Ciao dear Hive Gardeners!

It has been a good while since I update about Sergio's garden here: things are a bit wild overall, and July-August have been less hospitable for fair-skinned folks like myself! I've been busy inside rather than under the raging heat of the sun or getting into controversy with the mosquitoes!

the borage is flowering, seeding and growing new plants, all at once! these are just at the edge of the wild area.

**In summary, the bottom half of the gardens - the part without structure - just steeply sloping - is almost completely impenetrable... So I am leaving it be for now. I had a few moments too where, because I got drips of information third-hand about what was going to happen with the property, I felt like I should step back energetically, and to take a lighter approach to cultivating it...

This has meant mostly focussing on the trees and general shape of it all, harvesting what is already abundant, and avoiding adding too many more new plants or seedlings.**

Which is a joy!

some kiwis are almost ripe! this is the first year it has a proper crop, since it was planted about 10 yrs ago!

So I'm happily just watering occasionally, taking out some trees that were overcrowding each other, and making space for the garden's self-seeding activities!

We, like many parts of Europe, have had a strange summer - very late start, lots of rain but very occasionally, and big(get than usual) temperature differences in days and nights. IN fact, one of my two tamarillo/ albero di pomodoro has had the fruits go all yickey: the biggest one... Which will make good compost, but the huge crop I was anticipating will not come to be. However, the second, smaller tamarillo (which is also quite large!) is going strong still. I did some more research and realised that they might love the south-facing wall in the winter, but actually in summer this is too hot for them. Plus the heavy rains that popped up here and there...

Many fruits have been decimated this year - so I am hoping that still the olives and the persimmons might come to something: I usually wouldn't enjoy persimmons much, but if they are one of the few fruits making it through the crazy, then I will make the most of them! There are two trees in the middle of the garden, which are flourishing beautifully.

One of my most very favourite flowers, chicory, is going very well. This is from a stump of some radicchio which we had for dinner, when I was up in Venezia - which I saved, put in water for a while, and then planted - they grew into two huge plants with lots more leaves - and then flung up this brilliant stalk with the glorious blue blooms on it. Heavenly!

Oh, and another of my favourite plants (okay, they're all mostly my favourites, haha!) - capers - there's not much that can disturb their abundant budding every year... I have several jards in lacrime or 'tears' - vinegar and water with a wee bit of salt. The cucunci are coming out too - they're the fruit of the caper.

And a couple of corners are working really well, despite the odds! Above is a rampaging creative chaos of basil, nasturtium, lemon tree and chayote/ melanzana invernale.

... though directly above this lovely corner, there is quite a mess from the ringosperma (a hardy jasmine-like plant) and passion fruit vines!

Sorry about the fuzzy photos in places - I had to balance on a wall to get a close-up of the high strawberry grapes/ uva fragola - they are a really good fruit in a crisis!

I love how the kiwi is climbing up onto the next level: not sure how good a symbiosis it will have with the olive tree that it's winding up, but I will allow it to carry on until it is clear... Many trees benefit from a protective layer for the winter, as can the climing plant- so long as they don't aggravate each other in some other way.

Another happy corner - which reminds me to allow the trees to shape the garden: many plants prefer to live under the trees and to have an intimate relationship with them, especially appreciating the shade.

The figs have tried fruiting earlier in the year, disastrously... so now they're trying again... putting out a LOT of young fruits, so let's pray that they keep expanding.

Oooh, the wonderful portulaca or purslane: what a beautiful and delicious plant this is - and it grows all around the top of the gardens here. This is one which happily self-seeded in a pot - how gentile!

And this is some kind of amaranthus: it might be the wild one which seeds itself around, or it could be one that was 'lost' from some pots in a previous year, but which went on to grow another time: this happens a lot here in my creative chaos.

The feijoa is doing good, since I cropped the jasmine behind it back a lot. It took me ages to find the name of it, as I thought Sergio had told me it was a Chinese date, or jujube - but it isn't! It should be fruiting by now, but was quite stunted the first years, under the overgrowth.

Near the feijoa, there are a lot of calendula/ marigolds - they tend to flower and seed prolifically, and I keep spreading them around.

As I do with these beautiful succulents: a massive rose-like blossoming thing which was growing in the old sink at the front of the top tier of the garden: it throws out new blooms from its roots, regularly - and I replant them around the garden, like this one amongst the crowded wild strawberries. 😍

An example of the lovely self-mulching which goes on when I 'neglect' the gardens! These are olive twigs and leaves, on top of some old planks which I use as a path.

Ah, my one giant cabbage!

The seeding wall flowers. These I grab handfuls of seeds from, and then through them strategically around.

THIS is a very happy spontaneous growth: a peach tree, which has grown by itself (or from a flung fruit stone), and which now is exposed since I cut back some olive trees. They can be sensitive to the weather and altitude here, so I am hoping this one has chosen its microclimate well.

Some prolific oregano and a Russian sage to the left of it.

And my glorious chards in seed: I adore how they make such big dramatic dry stalks like this - and how generous they are with their seeds and offspring. It is a fabulous plant to have everywhere.

Beniamino having a wee chat with me, here.

Above, you can see a great example of Sergio's planting silliness: the caper grows right into the gate which makes it difficult not to damage it when it's budding! In the other direction, it blocks the path, too!

Leaving the garden, I tend to some pots in the street too: there are these wee peppers, with mint and irises living beside them, which I saved after they'd been left to fend for themselves many years ago.

I love this dancing prickly pear.

Further along this wee car-less street, there are pomegranates, apricots, more grapes and more olives.

And finally ,directly below my Arthouse, there is this bed of all kinds of great stuff which I've packed in there. Right now, the wild Scottish honeysuckle is in bloom, and it's the first year that the heavenly scent fills up the lower rooms of the house in the early mornings, when I open the house up to breathe. This is such a blessing, as my stepmum brought a wee twig or two of this plant from my childhood home on the hillside of the Isle of Arran, and she passed away earlier this year: it is a powerful connecting plant for me, to her. You can see along the bottom of the above photo too, the pumpkins - they will need to be guided to grow vertically, otherwise they'll go into the wee street, and my neighbout might see a reason to poison my garden again.

And very finally! My lemon tree has a new life! She finally grew high enough to reach out into the stronger sunlight, from under the balcony: now she is throwing out much more growth and leaves. It is exciting to open the kitchen window and be able to almost touch her! This bodes well, as she has been struggling for decades, in the cooler space under the balcony.

I hope you enjoyed a wee peek into the garden. It really is a place of spiritual refuge for me, and even if Sergio's house moves on to a new owner, I know I'll carry on working land nearby it - there are always other neighbours who live in the city and don't have time to come here and tend their gardens, who are happy for me to use their garden as my own. Relationships are everything!.

Many blessings on your growing!

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