Living in San Giorgio di Pesaro and Kingston

Last week I was weeding on the far side of the garden and noticed these beautiful pink fruit hanging from one of the shrubs. We had got the shrub a couple of years ago when there was a “tree day” in San Giorgio. This was when the Commune got native trees and shrubs from the Forestry Commission and offered them to local people. The aim was to encourage planting of native species.

I hadn’t noticed the fruit before and so its perhaps its the first year it has fruited. After some searching I discovered that the plant is “Euonymus Europaeus” or “common spindle”. In Italian it is called “Il cappello del prete” and in German “Pfaffenhutchen” as the shape of the fruit resembles a “priest’s hat” . Not surprisingly, given the colour, the fruit is poisonous can eating the fruit can cause liver and kidney damage and even death. 

The wood of the spindle bush is very hard and can be shaped into a very sharp point and so in the past it was used to make the “spindle” for spinning wool.

We had made a terrace outside the kitchen window and because it gets shade I had thought it would be easy to keep the grass growing and being so close to the house would never forget to water it. However either too much shade, bad soil, constant walking on it and me forgetting to water it meant that it looked very down at heel. So decided to go for gravel. Levelled the ground and added an edge and then the gravel. On the right hand side we have decided to put box as the lavender hedge was getting very woody. Hopefully Bill will be trimming the boxes into a lovely row of “box clouds”. Mike and Judy who were here when we started the work said they would buy us some of the box and so we have named the terrace in their honour.

Bill is very proud of his pots and was quite peeved that there have been no photos on the web. So here is a couple of pictuers complete with agapanthus, cannas etc. One of the pictures also shows Sam the cat who, some time ago, after a wrong diagnosis of kidney problems and then a correct diagnosis of bad teeth is still with us.

A few months ago in a local supermarket they were selling bat boxes. I walked past the shelf not realising that I was missing the opportunity to buy what has, according to the Corriere della Sera, become the “must have” garden accessory of the summer.

Appartently if you can get a bat to live in your box then you are well on the way to mosquito free eating al fresco. According to the experts one bat will eat 6000 insects in an evening and 2000 of these insects will be mosquitoes.

The best time to put the box up is in March or April. So missed this year but will be ready next.

This year we have had lots of bees and beetles in the garden. We have also had lots of calabrone or hornets. They are about 2 inches long, and the queen is bigger. For someone, like me, who is allergic to wasp stings rather worrying. All I have read about hornets assure me that they are usually very passive and more interested in seeking out insect prey than humans. However, when I approach the hedge and 5 or 6 of them start to skim in ever widening circles ober the ground then I tend to back away.

Apparently in parts of Europe hornets are an endangered species. It could be something to do with the rumour that 6 hornet stings can kill a horse and 3 a man. In Germany it has been illegal to kill a European hornet or nest since 1 January 1987, with a fine up to 50,000 Euros. Fortunately this does not apply to Italy and so we have bought wasp spray which can be fired up to 6 metres away. 

Following our great success with the bird feeder Bill, for his birthday, asked his sister for a bird table. The World Wildlife approved table arrived yesterday and is already swaying gently under the olive tree. It comes complete with a copper roof, a trellised fence to stop the birds falling out and is painted a sage green which complements the colour of the olive trees. But is it too twee?

This year the garden is looking better than ever. Along the gravel path at the bottom of the garden the geums have begun to spread and look great against the dark green of the trees. Under the pear tree I planted a Lamium or dead nettle. We have the weed form in the garden which grows really well and so thought the cultivated form may do equally well in the shade and it hasn’t disappointed.

The sunnier part of the gravel path looks good lined with the spanish broom and once the broom finishes we should be getting the russian sage flowering. On the other side of the path  I have planted lavender, cistus,teucrium and convolvulus. Most of them are from cuttings made last year and so will it will next year before they really develop.

Finally have nearly finished the path leading down to the dip in the garden. We think there was a land slide sometime in the past and until recently it was full of weeds. We have christened it Dingly Dell and have started to plant it up with ground cover roses, rosemary etc.

The steps at the far side of the garden were made last year. The bed beside the path now has roses, verbena bonariensis and echinops (globe thistle) and is starting to look good. Beside the steps are lavenders, salvias, geraniums, lemon balm i.e. scented plants. So hopefully walking up the steps under the arching olive trees will be a pleasant experience. 

 For the third year running we are hoping to have a lawn. Every year there is a fight against ants, birds and heat and so far we have lost. However, this year we are more hopeful. The size of the lawn has decreased as we have created a shrub bed and so far the weather has been in our favour as we have been having a few warm sunny days followed by some rain. So the grass and of course the weeds are growing and there gaps but we are determined to keep watering this year to get the grass though to autumn when we can so some autumn in-filling.

Every year we try and fail to establish a lawn. At the moment a third of the “lawn” has grass. In fact it is mainly a type of couch grass which has the advantage of remaining green in the summer with little watering. In the winter it goes a beige colour but one can live with that.

The Italians think we are trying to get an English lawn. But we’re not. We will be happy with a piece of green complete with daisies, clover and dandelions etc. Part of the problem has been the reluctance to water during the summer and to and the inability to think of an alternative. Needless to say we are not alone in this dilemma and on the internet we discovered the “no lawn” movement. In the New Yorker a couple of years ago there was a really interesting article about lawns by Elizaeth Kolbert called Turf Wars about the history and costs of maintaining lawns. It made us think.

So we have compromised and this year we have chopped off a large part of the lawn and turned it into a shrub bed. The remaining part is being reseeded and hopefully, we will not feel so guilty watering the remaining piece of green.

On Saturday we managed to get seed down in part of the new lawn. Perhaps its a good sign that since then we have had rain on Sunday and again today (Tuesday).  Could this be the year for a green sward.

And of course if the seed doesn’t grow then the couch grass will slowly spread across. Then the choice may be a green lawn with couch grass in the flower beds or weed free flowerbeds with no lawn.