THE GARDEN…

is a whole other set of rooms to our large farm-house. No matter the season… an aperitivo with friends on the terrace above L’Appartamento Azzurro, a Sunday picnic under the shade of the vine covered pergola on the courtyard, to Nap Time in chaises in the sun or, shade, and with only the sound of a soft breeze to lull you off to sleep.

When we bought the house in 2009, you could barely see the house or, garden through the jungle of roving vines, weeds, and these horrible Chinese plants… the kudzu of Italy, imported by the Italian State Railroad company to reinforce the train right-of-ways… the blackened & gnarled vines of the property’s abandoned vineyard, a few scattered fruit trees and a lot of junk… from tractor parts to iron beds to a Richard Ginori toilet, to name just a few of the items we found. We hired two fellows to clear all away, asking that any fruit tree or, flowering plant remain untouched. We came back to see the garden resembling the after-effect of a nuclear bomb. Though what we did not want had been efficiently eliminated, the consequence was we also had NO PRIVACY!

We started planting. Furiously planting. Needed to create some sort of green barrier so the entire world would not be able to pry while we sunbathed. The objective was to select fast growing plants with the addition of flowering plants to bloom at certain points in the year. Alloro, corbezzolo, olio-fragrance, etc. The rest we had to leave until we had finished reconstructing the three separate houses of il Poggiolo. Four years later, a young man with tattoos & piercings and a genius with a medium sized ditch-digger rotating 360 degrees upon itself came to re-build the entire 25,000 square foot garden of terraces. Did it in two and a half days. Then, we brought in another couple of stone masons to ably build rock retaining walls. A neighbour and friend took pity on me and helped me seed grass, plant 100+ lavender plants on the slopes of one terrace to another… there are six terraces… and another 100 box-wood plants for borders to paths and above the rock walls. After that, we would pass by a nursery, see plants which appealed for us and then find spots to unite them with the existing Mother Nature previously planted. A serendipitous notion for garden design but, our efforts are maturing quite nicely. However, Spring cleaning is a killer.

Rebuilding the garden’s terraces in 2022…

the garden of il Poggiolo a Codiponte was built years and years ago on a series of descending terraces for the farm-house’s vineyard and which were pretty much destroyed during the reconstruction of il Poggiolo from 2009 until 2012… as per the 3 photos below.

The last task of our builder was to send us his nephew… a stocky kid barely cracking 5 feet in height, sporting a scary shaved head, piercings like Christmas Tree ornaments but of skulls & daggers, and ditto for the tattoos which, automatically coordinated with his seriously black T-shirt & jeans & boots. And yet, darn if the kid was not an artful Master of what I only can think to call a 360 degree swivel mini-plow-cum back-hoe. Took 2 and a 1/2 days of Whirling Dervish-like twisting & turning and manipulating levers and knobs to push and pull and spread and cut and dig and manoeuvre dirt & debris into 6 new solidly built terraces. We even got a scenic overlook. Too bad it looks at Codiponte’s 80’s styled Commie stepped apartment house. Public Housing all’Italiana. Still, the terraces are a marvel. A village friend and I worked for another week seeding grass, placing stones for steps and planting a near-life-time supply of lavender on the facings between terraces.

We used to get rain. Sometimes torrentially but, most definitely enough in the key months of November and April to get us and the garden through the dry period of an Italian Summer. Erosion did its work too. The flat expanses of terraces were creeping towards a washed-out inclination of almost 15 degrees. Lavender planted in one spot crept quietly to another lower one, etc. Something needed to be done. People would come to one of our outdoor aperitivi held on the largest of the terraces right above the top-most part of il Poggiolo and we’d loose a guest or two into the box-wood hedges from a sudden loss of equilibrium. The terrace. had developed a terrible slope. The situation had become URGENT.

We called a local gardener to come and take a look. This fellow is a character: high pitched voice our dogs hate, long hair down to below his back pants-pockets and a vast and mightily detailed knowledge of plants, planting, pruning, the seasons, phases of the Moon, and similar stuff thrown in for good measure and endlessly communicated. He wore us out with options this and options that to repair the terraces. We adjourned into indecision. A year long bout. Occasionally, the terrace situation would pop in a dinner conversation blessedly derailed by the arrival of our pizzas. Another 6 months passed.

I eventually rebelled and took the matter into hand. I made the decision. I consulted no one as to what to do. Called the gardener in and he began the following week.

We hemmed and hawed and went with iron panels for a long horizontal wall to brace against the force of erosion. They could be treated to rust which would combine well with the terracotta urns…. for cryin’ out loud.. Drawings and then photos of the result… a few sketches to convey my thinking…

And a late-afternoon series of shots before we seeded new grass. Nearly done.

And the final result…

Future project… might be to find Good Homes for these marble pieces and several busts from a famous Genoese villa, once belonging to my partner’s family, and were freely taken before the villa was razed to the ground.