Gardening In Italy For Beginners
(and those who should know better) Lesson One — The Soil

Soil! It sounds an innocent enough word, doesn’t it? It’s a substance that most people take for granted, referring to it as earth, dirt or, when wet, mud. If, however, you are serious about becoming a gardener you will need to learn its properties and its dangers, for soil is the most important constituent of your garden and should never, ever be taken for granted.

Soil comes in various types and what follows is a beginners guide to the more common of them:-

CLAY SOIL

This is found in the majority of Italian gardens and you will undoubtedly have some on your own plot. If you have — hard luck! The condition of clay soil changes through the seasons. In the winter it is dark, wet and cold and will cling tenaciously to your spade in large and extreme heavy lumps. In the summertime it is dark, dry and solid and will slide around on your spade in large and extremely heavy lumps. Therefore the main thing to remember about clay soil is that it has a very adverse effect on garden spades and on gardener’s backs.

IMPROVING CLAY SOIL

This can only be achieved by constant cultivation and by digging into the soil staggering amounts of organic material such as peat, compost or farmyard manure. If you do this every time you dig your plot the soil condition will gradually improve: so much so that in forty or fifty years you will notice a marked easing of your back problems.

SANDY SOIL

This is more rare than clay soil and, though it is lighter and easier to work, it is very difficult to cultivate to any great depth. It is useless to use a fork when working on sandy soil as it will slip straight through the tines. It also has the disconcerting property of appearing much the same after digging as it did before you started to toil over it, thus minimising job satisfaction and, in a lot of cases, job motivation as well.

IMPROVING SANDY SOIL

This can only be achieved by constant cultivation and by digging into the soil incredible amounts of organic material such as peat, compost or farmyard manure. If you do this every time you dig your plot the soil will gradually improve: so much so that in forty or fifty years you will become aware of a marked worsening of your back problems.

STONY SOIL

Once again this is very common and will be found on most plots — especially Italian building plots. Every year accumulations of stones and bigger-than-average boulders appear in gardens all over the country. It seems not to matter how often the same piece of land had been cultivated for, with each new season, another crop of mixed masonry will claw its way to the surface or, what is even more irritating, will appear just at the depth of your spade. It’s no use pretending that you didn’t hear the "clunk" when you made contact. Your gardening conscience will not allow you to rest until you pulled another back muscle or torn another fingernail in the struggle to excavate the intruder. (If your conscience does allow you to ignore it then you should give up gardening and take up an alternative and devious occupation like building consultancy instead.)

The next problem associated with stony soil is that of disposal. What to do with the offending material once you have removed it from the earth? Your average refuse disposal operative (once known as a dustman) is understandably reluctant to uplift enormous repositories of rampant rubble. Indeed, as all waste material has to be confined within plastic bags in these health conscious times and given that the number of boulders that can be successfully lifted in a fragile council-issue bag is minimal, the idea is hardly a practical one. It is for this reason that you will find, in every Italian garden, at least one secret corner where nothing grows but stones and pebbles. It may be hidden behind a potting shed, concealed beneath a cotoneaster or disguised as a rockery — but it will be there. Some gardeners have been known to turn their surplus quarryings into garden features and have built dry-stone walls, patios and cobbled paths with them. One artistic chap in San Pietro constructed a life-size statue of Nick Jackman using boulders, fallen branches and old car tyres — and it cost him nothing but the forestale fine.

IMPROVING STONY SOIL

As we have already said, stony soil is stony forever. You will either have to live and toil with it, grass it over or turn it into an adventure theme park.

LOAMY SOIL

This is a very rare soil type which some disgruntled gardeners maintain is the stuff of legend. It is relatively easy to find it in books and magazines on gardening but seldom, if ever, in gardens. The fables speak of this soil type as being extremely fertile and easy to work, a tale which the sceptics often cite feeling that it goes a long way towards proving their premise. When found at all loam invariably turns up in those plots owned by the neighbours of really dedicated gardeners. This is known as sod’s law. (Sod in this instance is a reference to the offending loamy soil — not the neighbour. Though I suppose that depends on the neighbour.)

So much for soil types. So much for the good news. But there is another hazard and source of much toil and danger which lurks, unseen, within the soil itself.

 

 

SOIL ERRATICS

Erratic is a word used by geologists to describe something that is not in its correct place, or what would be its correct place in a geologically ideal world: a sort of odd-slab-out. A chunk of sandstone sitting comfortably on top of a limestone outcrop is a good example.

Garden erratics come in many differing sizes and guises and every garden will have its own unique type. The writer’s own plot provides a regular harvest of blue plastic fertiliser-bag fragments and shards of Cortona pottery. Other gardens are endowed with erratics as diverse as broken wine bottles, tobacco tins, bent teaspoons and, in rare instances, ladies knickers. (These are known by covetous collectors as "erotic erratics.")

All erratics have two things in common. The first is their total worthlessness. (It should be made clear than a glittering pile of gold sovereigns does not fall within the erratic category. Instead it will be classed as treasure trove and undoubtedly will be confiscated by the government "Dept. of Customs and Excise and Daylight Robbery." They have not, to my knowledge, seen fit to appropriate caches of tobacco tins.)

The second quality possessed by all erratics is their nuisance value. They are either sharp — to facilitate injury — or will be long and tough (wire is a commonly found erratic in country areas.) This means that when your spade or garden fork becomes ensnared by whatever malevolent force has been lying in wait for its opportunity and you struggle to free your implement from its evil grip, you will see the earth tremble and quake up to a distance of fifteen feet away, usually beneath a much-loved or rare shrub.

So now you know all you need about the horrors in store. The more timid (sensible) among you will already have decided to take up model cinghiale hunting or karate but, for the remainder — those of you constructed of sterner stuff, you of the stout hearts and the sturdy thighs — yes, you. For you lessons two and three in this guide through the dangers and pitfalls of gardening will concern itself with digging.

But only if you really feel up to it……