Summer and a very different June than we’ve had to date. Whereas in the prior years the weather had already become hot and dry, this year has been cooler and wetter. Well, actually more like the historical average temperature ( only 2 days above 30C). As a consequence the land looks very different this year. Everywhere is very lush and green, before being mown.
More often than not, the sky has been overcast and at times, the cloud laden with Saharan dust which is a right pain. Car gets covered but so does the pool with a light film of sediment in the bottom. The pool filter struggles to cope. The particulate health warnings go through the roof too. Pool water crystal clear now.
We now have two local lads helping us one day a week, Nicolo and Noberto, so able to get more done both maintenance and some of the more structural work. They attend Agricultural College and are very competent. Good to support the local youth with part time work. We continue to host Workaway travellers, and thoroughly enjoy hosting.
The Olives
Despite of or as consequence of the weather the olives are developing well . We assume that the rain to date should be good for the fruit development. They’re the size of a large bean already so we need to start worrying abut the ‘mosca’. . We should have a good harvest this year. Much water to go under the bridge though before October.
The local lads are also helping with some pruning. Rather enthusiastic and probably more than I would have cut back. Reigning them in now and get the focus back to cutting grass and clearing the bramble and vines that are coming back with vengeance around the trees.
We had our local farmer Maurizio cut the grass early in June. No more swathes of wild flowers amongst the high grass, but it needed doing. Suspect with rain we’ll need a second cut before the end of summer. Having long grass makes harvesting more of a hassle – gets difficult to manage the nets on the ground.
Very different from May, but looks maintained and cared for.
The Vegetable Gardens
Most plants are growing well and we should soon be harvesting tomatoes and are already having a glut of zucchinis. The pumpkins and sunflowers are magnificent in size. The pumpkin plant in the upper garden is massive and seems to grow cm’s overnight. The corn is suddenly knee high and the sunflowers are standing very tall and starting to flower.
Workaway Maddie helping to control the weeds – still surprisingly easy to manage.
A couple of weeks later!
The sweet peas have take off and in the lower garden there is wall of flowers to be picked every day. In the upper garden the flowers provide a contrast to the tomatoes and other plants.
We planted three melons as there is heaps of space, but these are gone. Disappeared overnight no doubt by some of the wild life. Something has also been attacking the lettuces in the top garden. There is a fair bit of wildlife about. The other night our neighbours dog, Totoro was running round and round the house upset by something. Doing a good job but at the wrong house. To be fair we were looking after him for a few days.
The upper veg garden is looking good. The intent was a mixture of flowers, vines and vegetables. More or less succeeded. Now have the micro irrigation in place and the heavy mulching with packing paper, card and woodchip will be much more workable next season.
This year the grapes are doing well. Not all but those by the upper veg garden have taken off.
Pumkin vine going everywhere. Even has some pumkins on it.
Our Lavender
The lavender is growing well. These are all one year old plants so should be much larger next year. As yet not watering them as there is no need. Using weed cloth and wood chip mulch seem to be working well as a concept – ground stays moist and the weeds/grass is under control.
With the terraces, there is effort to maintain the banks. For this area we’ve left stuff growing on the banks just removing the large invasive plants – weeds and grasses. But what’s a weed is somewhat subjective.
We will use weed cloth once we get to larger areas being planted although getting a larger volume of mulch could be a problem. We’ve not found any bulk suppliers of compost yet. The terrace banks will need to be line trimmed.
Later in July we’re off to Assisi where there is a large lavender farm and nursery. Half our plants are from them so an opportunity to discuss how we can potentially source more plants. https://illavandetodiassisi.it/en/pages/festa-della-lavanda
Water
Eventually both upper and lower gardens have micro irrigation in place. Seems to be working OK but difficult to asses given that it keeps raining!. Not complaining. Have used a combination of soaker hose and drippers.
Still working on the grand plan to get water from the Sena to the well and use that as a source. Have the pump I needed now and got that working. Pump and controller need to be wired up.
This now needs to be installed by the gate with the creeks some 5 m down the bank. Got the lads to roll out 200m of 3/4” polythene pipe from the well to the gate. Should have supervised them. Have five known kinks in the pipe that had to be removed but still have an issue. To use the pump I need to prime the inlet pipe, so using water from the well to pump down the piping. Only problem is that the pressure at the creek and even halfway down is abysmal. So who know what the issue is. Luckily we’re have frequent rain so no immediate panic.
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