Italy Gardens – Padua

The next stop on our trip was the city of Padua. This city is famous for being the site of the Basilica of St. Anthony, the patron saint of lost items. It is also a beautiful city in its own right. Here, even though there is more space for gardening, you still see a lot of container and patio gardening. You will also see a lot of gardens mixed with laundry. A lot of Italians do not own clothes dryers, so every day is laundry day as you see clothes hanging out to dry among the plants on balconies.



We also noticed that the city has made use of planted traffic circles that have lots of different plant material in them (this picture was taken from our bus).






On a walk through the city toward the Basilica of St. Anthony, we found the piazza of Prato della Valle. This square is one of the biggest in Europe. It has a canal with 4 bridges that surrounds a garden. Around the canal are statues of 78 famous men of the city.







We also were wondering if the city leaders had been to the Pacific Northwest! We found hanging baskets similar to the ones you find in cities around here.





The real treat was at the Basilica of St. Anthony! We found a Magnolia on the grounds that was planted in 1810! This magnolia grandiflora and a sister plant in a near-by cloister were huge but very healthy for their advanced age.

Next Florence and Sienna.
Jeff
Garden Time Producer

Winter Grasses

I love seeing the fog each morning these last few weeks. The landscapes look so quiet & other worldly. The world looks soft. The water droplets or if it’s very cold, the frost, sticks on the plants, especially the ornamental grasses. That is why I like to leave the ornamental grass foliage for the fall & winter. In late summer & fall, the green leaf blades start to turn burgundy or tawny brown. The grass flowers turn to seed that will be ornamental or edible for the coming seasons. By the time the fall rains start, the silhouettes add beautiful form to the fall & winter landscape.

I have seen this Purple Fountain Grass shining in all its’ late season glory.
I love the white see heads contrasting with the dark foliage. During the summer, this grass is a garden mainstay as the burgundy-purple foliage & pinkish flowers add motion & texture to our containers and borders.

For all your ornamental grasses, leave the foliage & seed heads up for food & protection for birds. It’s fun to watch them hanging on the tops of the grasses on windy days. As the winter progresses, grasses do start to look haggard. They have been through many weeks of rain & wind. In late March, it is time to cut back the old foliage. New foliage will be up before you know it and the new cycle begins.

I have always loved the fall & winter landscape. I am from Chicago where it can be cold & grey or cold with clear blue skies. Any plant left up for the winter besides a yew or pine is interesting. There’s just not a lot of plant variety in that area! But I got used to seeing some beauty as that was all we got! Now that I have lived in the Valley for 12 years, I see so many plants go through physical changes all year long. The late fall & winter have a beauty that is theirs alone. Take the time to enjoy this quiet time of the season.

Take care,
Judy

Italy Gardens - Venice

Recently I traveled to Italy with my wife Therese for her birthday. A big one, and I won’t say the numberJ. Our trip took us from Venice in the north to Amalfi on the Mediterranean and while we were there I decided to check out the local garden scene. Italy is very interesting in its approach to gardening. There are large cities like Rome and Florence, where container gardening are popular (and necessary), and quaint little cottages in the rolling hills of Tuscany. I thought I would kick off with the first stop we made on our trip, Venice.
In case you didn’t know, Venice is an island. It was a marshy area that has been filled in and a good portion of the city is built on piers and pilings that have been driven into the water. As you can imagine, there isn’t a lot of soil for garden plots! Venice is a wonderful city that has no vehicle traffic except around the area of the train station. Walking (or water craft) is the only way around this wonderful place. The first thing you will notice is the creative use of plants and planting areas.

Outside of our hotel window was an apartment building. Check out the various uses for containers. People even created entertainment spaces where they could find room. And if something grew, they let it grow!!!

This ivy is coming from a 2nd story garden and trails over the edge of the home and down to the water.

This wisteria vine was growing in one person’s backyard (if you can call it that) and the neighbors have trained it around the building so everyone can enjoy it.

