How can it be September already! This summer the orto has not seen its usual productivity, although we have produced enough for the two of us. This year the only plant we have had copious supplies of is tomatoes which we have frozen, bottled and dried in various quantities. We also dried some of our plums, but have eaten them all already as they were so tasty, not at all like the dried prunes one hated as a child! Fruit is something we have had in abundance this year with wonderful crops throughout the summer season starting with strawberries, cherries, apricots and most recently peaches more of which are still ripening. For the last couple of weeks we have also been enjoying our own figs, more than one can sensibly eat while fresh so we are drying some of these also. By the end of August last year we had harvested our apples but they are still not quite ripe enough yet which is late for this locality. Pears also will be ripe anytime soon and as the weeks fly by so quickly before we know it it will be time for the grape harvest.
We may not have had a productive season with vegetables but we have certainly made up for it with our fruit, which luckily we do eat a lot of, well over the recommended number of portions per day for a healthy diet.
It is time once again for me to share some of my favourite garden photos from the last month with you. Once again I have had difficulty selecting just a few from the ones I have taken over the last few weeks.
The interested gardeners and photographers amongst you will find the full album on Flickr. Our Garden In August
Here then is a selection of fourteen photographs from the month of August for you to enjoy.
Cacti are plants that I have come to like more since moving to Italy as they flower so beautifully here, which they never did, at least not for us in the UK.
Sweet Chestnut
Apples
Grapes
Shady spot under the Persian Acacia.
Kiwi's
General garden view looking westwards.
Shades of green, not much other colour at this time of the year.
Apart from wild chicory, the odd rose or two and container plants
Walnuts
Olives
Pear, it might not look perfect like the ones in the shops bit I can assure it will taste so much better!
Peaches
Pampas Grass
More photos can be found in my Flickr album Our Garden In August
Beautiful photos Linda! I am so impressed with all the fruit you grow. How wonderful it must be to have all that fruit around to enjoy anytime you want.
ReplyDeleteyay ur british ) italy looks so beautiful i would loveto take my kids there 1 day :)
ReplyDeleteOh wow! I really enjoyed the photo journey through your garden. This year, did seem like it was a better year for fruits-it must have been the colder winter.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this with us.
Lindy, We have an over abundance of veggies this year in our valley , I only wish we could grow some of the fruit that you have there , we cannot grow anything here that has sap that has to fall in the winter and rise in the summer , and some strawberries and kwai grow way up north , but not here in our valley, BUT we will have lots of mangos and papayas and corn and melons grow year round , I love all you pictures and what a great garden you have , thanks for sharing . By the way I'm a lot better now and starting to get my strenght back . Malcolm
ReplyDeleteSo beautiful and luscious!
ReplyDeleteStunning photos Linda, but strange that your veg haven't done well. We can't be more than 3 km from you and the orto Manuel planted has done spectacularly. (We will plant something much smaller next year!) We have just been bottling some tomatoes and will start on some peppers which are overflowing. Unfortunately we had to chuck a load of zucchini which grew to marrows and quite a lot of tomatoes. We also have heaps of peperoncino that I would like to tie and hang, but don't really know how to do it. Is there any special technique that you know of?
ReplyDeleteAlissa - It is wonderful we were so lucky to buy a house with such a mature and well cared for garden this time, the best for produce we have had.
ReplyDeleteFuyume - Sure am:) I hope you are able to visit Italy with your family one day. Meanwhile welcome to our little bit of Italy via my blog, thanks for commenting.
Velva- Welcome and delighted you enjoyed the journey, hope to see you here again, thanks so much for commenting.
Malcolm - So glad you are back and feeling much better. It is always interesting to compare gardens, produce etc with other bloggers. Melons all year round ,lucky you. We have to enjoy ham and melon as much as we can during the all too short season!
Pam - And tasty!
I got lost wandering around in your garden. Wish I could sample all your luscious fruit. Living in Montana, I just got apricots this year , but I was grateful for that.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your fruit
Manzanita
wanna buy a duck
ilcaretto-panzera - Welcome and thanks, I am developing a passion for photography. My resident expert D says we made the mistake of using the same plot of land that we used last year, without proper rotovation or fertilisation! Hence the failure maybe as the new smaller area where we grew the tomatoes this year has produced abundantly! Worth remembering for next year maybe.
ReplyDeleteAs for the peperoncino he says either thread them on string using a darning needle or even simpler just hang the whole plant to dry in an airy position.
Thanks so much for calling by and commenting, hope to see you here again.
Manzanita - Ha, Ha, glad you had a good wander, shame you could not sample the fruit as you did so. Apricots fresh from your own tree are so much more tasty :) Welcome to my blog and for commenting it is much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteLinda, thank you SO much for your visits to my blog. I am thrilled to see photos of your gardens and property in Italy! I've just met another blogger in love with gardening. I am envious of your new life in italy; I talk about it all the time with my husband after I retire from academia, but he always brings up the issue of family. I also enjoy all the links to Italian blogs, of which I, too, have a list, but want to add any to my list that are on yours that may be new. How is your Italian coming along since you've moved to Italy or did you learn the language before?
ReplyDeleteCiao, Roz
bella(roz) - Delighted to welcome you to my blog, I always enjoy my visits to yours. Yes we love gardening and with this latest move we have gained a mature garden that was loved by the old lady who lived here before us. It is not a new life in Italy though, we came here as 'empty nesters' in 2004. Various attempts at learning the language but difficult until you are actually here we found to make progress, even know I am never going to be fluent. Never mind our new neighbours are very patient with us and they speak no English at all. Our previous house was lovely but too isolated for our language skills to get much chance of developing. Of course we love and miss our family but still get to keep in close touch and spend quality time with them.
