Tuscan Living

Wet ,warm and then cold

It might be the end of February and with the days lengthening, everything is starting to grow. Early part of winter we had little rain, but the last few weeks we’ve had some heavy rains again. The ground is soaked, the cistern and well are full. With the level of rain we’ve had a fair bit of water damage to the road with deep ruts developing.

Main issue with the road is that the water flows over the road eroding areas. There is little or no drainage in place other than humps across the road to divert the water flow. But with the levels of water flow we’ve had these just don’t work so drains across the roadway. About four areas are needed to break the flow and direct the water to the directly over the bank and down to the Senna. Being semi rural, there is always work to be done – yet another project to be worked through!

Furtther down the track the surface is equally grim. Fortunately the VW has got good clearance and it’s not quite 4WD territory just yet.

We don’t complain about the rain, as 3 years ago Italy experienced a serious drought. The rain at this time of year lays the foundation for rest of the year – we really do have very few overcast days and when the sun is out, even mid winter it’s warm enough to sit outside in the middle of the day. Very different from NZ and also the UV levels are very low so we can safely ‘top up’ the Vitamin D levels.

Outside

Daily more and more purple anemonies are appearing as well as daisies, clover and even hawthorn. The daffodils we planted are coming up strong with some in flower. Hopefully the irises that survived last year will provide a good display. This season what’s seems to be Arum italicum is growing everywhere. Normally the odd plant but this year swathes of them. Seen as a weed, but they could be stunning when they flower.

Winter comes much later at this latitude than Northern Europe and the UK. Autumn colours can be seen until well into December and leaf drop too.

Thus far the lavender cuttings have survived despite strong winds ripping the cover off the mini poly tunnel on a regular basis. Where the cuttings have taken there are well developed roots. Next job if to pot these on and that will give us a count of how many plants we have. The success rate is higher than hoped for. We’ve also opened up a new lavender area along the path. Whereas the main area is on the boundary, this will be more visible.

Will need to decide if we want to try and grow more herbaceous plants again this year. Last year was a disaster with too much rain, slugs and not being attentive enough when it was not raining. This year we’d use more weed matting to suppress weeds and help retain moisture. This model is used in the Assisi Lavender farm herbaceous borders and given them stunning success. They also provide planting schemas and obviously provide the plants. The quality of the lavender plants we’ve had thus far is outstanding.

Slowly the olive trees are being heavily pruned if not pollarded in some case. Objective is to cut back the majority of the growth since being pollarded so as to shape the trees. The two local lads that have been helping us have been getting stuck in. Initially too enthusiactically but with some guidance are now making great progress. We’ve also scheduled a local contractor to deal with the larger trees and hopefully we’ll only have one more area left to deal with next year. The grove looks very messy with the cut branches spread on the ground. These now get trimmed and laid in rows so when the tractor comes to cut the grass in May, the olives branches are effectively mulched and become a natural fertiliser for the land. Sustainable farming and nothing is wasted. It continues to be a steep learning curve but worth pursuing.

Look like carnage, but consistent with what you see elsewhere. Compact trees to facilitate harvesting. The trees were laden this year but totally inaccessible. Some still have fruit on them.

We are also getting lots of ‘brownie points’ with the locals who can see we are committed to improving the land – many of these olive trees have not been pruned in 10 years! And the next woodpile is starting to grow. This season all our firewood has been sourced from our land.

In the main veg patch we’re still not turning the soil but need to create more formal demarked growing beds. Had thought of buying timber, but there may be an option to use timber that’s been ripped out of the house next to mill. They’re obviously redoing the floors. A discussion needed with the builders. The fava beans are knee high, we have broccoli ready for harvesting, the fennel is growing well and we should get a good crop of garlic come summer.

This year we’ll experiment with potatoes still keeping to a no dig principle. What we’ll trial is surface planting the potatoes into compost and heaping straw on the ground to keep the light off the tubers. Be interesting to see what the results are.

The nights over winter are single digits, if the skies are clear it can get down to 2C overnight. We’ve had a few light frosts, but the ground rarely freezes here. The exception was a very cold snap in 1984/85 when it got to -11C, the River Arno in Firenze froze and olive trees were seriously damaged. We see the impact of that in many of our trees, if the main truck is gone and the tree consists of 3-5 ‘stems’ this is a result of the 84/85 frost. Super interesting to learn the the history of the grove and our trees.

Inside activities

Work gets done inside when the weather is damp. So progress is being made on the third floor. The main bedroom walls have been repaired and painted. Decided to use the eco friendly acrylic roll-on plaster. Have learnt that this is only as good as the surface. But where we’ve done repairs and the finish is different it is great in equalising the texture. That and a thick coat of paint and we have a good surface for painting on. Might not be near a level 5 finish but suits the house’s style. Hallway in progress and then we’ve started on our bedroom.

As usual dealing with the electrical wiring becomes a nightmare. Downstairs between the lounge and the pool room there are a set of electronic two way switches as well as mercury soft touch switched. Probably all state of the art at the time but totally not compatible with LED lights. Next task is to trace which wires go where between the rooms and then redesign the circuits. Started making a diagram and ended up with too many ‘where does this wire go’ questions

Will need to spend a sunny day with the power down, extra cables and a multi meter to trace this mess.

The there are the ‘opportunities’. While creating a recess for the wall power point in the bedroom ended up going straight through the wall into the hallway. Can now fit a power point in the hall.

Then there are the conundrums. In the first floor hallway were two electrical boxes that ideally needed to be got rid of for the skirting boards. The first box was a live 24 v transformer which went to a three way fuse box. But there was nothing downstream of the fuse box. It’s as though this was the start of something never finished. Thankfully all this stuff is discoverable on the internet so you can work out what’s what. But nothing is straight forward. Just when to think you’ve seen it all yiou make the next discovery.

When the house was rewired they did go to town. In the bed rooms we have two power points; double light switches albeit that the second is at floor level; push button alarms; telephone points, co-ax points and a motion detection set-up; central heating thermostats on each floor. And confusingly laid out. Touch wood but to date have not broken any useful circuits yet.

The windows and doors on the ground floor are also being replaced with new hardwood frames and sashes all double glazed. Will look fantastic when done and help keep the house warm next winter. The existing windows and frames should come out whole so we’ve the basis for building some substantial cold frames that will be weather proof. Snail proof is another matter.

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