Hi ! I am an italian who envies your parks

Hi to everybody !
I am Italian.
I decided to subscribe to this forum since I consider England the "countryhome" of gardening.
Indeed, it is not just a case that in the important german city "Munich", there is a park called "Englischer Garten"...
I must confess that I "envy" you the english with all my heart .
I mean: how do you the english manage to have such lovely city parks whereas we the italians have ugly-bushy-dirty city parks ???
How can you manage that ???
Is it a matter of money ??? (I mean: you use a great amount of taxation to pay for parks maintenance. Many gardeners who look after the parks with many means).
Is it a matter of climate ??? (I mean: the british climate, as opposed to the italian one, is excelent for parks and gardens).
Last issue: is it a combination of all that (both a lot of money involved and a favourable climate) ?
I will ask you for many advices in this forum as I have a front yard and I try hard to "copy out" the lawns of the londoneers parks like St James, Hyde Park, Kensington gardens, Regent Park, etc. whom I had been delighted to enjoy, many years ago, during a seven months stay in London.

Regards
Massimo from Milan

 

Ciao e benvenuto, ( sorry if that is wrong, I am still only trying to learn Italian),

I hope you enjoy your time here.

In answer to your question, it is mostly our climate that makes us so green-it is very easy to grow things here, although our history also contributes. England gets plenty of rain, mild summers and mild winters so we are a very, very green country. We are also quite besotted with gardening in general.


I quite envy your climate too, orange trees, bouganvillea, you are very lucky.

 

welcome Maksim from one newbie to another! Chris

 

I am delighted, Wiseoldowl. Thank you Sir.
I read that you are from Kent.
That reminds me of what a friend of mine uses to say.
He lives in the countryside south-east of Milan...
Well, when he talks to his friends, he proudly say that the location where he lives resembles "Kent"...
Actually that's not true at all, but maybe he means that his location is as peacefull and as "green" as Kent is...
Of course, we all laugh at him but, sure enough, Kent is synonim of "garden"...

Regards
Massimo

 

I certainly will enjoy my time here.
We are never happy: you envy our climate, we envy your climate... :D
Sometimes, we could swap our own climates: we give you ours and you give us yours... :D.
In the hot italian summers, I try to reproduce the "british plenty of rain" by an irrigation sprinkler...
But that's not the same: I should have also to shadow the sun to get it as if it were cloudy.
Of course, that's not possible. So I have to cope with the water-drops that enhance the sun rays as if they were many little lenses (and they are a bit nasty for my lawn, I suppose). In that case, I should ask the americans or the australians that have a climate similiar to ours... :D
As far as the orange trees are concerned, I remember, for example, that in Murcia, Spain, these are ornamental trees on the sidewalk and if you stretch your arm, you can help yourself with its fruits...
Funny. Isn't it ?

 

i don't know about the English people on here but being Scottish we envy your football team. though i would say that if you were Albanian lol

enjoy your time on here.

 

Our football team ? Italy national team ?
Well, it wins (sometimes)...
but 1 -0 or stuff like that...
You often do not enjoy yourself when you watch the italian football team...
If I want to enjoy good football, I like watching Brazil...

 

You do not need to be sorry about because the sentence that you have written is correct. Our "cousins" the spanish say: "Hola y bienvenido"

 

Hello there and welcome to the boards!

 

Sometimes it is difficult, for a foreigner like me, to understand properly the current english spoken by you the native english people.
I'm understanding the following:
you are telling me that we ought to grow those seeds whose origins are from our land (or, at least, the same kind of climate/weather conditions).
Are you telling me that ?
In Scandinavia we cannot grow palm-trees and in the caribeans we cannot grow fir-trees... .
Yes, I have to agree that much...
Unfortunately, I have to agree...
"Unfortunately" because I would try hard to do all the possible to have a "british park" in a land that is not Britain...
My land (Milan), is just 6 degrees south respect the London latitude.
Milan, is at the same latitude as Montreal (Quebeq, Canada).
Milan is 4 degrees north respect the New York latitude.
I would expect that's enough to obtain an "english-like" lawn.
If we compare the weather conditions, we discover that Milan is different from London in high summer (when Milan is much more hotter and sun-shined than London). But in the other three seasons, the weather conditions are not that different...
Still, why New York has Central Park (almost as good as the british parks)regardless its hot-sunny summer whereas we, in Milan, have a city park that resembles more a weed meadow lost in the middle of nowhere rather than a park worthy of its name ?
I guess it is a matter of climate as well as a matter of money they invest to make "garden-maintenance"...
Probably we could discover that the UK and the USA invest ten times the amount of money that Italy invest to take care of its parks...
Am I wrong ? If so, just tell me . This is only my "feeling"...
Maybe you were telling me something like that when you were talking about your "gardening tradition" that dates back from victorian times ?
I mean: a mentality of people willing to look after (and to spend money for) its parks.

 

From a historical point of view, most of the big London parks are Royal Parks, so there is more money thrown at them to keep them looking good...and they're a massive tourist draw.

We also had a long traditon of explorers in the 19th century who travelled all over the world, bringing home specimens that 150 years later are considered 'native' British plants.

 

I see.
So it is also a matter of money.
Better saying: it is a matter of people, like the english, that are willing to throw money for their parks.
Indeed, not all the people of this world are willing to throw money for their parks...
Even if those parks were "Royal"...
The english people are willing.
Tourists from all over the world appreciate their parks.
As a consequence of that, there is "a massive tourist draw".
So, the english people, as far this is concerned, deserve the compliment: "Good job !".
I'd like to find out, here in the net, figures about all the working-people and the activity that is around the London parks...
I'd like to know how many workers are employed to look after every single gardening task.
What the gardening activities consist on...
If they are on a dayly basis (I guess they certainly are).
In a few words, what all that is all about and what involves.