HOUSE

Garden

Photo Medley 2009 - 2024

Il Poggiolo’s 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 aia, 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 war. Though what we did not want had been efficiently eliminated, the consequence was we also had NO PRIVACY. And, naked to the World.

We started planting. Furiously. We needed to create some sort of green barrier so, our neigbours would be spared seeing us sunbathing. Our 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. Took Marcello two and a half days. Then, we brought in another couple of stone masons to ably build rock retaining walls. A neighbour and good friend took pity on me and came to help me seed grass, plant 100+ lavender plants on the slopes of a couple of terraces… there are six terraces… and another 100 box-wood plants for borders to paths and above the rock walls. After that, we would occasionally pass by a local nursery, see plants which appealed for us and then came back to il Poggiolo to find spots to unite them with the existing Mother Nature already planted. A serendipitous notion for garden design yet, our efforts are maturing quite nicely. However, Spring cleaning and raking leaves in the Fall are killer tasks.

Before 2009

The garden was built hundred of years ago with a series of six descending terraces planted as a vineyard to the active farm-house. The garden was pretty much a trash & equipment dump during reconstruction of Il Poggiolo from 2009 on until 2014.

First Garden Reconstruction 2014

The last task of our builder was to send us his nephew, Marcello, a stocky kid barely cracking 5 feet in height, sporting a scary shaved head, piercings like Christmas Tree ornaments but witht skulls & daggers, and ditto for the tattoos which, automatically coordinated with his seriously Punk black T-shirt & jeans & boots. Yet, darn if Marcello was not the most artful Master of what I only can think to call a 360 degree whirly-gig-mini-plow-cum back-hoe. Took him 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 maneouvre 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 on the otherside of the 445 highway. 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 the six terraces.

Second Reconstruction 2018

We used to get a lot of rain. Sometimes torrentially but, most definitely enough in the months of November and April to see il Poggiolo’s garden through the dry period of an Italian Summer. Erosion did its work. 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 & longest of the terraces right above l’Appartamento Azzurro and we’d loose a guest or two into the box-wood hedges from a sudden loss of equilibrium, thanks to the radical slant in places. The situation had become URGENT.

We called a local gardener to come to take a look and advise us on how to solve the situation. 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 too. He wore us out with option this and option that to repair the terraces. We adjourned into indecision. A year long bout. Occasionally, the terrace situation would pop-up in a dinner conversation, often blessedly derailed by the arrival of pizzas cooked in our own on-site oven. Another six months passed.

I eventually rebelled and took the matter into hand. I made the decision from one of the better sounding options. I consult with my partner. Got a relieved thumbs-up so, I called the gardener and he began the following week.

We hemmed and hawed and finally decided upon using 30” iron panels to create a long horizontal wall to brace against the force of erosion. They could be treated to rust which would co-ordinate well with the terracotta urns.

Sketches Second Reconstruction 2018

Photos Second Reconstruction 2018

Finale Second Reconstruction 2019

Future

We might try to find good homes for these marble pieces and busts brought from a famous Genoese villa, Villa Paradiso, once belonging to my partner’s family, and were freely given before the villa was razed to the ground.