Gardening in Rome

So, the other day I asked the woman who owns the house if I could start a small vegetable garden in one of the corners of the backyard. The response was great...of course! No problem, but you could just help my lazy husband fix his up...he has one in our yard that he hasn’t done anything with in years! She asks if I had done a garden before, I reassure her that I have, but haven’t in a few years.

The next day as I was getting ready to go out, we happen to see her husband, who asks me if I know anything about gardens and if I would like to see his. Of course...so down we go to his garden, which is at the bottom of a large hill next to the soccer (football!) pitch. Oh, and of course you have to pass the pit to burn dry garden trash. It hasn’t been tended to in years (he explains he has a back problem and cant work the garden), and has a rotting pile of "compost" next to it. Hmmmm....there are three areas that are separated by old bricks, with rocky soil clay-like soil. Weeds abound, almost choking out the artichoke, onions, garlic and fava bean plants that still exist. The discussion that followed was precious, and probably not replicable. He proceeds to ask if I know what I am doing, explains how the garden works (i.e. which plants are acceptable and where, and how to apply the compost, and which plants are boring -- strawberries and melon -- and where I can get acceptable seeds). I get a lecture on not planting "house spices" (i.e. basil, rosemary, sage, etc) in the actual garden, but near the kitchen for easy access. Basically, I am allowed to clean up his garden and maintain it for him, maybe adding salad greens and definitely adding tomatoes (only if he approves of the seeds). To assist, he walked me around to all of the hiding spots for his gardening tools. Apparently, he likes to keep them out in plain view, but his wife puts them away. Too much information on the status of this relationship! Wow....much more complicated in ways I didnt expect (I was expecting pests and bugs, no composte, etc) but the space is better than our back yard so I thought we should give it a try. I agreed to start working on the garden (to this I was reminded that the growing season here is much different than in the US, and come March I am already too late!).

So, today was one of the first sunny days (better said, sunny mornings...raining this afternoon) since this discussion. The kids and I went out to the garden to assess the situation and see how much work it is really going to be. I started with the artichoke side, getting rid of all of the weeds that I could by hand, turning the compost pile a bit, and loosening the dirt around the artichoke plants and the area for the potential salad greens. I added some of the better looking compost for kicks! The kids were excited at first, pulling weeds with me, sword fighting with the bamboo posts for the tomatoes, exploring the old shed, but quickly got tired and bored. It was a fun morning, ending in dirty hands, muddy pants and a huge hunger that we fed with BLTs (without the L and T for Izzy)!

More to come on the progress of this garden...it will be a miracle if anything grows!! Any advise on growing and tending artichokes, onion and fava beans welcome!