1105 Vegetable Garden

This is my first veggie garden and since the spring I have been growing tomatos, citriola, zucchini, melon, peppers, chillis and salad. I now know I should have planted some onions and other coloured peppers (only have green). I brought a really good veggie book in England before we went and it suggested splitting the garden into four and you rotate the crops because cirtain crops can't be planted in the same spot for four years. Tomotos like growing where they have grown before so the same place for them every year.

I have just planted cabbage and cauliflower and wanted to plant onions and broccoli and celery but the bit of ground I want to use have building things on it at the moment.

Have you got any local friends you can ask is the other thing. Thats what I tend to do because the books is good for general stuff but when it comes to timing and local bugs (problems) the local person is much better. I have three friends for this and generally always get completely different conflicting advice but it improves my italian and gives me something to talk about.......

Brilliant, thanks kirsten , your info is brilliant.....other peoples experiences ( even disasters ! ) are really helpful.

As I said most of our really near neighbours are only here for summer ..and tho' they offer lots of advise , they won't be here for advise on bugs etc !!!!

We have several who are here all year but like you , they confuse me as they all say different things...and I find that if I do what one advises, someone else will say it is all wrong !!!! :rolleyes:
still as you say ...good for the old Italian !!!!

Keep your tips coming ! :)

I managed to buy a brilliant book over here at a "remaindered" bookshop in a shopping centre... L'enciclopedia dell ORTO e degli alberi da frutto. It is excellent (even telling you what to do with you Zuccini ;) )It was €10

We can't even find a proper bookshop in San Vito dei Normnanni...and what is the type you mentioned...is it second-hand..think we'll have to look in one of the main cities when we get a chnace to go.....couldn't get it on-line could I ???
Thanks for the tip tho' I'll certainly look out for it......or could you scan the whole book in for me ;) !!!!!!!!!!! :rolleyes: That would keep you away from the feste !!!!! :eek:

They are normally a mal with sma auchan store and other shops, the bookshop is generally part of that, nope cant scan it, would die before I finished, am currently thinking about scanning my 30 year old copy of Percy Thrower's bible for you though... Be good.

What is City per ...is that name of book shop ?

Now I think about it , I noticed a load of books in the mall outside Emmezeta ( big store ) the other day...thanks for the tip...will plough my way thru' their
stuff and see what I can find...thanks for the tip . :)

Its the name of a shopping mall, they have lots of stores up here...

[QUOTE=GeorgeS]Its the name of a shopping mall, they have lots of stores up here...[/QUOTE]
Also known as Auchan and I think Conan is also part of the same group. However Conan doesn't do books.

Uggh Conan no read books, Conan wave sword and mutter in strange Austrian accent like diss.

Alex & Lyn
Just found a garden website with an Italian forum, may be useful to you.
[url]www.gardenweb.com[/url]
Scroll to the bottom, select forums, scroll down and you will find gardenweb europe this has a section on Italy (tried to do a direct link but failed)
hope it helps
Stribs

Hey that wine must have been good Steve, now, Xenaaaaahhhhhh.
Actually just been thinking about Arnie (stop it) there's a sweet gal in General who imports Italian wine to California, hope he doesn't find out, there could be trouble...

[QUOTE=alex and lyn]Brilliant, thanks kirsten , your info is brilliant.....other peoples experiences ( even disasters ! ) are really helpful.

As I said most of our really near neighbours are only here for summer ..and tho' they offer lots of advise , they won't be here for advise on bugs etc !!!!

We have several who are here all year but like you , they confuse me as they all say different things...and I find that if I do what one advises, someone else will say it is all wrong !!!! :rolleyes:
still as you say ...good for the old Italian !!!!

