Hi, I'm new!

Hi, my name is Frances and I have just found this great site and am busy catching up by reading all that has been going on. I'm learning alot from you guys!
I live in northern Italy and we have just finished renovating an old farmhouse on 3 acres among the vineyards. Someday it will be beautiful but as of now the place has been totally neglected for decades and needs tons of work. I know it's a project that will take years and although I'm very excited about taking this on I'm also very scared as I don't have much hands on experience in gardening.
I cleaned up a small area and have put in 5 raised beds (1.20 meter x 3) for a kitchen garden last month. It just couldn't wait! I've tried doing this organically and I have already been rewarded with my first delicious salad and arugola and tomato and zucchini blossoms. I've never done this before and I'm so amazed! It has become my very own tiny oasis in the jungle.
We will be moving in sometime in the next couple of weeks and then we need to start working on the rest of the property, i.e. the jungle. Besides trimming off the dead wood from some of the old trees and trying to get rid of the huge bramble bushes - for which I'm afraid we will have to use an herbicide - I was thinking about starting by turning over the soil to get ready for seeding a new lawn in September. I don't really know if this is the right time to do this or not without getting too many weeds?
Other than that I was thinking about creating several different outdoor rooms on the property because it gives me a cozy feeling and besides that, I can tackle one area at a time, starting with the area closest to the house. Any and all suggestions will be deeply appreciated!
Will talk to you again soon!
Your new gardening friend
Frances

 

Welcome, Frances.

I live in southern Portugal and like you bought an old ruin of a farmhouse surrounded by orange orchards (which don't belong to us) about seven years ago, although we did not move in until 2001, as there was so much renovation to do ... by professionals. Our kitchen - my dream, all high-gloss white with marble counters, was the donkey shed attached to the house so an archway was knocked through the very thick walls to access the living room.

Our garden is relatively small for here and it was just a piece of scrubland, with a concrete cisterna in it and some ruins on one side which originally housed chickens. The only redeeming feature was a huge almond tree on the edge of the property. We have pruned it and it is now about 30 feet tall and a sight to behold when it blooms - anywhere between December and February.

I have planted Jacarandas, Oleanders, Bouganvillea, Tecomaria, Rosemary, Myrtus, Bottlebrushes, Solanums, Passion Flowers and a myriad types of South African daisies and Salvias which love the heat. Things grow very fast here, the one Jacaranda is probably 20 feet tall, the other 15 feet. They were purchased at 5 feet tall at the same time but one is planted where there is more earth and the smaller one where there is a lot of rock. I have made a sand garden in this area and have dotted it with Tecomaria, Rosemary, Myrtus and a shrub Bouganvillea. There are deck boards dotted around and I have two varieties of Datura (actually, Brugmansia) in pots on them.

I have a small kitchen patio where we have retained the old bread oven as a feature. The old cisterna was tiled and ballustrades put partway around to create a patio in front of the house. It has a rockery on one side which was created by rubble from the works, soil put in and then plants.

My husband turned our chicken pen into an outdoor living room and built a deck on top so we can look out over the orange trees toward the hills rather than always looking through them!

I hope I have given you some ideas on working with a blank canvas on old properties.

Good luck and happy gardening!

 

Hi Marley Farley and Lady of Leisure!
I really appreciated your welcome and your suggestions. I did go take a look at the Invitation to View section and saw Palustris' work of art. Wow.
We live in the northern part of Italy and we have cold winters with January and February going mainly -2 centigrades. Sometimes a short cold spell at -9. August is the hottest month. Usually between 30-35.
What is the weather where you are from?
I don't know much about Gloucester. From the plants Lady of Leisure mentions I can tell that in Portugal you are enjoying nice hot weather year round, huh? Reminds me of plants I have seen in southern Italy. I love Bouganville but it will not withstand the cold winters here. I once lived in California and there too, things just tend to grow on their own. I had a huge, old geranium (pelargonium) shrub planted in the garden that flowered all year long. I would have to cut it down everytime it would get to my shoulders and it would spring right back.

Anyway, I like shrubs alot. Different kinds of greens, yellows and reds, berries in the winter and flowering shrubs with perfume. Lilac, abelia, nandina, wisteria, peonies, magnolia, spireas. I really like cornus florida - it's pretty flowers in late spring and beautiful red leaves in the fall, I'd really like to be able to plant at least one in my garden but I hear they are a bit fussy and disease prone. Have you had anything to do with them? These are just the first that come to mind. And roses of course, although I like a garden with roses better than a rose garden. I also like iris and daylilies. And I'm very passionate about narcissus. I guess it's that first taste of spring that is so exciting.
So, I'll take one of everything! Have been to Euroflora in Genova this year (in lieu of the Chelsea Flower Show - which I dream of going to sometime soon)and have seen alot of interesting hydrangeas. Really beautiful. I'll have one each of those too....
Ciao and thanks again

 

Hello Frances and welcome sounds like your going to be very busy.Post some pictures of the before. I am sure you will enjoy creating you new home and garden.

Good Luck Poppy33

[ 14. June 2006, 09:02 AM: Message edited by: Poppy33 ]

 

Thanks Marley and Poppy33!

 

Ola again,Frances. Como esta?