Window boxes are the container of choice. Almost everywhere you look you can see window boxes. This is a view of 2 major streets coming together and crossing a canal. That’s right, these 2 small walkways are considered streets. And you will find people growing plants anywhere there is a little light and soil.

There were 2 very interesting garden type displays we found in Venice. Down one street we found the Singapore Supergarden. This area was a showcase of design styles from Singapore, but the area of the garden (the entry) was very beautiful.

The other very interesting ‘garden’ display was the ‘Deep Garden’, a tribute to Venice. It was a sculpture that featured a single maple planted in the middle of a glass cube that was painted red on the inside. An outdoor room immersed in water. Very interesting!

The next stop on our tour will be Padua…

Stay tuned,
Jeff
Garden Time Producer

Banana Trees in Fall

I don’t actually own a banana plant but I sure see a lot of them in people’s gardens. I am amazed they still look nice in late November. This photo was taken in Woodburn at Al’s Garden Center. It will be interesting to see how it fares without being wrapped & mulched. They are pretty hardy, down to –3F & down to –20F with mulching & protection. Last year, I interviewed Bill at The Portland Classical Chinese Garden on the November 17th 2007 show (http://www.youtube.com/v/LKJlbM77wXE). At the PCCG, they want to ensure that the 12-15 ft trunks repel winter damage as that will help to ensure they will bloom & produce fruit. Their banana trees were beautiful this year. The banana bunches were so cute even though they are not edible.
If you are nervous about your banana tree, wrap the trunk with cardboard & burlap & cover the crown with leaves & mulch. Don’t worry about the leaves. In late winter/early spring, just cut off all the old leaves. The tree will sprout new ones. Apply fertilizer once the weather warms up. Use your favorite, general-purpose fertilizer. If the trunk does sustain some winter damage & is mushy, cut back below the damaged part. You don’t have to cut down the whole trunk. The leaves will sprout from the clean-cut healthy tissue.
I’ll put a note in my calendar to report back on the bananas at Al’s & let you know if they get a bunch of bananas.
Take Care,
Judy

The best teacher is experience…

As long as there have been gardens there have been gardeners that have opinions about what, when and how to garden.
I received a call at work a few days ago from a customer who had just heard on a T.V. show that you should not transplant Camellia’s. The person doing the show said that if you moved a Camellia it might and most likely would, die.
Well, I can assure you that after a lifetime of gardening I have moved countless Camellias with great success. My first reaction was, ‘What a quack”. But then I thought about it for a few moments….
I know a lot of wonderful people in this industry and not one of them would ever even think about giving out wrong information, it is just not in their nature. So why this bit of misinformation?
Well, I can tell you that the person that said this really believes it IS accurate.
So what is the public suppose to do, how do they know what information is accurate and which is not, or more accurately, which information will garner them the best success in their garden.
One of the easiest things any gardener can do is A) try it yourself and B) pay attention! There is no information out there on gardening that can compete with your personal experience. I take all the info I can and then process that into a formulation that I can use in my gardens at home. When I hear, ‘you can’t do it that way”, well I just give it a shot! “Those won’t live here”, We’ll see about that! “You aren’t supposed to move those plants…they just do not transplant well”, Tell that to my peonies that have been moved countless times!
What I am saying is that each one of us has more to learn, each of us has ideas and desires for our own spaces and many failures and successes to have. Listen to everything that professionals say and then strike out on your own! It’s your garden with your sweat and efforts pored into it. And then pay attention to your space. Nature is so good at telling us exactly what it needs, we need only pay attention. If you are stumped, take a sample and your questions into any independent garden center, they are chucked full of people that have years and years of experience. But more than anything else…have fun! Take some time this winter to do some planning. How about a new vegetable garden? Maybe you have been waiting to expand your perennial beds, or put in a pathway. It is all with in your reach and you will have plenty of time this winter to plan it all out. And then that first day of warm weather hits and you begin whatever it is you are planning to do.
I know I have already started planning my veggie garden, tweaking it from last year, adding some things, removing some. Successes and failures, but always, always learning.
What can nature and experience teach you?
Warm Thoughts,
William

Lemon Tree very pretty….