Keep your tips coming ! :)[/QUOTE]

Another tip. My husband is a very keen veggie gardener but says that his English books can only now be used as a guide as obvioulsy different here in Italy.
He is delighted with the book in Italian(but lots of pictures to help you) that gudes you through the year month by month.
Calendarion Lunare delle semine e dei lavori
Published by Demetra ISBN 88-440-2586-8
Even a website mentioned [url]www.giunti.it[/url]
Hope this helps as it is well worth getting hold of if you can. Also books in the same series for vines and olives. Got him the one on olives as well. It certainly helps to be able to confirm in print the advice the neighbours are giving you!
All the best with your plot. We planted ours last year within days of moving in in July and six weeks later started to harvest crops!

Thanks to David,Linda and Stribs ! will definately check out the books...and thanks to everyone for all the tips etc....gotta rush..just popped back from huge Ferragosta lunch, now off to Town Square to see traditional music and dancing...can't keep up with all this socialising !!! Birthday party tomorrow night ..........Mamma Mia !!!! Alex on sofa sleeping off wine from lunch !!!! :rolleyes:

I will be back ..........!!!! :D

[QUOTE=alex and lyn]Brilliant, thanks kirsten , your info is brilliant.....other peoples experiences ( even disasters ! ) are really helpful.

As I said most of our really near neighbours are only here for summer ..and tho' they offer lots of advise , they won't be here for advise on bugs etc !!!!

We have several who are here all year but like you , they confuse me as they all say different things...and I find that if I do what one advises, someone else will say it is all wrong !!!! [img]http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]
still as you say ...good for the old Italian !!!!

Keep your tips coming ! [img]http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif[/img][/QUOTE]

When I travelled in Italia, and needed information I always asked the same question of at least three people, then I went with the two that agreed. Sometimes I had to add more people when I got three different answers. It worked for me. I recently did research on Rheumatoid Arthritis, I had to read eight books to make some sense of it. In the medical field, etc. you talk about confusion; it is scarry. I would use this rule also for this forum.

If you see my reply re: Palm tree...I couldn't agree more about conflicting info from neighbours...makes for total confusion !!!! I don't know if there is a bit of rivalry here ( they all seem to get on !!) but they all seem quite determined that we follow THEIR advise and everyone else is wrong !!!!

Have ordered some books from Amazon and will continue to look for Italian books...and probably make my own mind up in the end by trial and error....at least I can afford to do that with veggies.....not too sure you can with the Medical Profession...bit scary that !!!!! :eek:

Hi Alex & Lyn

First off, what kind of veggie garden do you want, and how labour intensive can you get?

If you have a bit of money to spend, or labour to spare, you might consider the square foot gardening system - this is really gardening by numbers. You grow your veggies in raised beds, no digging required. Yields are consistently good and, with the introduction of a trickle feed system for watering, you have a very low labour garden once it is in place.

For winter you could start kale, cabbage, onion, broad beans, peas, cauliflower, broccoli, purple sprouting broccoli and hardy greens to either harvest over the winter or stand for an early start next spring.

we have a lot of ground to play with so rotation etc is no problem. I'm not sure about the raised beds yet, but may seriously consider them when we get a bit long in the tooth for too much hard graft.
We want to put in an irrigation system all over eventually , but will start with the winter veggie garden and hopefully get one in place for the spring for the tomatoes / peppers etc for next year.
It will be a lot of work to start with but once it is up and running should be great.

we seem to have so many projects at the moment !!! :rolleyes: One of our good neighbours was here this morning showing Alex how to prepare the Olive trees round their bases ( cleaning etc.) so we are trying to fit in a few trees a day doing that !!!! ( 50 trees to do !!! at least we're starting early !!!)
We are also trying to get some basic pathways done with a load of rubble we inherited ( recycling !!! :) ) , plant flowering rampicanti and now the veggie plot !!!!
At least at the moment we are really keen on all this especially as Alex has spent the last 35 years behind a desk in an Office !!!! ... :( So I'm sure we will get there eventually....good working day today as it is a lot cooler !!

well, upward and onward...please keep tips coming.....can't get enough info and advise .

Going to a party tonight ....have to fit in the social life as well !!!!!! ;)

It's a good job the post above isn't likely to make anybody smile, or it would have been removed by now, thank heavens it's only a blatant advert.......