Italian problems.....

How astute! We ARE all interesting and intelligent people.
It seems like a dream to be able to garden in Italy but clearly has it's own problems. We dream of hot dry summers, especially after this dismal one. Grass is amazing the way it comes back, isn't it.
Welcome and I look forward to seeing pictures of your garden as it progresses and you overcome the difficulties.

Seems the weather is all over the place every where at present hope your garden grows well and yes grass comes back every time especially if you don't want it lol.

Hi Gattina, there certainly is no need to ask to join on here! You are so welcome and hope you enjoy your stay here. We all garden in different ways on here so you get a very different view sometimes which makes it interesting. Most of us had been gardening for years and then there are the new gardeners too, surely we all have to start at the beginning. I hope you are going to make your own compost, how sad the locals throw it away and in plastic bags too!!! Shocking. I hope you enjoy learning to garden the Italian way.

Thank you Grandmage: We've built our own compost heap out of old pallets and it's working well! My husband has even gone to the lengths of rescuing pots full of jettisoned compost from the local rubbish bins.
Apart from trying out all the stuff about planting things according to the moon, which all our neighbours offer vast amounts of advice about, asked for or otherwise, I wouldn't DREAM of trying to garden the Italian way where flowers are concerned. The Brits are champions of the world in that area. No contest. Vegetables are another matter, and we aren't used to the weather extremes yet - I doubt we ever will be, and of course different local seed varieties do better here than known UK ones would. I tried to grow runner beans for 2 years, and got swathes of gorgeous flowers on 7' high plants, but only 2 beans. "Ah Yes" said our neighbour Teresa, "Christine (the lovely English lady who sold us the house) could never grow those either." Jonagold & moneymaker tomatoes grow tough skinned and flavourless, and mini corncobs grow as hard as porcelaine. A bunch of raspberry canes being sold off cheap in Woolworths 5 years ago, however, now give us kilos of fruit every day for the whole of July, and wow the locals with the flavour of the jam I make from them. Wonderful in the bartering culture - I get onions, eggs, potatoes, bucketsful of salad in return - even a duck at Easter!

Interesting to read of your Italian gardening experiences...

Welcome to GoY :o)

Good to hear we are champion of the world at something good. The jam sounds delicious and bartering is a great idea. No embarrasment with receiving like some of us here.
Glad to hear you are getting to grips with compost. I am doing very well with it this year. Also made in a pallet composter. I have sieved some of it and it looks good enough to eat. It's too wet now though, I should have got on with it when we had a dry spell.

Welcome to GoY, Gattina ... re. the comment about growing by the moon ... type Moongrower in to the Google custom search box ... top right of this page ... and you will find a wealth of information as Moongrower is a GoY member and does exactly that! .....

Welcome to GoY :o) You've got a challenge on your hands. Keep us posted on how you get on ....

I love hearing about your garden and hope to hear much more.

Welcome to GoY, Gattina. I'm also an 'ex-pat' having moved here to northern Spain in 2006, and some of your 'problems' are rather like ours - we have learned to just 'go with the flow' as far as local produce is concerned, and my flower garden is looked upon as an oddity but rather nice by local senoras but as a waste of time and effort by the hombres! Unlike you though, we had a total blank canvas and had to dig deep and remove mountains of rocks before we could start to grow anything - we're still digging and removing rocks! I look forward to seeing photos of your garden and its progress through the seasons. :o)

Welcome to Goy Gattina, it will be good to see and hear of your progress in the garden, we all have to learn what suits our bit of space and obviously in a sense you have had to learn all over again but what a challenge and in such lovely surroundings. I look forward to seeing and learning more about your gardening experiences.....
I also have some lovely green patches of clover, lol....

Welcome to GOY, very interesting blog.

Welcome to GOY from me too:)

"Vegetables (seriously) are grown according to phases of the moon."

You need a chat with " Moon growe"

have loved reading your blogs Gattina so fascinating, can now look forward to more I hope. Best wishes.

Oh dear, Pimpernel, It's quite enough with all my neighbours leaning over the fence on their way to the cowsheds, telling me what I am doing wrong. Thing is, mostly they tell me in dialect, so I can barely understand a word, so I just look impressed and thoughtful, nod and smile and promise to do better next time. Dreadful thing is, it actually seems to work for them. I've already sent a message to Moon Grower, but it's all a bit complex for my geriatric brain. What I really need is for someone to come and point at stuff and say simply "Plant THAT over there a week next Wednesday." Then I can blame someone else for my failures.