We must be a bit warmer than you for part of the year, ie, winter. Our summers are about the same as yours but we do go down to 3-5oC a few times in January/February with a wee bit of frost on the car windscreen, but this soon disappears as the sun rises. I have gone for frost-tolerant and drought resistant plants as much as possible. Bouganvillea can tolerate short spells of it. It ended up looking dead but then in March or so they are cut back severely and they renew themselves. Bouganvillea only blooms on the current years growth anyway so maybe it's worth trying one on your south-facing aspect?

We have these giant Geraniums here. They are marvellous and survive under the most neglected of conditions. I have a double deep pink, a pale single pink and have just started some red ones. I saw a lilac one recently and wish a piece had jumped into my hand as I passed! What I have found is that the standard Geraniums find it too hot here - even the garden centres / nurseries keep them under cover! Shame, since in England I had a thing about them and at one time had over 50 varieties. Not nice for my husband who hated the smell of them!

I'll end on the note that I hope irrigation is not a problem for you as I virtually never plant anything in the summertime. Best done here October/November.

We had a much-needed storm last night, the first drop of rain since the beginning of April and more is forecast .... hurray!

Tchau e boa sorte!

 

Ciao Lady of Leisure, qui tutto bene!
Glad to hear from you again.
We drilled a 100 meter well and luckily struck water, lots of it. Nice and clean too. That's about the only luck we came upon in our renovation endeavor....the rest has been a nightmare. They tell me it's like childbirth and when it's over you tend to forget.
What brought you to Portugal?
This year, besides the little vegetable patch, all I have planted are two big pots with red geranium, dusty miller and blu lobelia. They are standing tall and proud and make me forget about the surrounding construction rubbish we will get too once we move in.
Ciao again!

 

Ola FrancesB!

Our much needed rain continues on and off and what a blessing it is!

We had many horror stories and nightmares withour renvoation ... one of the worst was a new roof put on the front of the house and we arrived for one of our two x 10 day working holidays a year to discover all sorts of fungi in huge clumps growing in the three rooms under the new roof! Needless to say, another new roof had to be installed by a new builder and we got no joy of recompense from the previous incompetent!

I've never been through childbirth so maybe that's why I remember these things ??!!

A holiday in 1983 first brought us to Portugal and we've owned here since 1988 but had to do the work thing for a tidy few years more before we could move. How about you and Italy? I, too, lived in the States but in Alabama.

I'm only doing veggies in pots, except for my green beans which are climbing up a trellis behind my roses. I have Brussels sprouts (first time trying), Spring onions (second year), tomatoes (Moneymaker) and cherry tomatoes (second year doing them by sticking a couple of overripe ones in the pot!). I'm also trying some watercress in a shady spot; it's up but not developing slowly. I also have two varieties of strawberries. I haven't got the space for the big type veggies .. what land is spare is rock!

I made two rockeries on top of my "construction rubbish" and they are now flourishing! We still have several years to go before we are completely finished but that indoor things like a new bathroom, some new floors (one bedroom still has the old brick directly onto earth) and we're toying with a nezzanine in that room also.

So, good luck with all the work, inside and out and no doubt you'll keep us posted of your progress.

Tchau!

 

Ciao L of L
sounds like a worldwide epidemic of gross contruction workers! I'm married to an Italian and this is our "Escape to the country".
I, too, have planted green beans for the first time this year except mine are tiny. I planted the seed on the 20th of May. They are no more then 6 centimeters tall. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?
Ciao, a presto
Frances

 

Ola Amiga ..

Let's think ... mine were actually planted a bit too early for here (March/April) but suffered through and are now 8 feet tall with flowers and some (I say "some" because something is eating them), the beans, about 3cm long already.

I've been told by others that I had to spray them with water to "set" the bean ... so you've got a way to go yet! From your location and your planting time I would hazard a guess that maybe that's okay ... but I'm certainly not the experrt on beans!

I'm married to an American ... we tried his country, then mine ... now here ... and who knows where next ...

Beijinhos e boa noite!

 

Forgot to say, we're having gnocchi tonight with fajita sauce with chourico and parmesan ... like to mix the countries in our cuisine!

Tchau! (did you know that's pronounced the same way as ciao?)

 

Ciao L of L
gnocchi.....ummmmm!
We, on the other hand, are having lots of salads this week since it has seemed to sprout up all of a sudden. We're usually not too keen on salads but our own salad seems to be converting us.
I've planted regular salad, arugola, tiny leaf salad and another little leaf salad thing they eat over here called radicchio.
I was wondering: is the salad going to resprout after it's cut? I really have no idea since it's my first.
Anyway it's coming out of our ears. Everybody that comes visiting from the city gets to leave with a little bag of the stuff, wether they need it or not! Along with a nice big bag of cherries because we have a very old cherry tree. I think the quality is called Napoleon and it must make close to 100 kg of huge, great tasting cheeries -I'm not kidding! And it does it all on it's own with absolutely no intervention on our part. Bless it's heart. What a miracle, huh?
Well, L, I used to be married to an American too - at one time - and am half American myself, from N.Y., N.Y. (Italian Mom, American Dad. I was doing a little geneology research and found my grandparents with all the kids listed in the 1930 N.Y. census. Talk about an eery feeling as they are all gone.
My grandmother was Irish and I think that is where I must get the gardening bug from as the Italian side couldn't care less.
I'll try spraying my green beans and see if that helps.
Where in Portugal are you from?
Ciao, and since it's almost time for lunch Buon Appetito too. Me, I'm having steak and....more salad!

 

I grow a mixture of salad leaves and find that with most of them you can cut leaves off leaving the plants to grow more. This way you don't have to keep reseeding through the season.