With the seasons, this garden will grow. As we plant and harvest, entries will be added. Quick, easy Italian recipes too!
- Artichoke|Carciofo
- Broad Bean|Fava Bean
- Caper|Cappero
- Cardoon|Cardo
- Eggplant|Melanzana
- Sweet Pepper|Peperone
Culinary Herbs Used in
Italian Cooking
History, tradition, location, applications and culinary uses for Italian classic herbs.
- The Virtues of Herbs
- Basil|Basilico
- Bay Leaf|Alloro or Lauro
- Mint|Menta
- Oregano|Origano
- Parsley|Prezzemolo
- Rosemary|Rosmarino
- Sage|Salvia
- Sweet Marjoram|Maggiorana
- Tarragon|Dragoncello
- Thyme|Timo
Italian Gardens To Visit
From time-to-time, a private small garden in Italy is featured. If you travel in the area, please contact the gardener to arrange a visit.
- BIOResidence RiGenera,
Emilia-Romagna - Giardini del Casoncello,
Emilia-Romagna - Giardini di Antichi Sapori,
Puglia
From the Garden
Share your thoughts, tips and personal experiences about being a gardener.
Sources – Seeds, Plants, Pots
List of recognized quality resources for your garden.
Plus sources for small and large Italian terracotta pots.
Musings From the Garden – Usually it begins with one plant. Then another. Then the “Isn’t-it-beautiful?” plant, the “I didn’t know what to get you, so I got you a plant” gift…and when you reach the “Rescued Plant” stage, you’re hooked. Weekends are spent at horticultural shows and reading in bed translates into salivating over gardening catalogs rather than a racy novel. The car is cleaned out so you can pack it with plants, and as you zoom along the highway with branches protruding, leaves fluttering in the wind, probably a vine or two beginning to curl around your face while driving…hope springs eternal. You’ve got a garden, you’re a gardener, and your life is about to change.
Created ostensibly with the objective of growing plants, within a short time the garden morphs into a biodiverse ecosystem. Isn’t it surprising how quickly a community develops? Your garden becomes the gathering place, a park of sorts, for flora, fauna, insects and people. If your garden is colorful or edible, all the better. Birds, animals and insects nap in the garden enjoying serenity and feeling secure…I’ve found more than one beetle asleep in the zucchini flowers as I was just about to stuff and fry them! But my favorite is the memory of a bee taking an afternoon nap inside the Thunbergia flower – inspiration for a children’s book. Patterns emerge along with your neighbors’ habits. Only in this example, the neighbors are rarely people. Their daily routines, their life cycles, are shared in the garden. Fondly I’ve dubbed mine “Noah’s Ark”. Only rarely do they arrive in pairs. They tend to bring the entire family. (Translated into “Who is eating the basil? And if you are going to eat the basil, would you kindly eat the entire leaf and not just part of every-single-leaf? One leaf is just as good as choice parts from ten leaves. Now my basil looks like it is suffering from leprosy, how can I garnish a dish with this? And don’t you even think of eating my potato flowers! Sound familiar?) The joys of organic gardening…
One of the pleasures of gardening is watching “the kids” grow up. To many gardeners, every plant is a child we nurture to full potential if possible. Our hearts break with a demise; late autumn brings resolve for next spring. If you live in a metropolis, perhaps you live “in the sky” and have a terrace garden as I do in both New York and Bologna. Since I live in each place only part-time, I make a point of enjoying each day, puttering around the garden, giving the kids haircuts (pruning) and showers (watering), offering a compliment on how beautiful they are today and sometimes stroking their leaves. Encouragement. All of us need it.
My kids have their own radio. Yes, I play music for them. They seem to prefer more of a soothing atmosphere in the mist of constant background noise here in the city, so classical, smooth jazz or jazz is popular or so I imagine. Yet even the birds give approval while dining on black sunflower seeds because the flock expands to these sounds.
In creating and supporting this atmosphere, it is amazing to see who arrives and how the garden is home to so many characters. One time I arrived from Bologna to find the mourning doves had used my parsley plant as a nest. Enchanting really to see only 2 strands of straw marking their territory, laid out encircling the parsley with 2 tiny oval eggs in the middle. Another time the car is waiting downstairs to take me to the airport and wouldn’t you know, a pigeon walks through the garden door, panics, flies around and lands. Where? On top of my stove…oh, how tempting that was! My terrace garden is the annual “kinder-garden” for a pair of mourning doves; each year they bring their newest child to day-care. Truly delightful to watch, they drop off the child in the morning and pick him up at the end of the afternoon. This lasts for 2-3 days, then the fledgling tests his wings and flies.
Early Spring in New York City brings the hawk coasting in on air currents where he lands on my fence and permits me to admire him for one day only. Then I wait until next year. Raucous squawks announce the arrival of blue jays, robins remain quiet and soft, and juncos sing for their supper, I stop what I’m doing to listen to their trilling. Occasionally a curious seagull stops by and the thrill of a lifetime – a peregrine falcon once! Each August brings a shift in the slant of the sun’s rays. Coolness begins, the light mixes yellow-orange with blue, the night carries a chill. Ahhhh, but the day brings monarch butterflies on their migration and how they love the flowers’ nectar! World events are observed in gardens, too. With the passing of Pope John-Paul II a few years ago, one pure white-colored pigeon stayed in my garden for 2 days, and during daytime, roosted on my kitchen window sill keeping me company while I cooked. Triumphant joy offering solace.
Grow a garden and the garden grows you. You learn a lot about life through simple observation regardless of what country you live in. Admire the community spirit of ants. Marvel at the delicate beauty of butterflies and moths, stronger than you might think. Learn to chuckle at the brilliant camouflage of the uninvited diner. Plant a seed, watch it sprout then burst forth in all of its glory. Share the results with friends or even strangers. Watch their faces. Feel how the simple act of putting something you grew into someone’s hands changes both you and the recipient, creating an unspoken bond.
Give your family and friends a gift, let them harvest. If the closest they ever came to gardening was shopping at the grocery store, I promise you, it is renewing. Encourage them to pluck from the tree or vine, pop “freshness and ripeness” into their mouths and savor…watch the transformation. Their smiles? Makes it worth every scrape, cut, bruise, twigs and leaves tangled in your hair. Help a child understand better daily life, flexibility and adaptability are essential for survival and provide the foundation to live life well. Far more attention-grabbing than household chores and requiring far less investment of time or money than a pet, teach a child how to nurture by nurturing a plant and the rewards will surpass expectations. Just keep trying…it’s another day tomorrow. Another ray of sunshine or drop of rain or stone of hail or flake of snow. Life.
- MBC