Having a lemon tree on my patio reinforces the belief that I live in gardening paradise. I know we get a lot of rain and days & days with no sunshine but we can still grow lemons on our patios or in our house! What a hoot!
It is the easiest fruit tree to grow next to figs, but that’s a previous blog.
My plant is a Meyer’s Improved Lemon. This Improved variety is resistant to a virus that affects commercial lemons. The Improved Meyer’s Lemon was developed in 1970 is the best for containers. It is a cross between a lemon, a type of orange & a mandarin.
This fruit is the best lemon to use for baking. It has a very flavorful juice & zest, the yellow part of the rind. The flowers have a delicious fragrance that fills the air. I sometimes carry the plant indoors for a few days just to get that aroma in my house.
Lemon plants & Citrus plants in general need at least 8 hours of sun.
Water regularly & let dry down a bit. The first two inches of soil can dry out. Make sure the water goes through the entire pot & does not stay in the saucer. The plant’s roots may rot if left sitting in water.
Fertilize in spring & early summer when the plant is actively growing.
The best part is the Meyer’s Improved Lemon bears fruit as young as 3 years old. You may remove some of the fruit when small so the remaining fruit gets larger.
The other great fact about lemons is that they are hardy to 25F.
I left my plant on my covered patio for most of the winter. I just took it into the house on the coldest nights in January. I would then put it back out the morning. It was very happy!
Think about adding a lemon tree or orange or lime to your patio plants. With just a little care, you can be reminded of a garden paradise.

Take Care,
Judy

The Figs Are Ripe!

Some gardeners can’t wait for the first taste of their homegrown tomatoes. I am not among those gardeners.
I cannot wait until my ‘Desert King’ Figs are ripe. If you have never tasted a tree-ripened fig, you have not lived. The figs look like chartreuse-green globes hanging from the branches of a very weighted down tree. There are 100’s. As of August 13th, my count is 115 for me. There have been 23 casualties of figs eaten by slugs, birds or some kind of critter. It’s hard not to eat every other one as I pick them. Almost all are ripe with this hot weather we’ve been having.
The inside flesh of this fig is strawberry-red. They do look kind of weird. As a kid in Chicago, my Italian Grandpa Salvatore, had a fig tree in his back yard. It’s not easy to grow figs in Zone 5 Chicago. He had to dig around the roots & bend the tree over to bury it. A layer of mulch was added for insurance against the harsh winters. He & my family thought it was well worth the trouble come August. They were in Heaven. It was a little bit of their heritage & of memories of long ago summers.
I was ecstatic when I learned that I could grow figs in the Willamette Valley.
The first 2 trees I bought were my ‘Desert King’ & a ‘Negronne’ fig. The ‘Negronne’ had purple black fruit with deep raspberry flesh. It was a great tree that grew in a very wet site & finally fell over last winter. It was very sad. I miss that fig tree.
Fig trees are a great fruit tree as they grow like weeds & are not bothered by any kind of insect. The only maintenance is pruning & harvesting. The fruit is borne on last’s year’s growth. You just have to make sure you leave on enough branches to produce fruit the next year. I was lazy last year & did not prune very hard. The tree reaches to my 2nd story window. My husband, Ben, was determined to pick the first figs from the tallest branches. He scared our neighbor when he stepped out on the overhang to pluck the ripe fruit. Poor Jay couldn’t see where the voice was coming from when Ben said Hi!
Since we have such a bountiful harvest, I am drying figs in the oven. They don’t get very dry but they get to a rubbery stage that’s great to freeze. When it cools down a bit, I’ll bake some delicious biscotti, scones & cookies.
Figs are also very tasty with baked pork tenderloin, wrapped with prosciutto or bacon & grilled or stuffed with Gorgonzola cheese & drizzled with honey. YUM. I have a wonderful cookbook called Fig Heaven by Marie Simmons. She feels the same as I do about figs.
I hope I’ve peaked your curiosity about figs. Plant a tree & Enjoy.

Judy