9422 food

I don't, but I have a nice Italian guy looking after our garden, and at the moment he is growing fave, piselli, latuga, fennel, pomodori by the million, patate, barabatiole, cipoli, radish, prezzemola, cetrioli, celery, pepperoncino, bell peppers, aubergine, zuccini, artichoke, and melone - not all yet at the eating stage. Excuse the spellings and mix up of Italian and English, but I have yet to learn the Italian names for everything.

We also have rosemary, bay, basilico, plum, peach, apple, pear, orange, manderine, lemon, chestnut, almond, sharron fruit, and pomegranite trees, and I have just started off an avocado stone.

I have asked Antonio for avocado trees, and asparagus, but he says it is too late now, and I have to wait until the end of the year to plant them.

Think that's the lot, if I find any I have missed on my walk around the garden I will add them later.

We do. Have peas, broad beans, garlic, onions, French beans, green beans, potatoes, lettuces & chicory all growing in the soil at the moment. Will be ready soon and are picking our broad beans and lettuces right now. In our plastic green houses (home made from bits of wood & branches) we have tomatoes (147), peppers, chilli, aubergine, courgettes, pumpkin, melon, cucumber, peas, mange tout, carrots, parsnips, swede, cabbages, celery and more salad of every type. All these must remain undercover within plastic till middle of May when the weather stabilises and we have a warm day & night. So my local farmers tell me.
Getting the right planting times are very important here and we watch what everyone else is planting and when. If you do something wrong they come and shake there heads in dismay.
We have recently put up a makeshift compost bin from chicken wire and cardboard and this was laughed at. Though we are going to give it a go. It may be a no no and attract flies & mossies to or from the caravan. Who knows? That's the exciting part finding out. It's a learning curve.
S&P

Green with envy....:wideeyed:

You sound like you both have some wonderful growing...

Is the produce just for you or du share it in the village that u live in?

[quote=Glen in Italy;88395]
Is the produce just for you or du share it in the village that u live in?[/quote]
Just for us, but the gardener takes some for his family too, otherwise there would be far too much.

For Margaret M -- we started the avocado stones in tall glasses of water, until they had sprouted the second set of leaves -- then transplanted into a sheltered corner (walls on 2 sides, plenty of water & sun) -- they have survived the winter now and will be transplanted again in the autumn to give them more room. They should fruit in about 4-5 years -- only problem is you need both male & female, and we can't "sex" ours yet (turning them upside down & parting the fur doesn't quite work!). In bocca al lupo with yours. P

Thanks P. Give me a call when you are passing, it's ages since we saw you. We're just down the road from Lidl (which seems to have become the new GS), so not that far out of the way. The "big hole in the ground" is progressing nicely, so we will be having a christening party soon. Hope you can make it.

So anyway, back to the avocados. What you are saying is that I need to get a few more started, to be able to get both male and female from them. How do you tell which is which? When you started them off in glasses, did you put the glasses in the sun or the shade? Mine at the moment is on an outside window sill which gets the afternoon sun. Only been there a couple of days, so I could easily move it.

Anything else I can start of this way? Antonio has been grafting and starting off grape vines, but I want to show him I'm not completely thick myself.

MargaretM - Don't want to hijack the thread, I've pm'ed you.

Yes, it's just for us...the vicini...the friends...passing people and anyone who wants some really.
What happens is when you are putting in the seeds it all looks a very small amount, then you compensate for failure, then for think well we can always dry it, freeze it, sugo it, and end up with tons of stuff.
Our Italian friend and advisor came to inspect our wigwam green houses and hummed and hawed, but, I think he was secretly impressed. He brought with him a bottle of home made wine and we all sat on a plank of wood held up with bricks and drank from plastic cups, a little dusty, and watched the last rays of sun go down...then we wobbled home.
Sprat

AVOCADOS. I thought that they could only be grafted if you wanted to grow trees with fruit to eat. The seeds just produce lovely foliage?? Has anyone had fruit from a plant grown from a stone/pip?
To keep you entertained on the subject you may like to read Philosophy Made Simple by R. Hellenga. (A novel but details growing avocados in Texas)

We have had fruit grown from seedlings we started ourselves -- but it took 5 years in a greenhouse (no grafting) -- and to be a little more precise about the male/female thing, the flowers actually are both male and female on each tree, male one day and female the next (no laughing now) -- so you usually need more than one cultivar (they're labeled A and B) to get the best fertilization, and I will admit there were times I used the old Q-tip. See this link for a cultivar that we're using for Puglia --

[url=http://www.avocadotrees.com/discover.htm]Avocado Trees - Discover a New Avocado Variety[/url]

Just an aside - My parents grew quite a few in Glasgow from "seed" and they got so big that they were given to the Botanic Gardens

Growing avocado trees sounds very much like growing pawpaw trees. Actually, I think that pawpaw trees would do very well in most parts of Italy and it is an excellent fruit with great properties.

[quote=Mathematician;88605] See this link for a cultivar that we're using for Puglia --

[url=http://www.avocadotrees.com/discover.htm]Avocado Trees - Discover a New Avocado Variety[/url][/quote]Did you buy it in the States and bring it over, or get it here?

Brought it over wrapped in damp paper towels inside a paper toweling cardboard roll, having had it fumigated first by a USDA-licensed tree & plant exporter -- I carried its "papers" with me (kind of like a pet passport), in case anyone at the Italian end wanted proof of species, proof of non-invasive pest, etc., but they couldn't have cared less! We'll see how they grow, I'm really excited about having organic avocado for eating/for sale. Who knows, if I can get it to take off, I'd be happy to sell trees/graft cuttings as well. P

Can you keep one of the first ones for me please.