don't really get advice from friends or family - no one is into gardening and they think I am mad to want to spend all my free time in the garden. Continually nagging us to get a gardener (one man who came to prune the trees said he would only come if my husband banned me from gardening!!) and have told us off for having a compost heap as 'it attracts flies' .... sigh.

There IS an Italian forum on this website but if you check, there is practically no activity on it which I think sums it all up.
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salento
Original Author
15 years ago
Great to hear from both of you!
Where are you oriunda?
Amato - I never imagined it was so cold in Greece in winter. Are you on high ground?

I guess we're not trying to create a garden here, more maintain the land and harvest fruit and veg.

I absolutely love working on the vines - the grow so quickly so good for impatient people like me!

Fig trees grow like weeds here and we love figs.

Look forward to being involved in the forum.

Ciao
amato
15 years ago
Buonasera salento

I live very north in Greece, in fact near the northern borders of my country, far away from the sea.The rest of the country has a milder winter. Here the frosts are common in winter and I can't grow many species I like.

My big loves are Bouganvilleas and Acacias.Lately I sowed some acacia pravissima which are thought to be the hardiest of that species.They have survived their forst winter here. Let's hope they will grow to trees some time in the future.I had an acacia dealbata as high as 6 meters but froze to the ground in 2001 by a heavy frost of -20 degrees Celcius.We rarely get such frosts, but it's a pity when you lose so big trees like that.

Lately I'm experimenting with Eucalyptus. I have some E.niphophila that have survived their first winter and have sowed some E.dalrympleana and E.ficifolia(a hardy clone). This month I'm gonna sow also some E.johnstonii and E.coccifera to try them out as well.
lukeott
11 years ago
Hello

This post was edited by lukeott on Mon, Jan 14, 13 at 21:19
soll1969
10 years ago
Hi everyone

I want to introduce myself to, my name is Soll and I live in the UK South East I started growing a Fig tree about 5 years ago, it is the Brown Turkey variety and it's the first year I've had plenty of fruit. I am addicted to growing them now and want to try different varieties so I want to ask the Fig growing community if there is anyone who is willing to send me some cuttings from their Figs, I'm particularly interested in the Dark Purple/Black variety. In return I'm willing to send out my Brown Turkey Cuttings if anyone's interested ??

Kind regards and I wish you all a bountiful harvest..