The Italian Gardener

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Planning

Developing a garden where you can grow your own Italian ingredients is a most rewarding task. From the planning of the layout of your space through planting, nurturing, and harvesting, few pleasures can compare with eating and sharing your own fresh produce. One of the first decisions to make is between organic and conventional growing, or somewhere in between. If you garden is to be fully organic you must use certified organic seed (available from this website) and other materials such as soil, mulch etc, and not use chemical fertilisers, herbicides or pesticides. I chose the middle path, and use conventional seed, which gives a much broader choice, and otherwise grow organically, avoiding chemical products. It is not surprising that once you are in control of how your food is grown, you pay close attention to what goes on to it.

What you can achieve in your garden is determined mainly by the available sunlit space, the nature of your soil and availability of water, but even the smallest area or even pots on a balcony can be planted with herbs, cutting lettuce, chicory, rocket and endive. With larger areas it is worth taking some time considering what you would like to grow based on your needs for fresh eating and preserving and sharing. Part of your plan should include the provision of an area for composting so that you can make your own and work on increasing the fertility and organic content of your soil.

Generally, it is best to lay out your rows in a north-south direction so that the sun, rising in the east and setting in the west as it tends to do, can shine on the sides of rows minimising shading by taller crops such as corn.

What to grow

Crop rotation and companion planting

When to grow it