ReplyDeleteWow! Amazing the amount of fruits you have Lindy. I had never seen a chestnut tree neither a kiwi tree. Now, I am curious, how did you take the picture of the walnut tree? Were you climbing it?
ReplyDeleteWonderful backyard!
Simony - we have never had a garden with so many varieties of fruit, nuts etc so are really enjoying the experience. Ah, the walnut tree, well that particular one is outside our bedroom and we have a balcony, so no climbing required, although I used to love climbing trees! :)
ReplyDeleteWow, what a beautiful Paradise! I'm just drooling for all the things you can grow that I can't. But then, I'm in a different temperature zone, more like your England, and have accepted its limitations. I shall live vicariously through you. (p.s. "Il Nostro Giardino" or "I nostri giardini."
ReplyDeleteI love your garden shots Linda. Do you know if it is bad to eat too many figs. We had someone bring us figs yesterday to the office, and one lady refused to eat more than one.
ReplyDeleteLinda,
ReplyDeleteLovely photos!
I featured you on my "Transformation Tuesday" under the heading of "learn". I forgot to let you know. I have been so busy playing catch up.
Your fruit looks so yummy!
Wonderful pictures, I love that pink cacti. Your garden is very productive. I would like a kiwi fruit tree. How come your Pampas grass looks like that, we have only just got a few new shoots?? Diane
ReplyDeleteHi linda finally got around to looking at your photos what wonderful fruits. My only claim to fame in my NZ garden is a lemon tree & a mandarin I live in on the Kapiti coast which has a micro climate & all the other gardens are full of fruit tress & at this time of year the most wonderful array of blossoming trees, at the moment I am looking at some wonderful camelias & magnolias & a kowphai tree which will soon be full of tui birds eating the nectar I missed my calling as a gardener but love enjoying everyone elses hard work.
ReplyDeleteIt must be a true pleasure to walk around your yard. You have such a variety of shrubs, trees and flowers. The intensity of the color in the pink cacti is almost palpable.
ReplyDeleteWell I am surprised because with the amount of beautiful harvest photos that I've seen in your posts, I was under the impression that you were gathering crop to open your own fruttivendolo shop! The space that you get to work with is just so huge! Right now we are still drowning in tomatoes and the pole beans keep on producing. Our peach is a late cultivar but hopefully by the end of the month we'll be up to our ears in peaches too. Now when is the first fall sagra around your neighborhood?
ReplyDeleteYou are lucky to have mature trees. The ones here are just starting to produce. I will have an abundance of figs though. How will you dry yours?
ReplyDeleteWow, I am so impressed with your garden! It's wonderful to see such plentiful fruits...enjoy them all!
ReplyDeleteLooking good!! Have you ever tried to preserve the figs? I once had a sandwich with brie and preserved figs, so delicious!
ReplyDeleteStunning photos. It's a dream of a garden.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness - you have so many lovely things in your garden, produce as well as flowers and trees and grasses. It looks lovely - I was sitting there drooling and being very envious!!!
ReplyDeleteLakeviewer - Whoops, I wish this had been pointed out to me before now, I think I made the same mistake for the last three months or so, corrected now, thankyou! It is a real treat for us being able to grow these different fruits and nuts.
ReplyDeleteCathy - She must have a very weak stomach then! I eat many more than one a day when they are in season, will not do you any harm. They have a reputation for keeping you regular!! Have you heard of syrup of figs??
Kimberly - Thanks, that sounds interesting, I will be over to take a look, like you I am trying to catch up.
Diane - The pampas grass seems to be flowering and shooting upwards daily, I guess yours is just a few days behind ours.
Anon -Great to see you here commenting whom ever you may be:) NZ sounds wonderful, it is definitely on my wishlist of places to visit.
Mya - Yes it is a pleasure that I enjoy every single day if possible.
Rowena - I explained in a previous reply further up the page where we went wrong we think with the veggies this year. The tomatoes and cucumbers did well as on a fresh piece of land!
Nuts and mushroom sagras soon.
Martha - Yes we were so lucky to find this house with a mature garden that was loved and cherished. We just dried the figs in the sun. I think we may also make some jam, as another comment here has tempted me.
Caroline - I think you have tempted us into making some fig jam!
ReplyDeleteWelshcakes Limencello -You are kind and thanks also for the message appreciated, wish I had spotted it before.
Maggie - We are fortunate to have found a property where the garden was loved.
Wow, I mean just WOW !
ReplyDeleteI love your garden !!!!
Sarah - we found a real gem when we moved last year didn't we :)
ReplyDeleteJust wonderful, Linda. How talented you are.
ReplyDeleteThose pictures are lovely and show what I would consider to be a beautifully looked after and natural garden set up to be useful rather than a manicured English lawn - I guess you know what I mean. I'd love all those fresh fruit... Love from London x
ReplyDeleteFresh figs! I can't think of anything yummier. You luscious garden seems to make your Italian adventure all that more "Italian". Does that make sense? Love it!
ReplyDeleteSusie - Thanks but I think that having a good camera helps a great deal.
ReplyDeleteMademoiselle P - I know exactly what you mean it is a working garden. Love back from Italy x
Pam - Yes it makes absolute sense as we feel sometimes that we are living the Italian Good Life.
What a happy garden..Here in Maine..our season is very short and only certain things will grow.
ReplyDeleteBlueberries/Apples are usually bought..I do have a couple of blueberry bushes..but I have to be fast to beat the birds..will put net on them next year..Your garden is so wonderful. Doesn't it make you feel so rich.?.The best things in life are free..
Rosebud Collection - Thankyou for your lovely words about our garden, I understand just what you mean. the birds are fast to get to the fruit here as well:)
ReplyDelete