Giardini di Pomona

Cisternino, Puglia, Italy. Sunday 02-September-2018.

An absolutely fascinating open day at the Pomona Gardens botanical conservancy with a huge collection of over 600 varieties of fig and a guided tour from the amazingly knowledgeable Paolo Belloni.

It started off with an exhibition of figs, of course, in the courtyard plus other produce.

A circle of hay bales with just some of the various varieties on display.

Quite the selection of black and green figs, cut open to show how different they were inside.

Also other fruits on display, a trough of quinces and some speciality apples.

These apples are not only red on the outside but also have red flesh.

Also nuts - hazelnut, walnut, almond, and pistachio of which more anon.

Chris started chatting to Paolo Belloni who then, Pied Piper-like, lead us on a tour acquiring more and more followers as we went. We started in an adjacent orchard with a collection of citrus fruits and some water lilies with water filtration properties.

Across the road into the main arboretum where we met and tasted a range of figs. I was amazed at how different a fig can taste.

We also encountered a pistachio tree. I've never seen a pistachio tree before although I did know they grow on trees.

Close up of the pistacchio.

The final tree was a Kaki, Japanese Persimmon, with a real story behind it.

"The rebirth of time" Kaki tree project 

On 9 August 1945 Nagasaki was bombed with an atomic bomb. It seemed that any living creatures were dead, however, under the rubble, it was noticed that some plants had survived including some kaki trees, although rather battered. One of these, very weakened, returned to good health after being treated of the botanist Masayuki Ebinuma. This tree belongs to the local variety of the area of ​​Nagasaki called "Tongo". 

From the fruits of this khaki tree, which survived the bombing, seeds were obtained.  So "the second generation kaki seedlings" were born. 

In 1994 Ebinuma started to entrust the small plants to the children visiting the city asking them to grow them to become symbols of peace. 

In August 1995, thanks to the contribution of the artist Tatsuo Miyajima was born the project "The rebirth of time" kakitreeproject.com.

Following Paolo in a silent meander through a lavender maze we arrived at the tree.

Persimmons on the tree.

After that we went up to yet more fig trees where Paolo was experimenting with a system of micro-terracing using small linear mounds filled with organic materials acting as both reservoir and water run-off control. An absolutely fascinating couple of hours.

A fitting final view, the Kaki tree and lavender maze:

Urban Gardening - Raised Beds

We commissioned our gardener to make us a raised bed out of some recycled hardwood lab bench tops we bought at an architectural salvage yard. However we completely failed to convey our requirements and what he built was nothing like the picture in our heads.

The wood had a variety of tap and sink holes. We intended that he cut a number of long thin planks that ran the full length. Instead he cut across to get the full width where he could. The result is a shorter, taller bed with a single-sheet slab side instead of a longer lower bed with more attractive planking sides. Ho-hum, it’s done now.

So we moved it out of sight down the side alley and planted potatoes in it.

Next it was a trip to Home Base to buy some substantial, commercially made, assemble-it-yourself beds. That took a lot of drilling and screwing together - thank goodness for the power screwdriver.

Mary wanted them to be moveable so that meant wheels and a base to support the lining. That meant more trips to Home Base and more sawing and drilling and screwing.

The result, although I say it myself, is two fine, sturdy and smooth moving beds. Mary loves to rearrange furniture (it’s a girl thing) so that suits her just fine.

Now they are all planted up with herbs and we just have to find names for them. I’m favouring Torvill and Dean.

Previous namings:
Compost bins: Tom, Dick and Harry, Gertrude, and “The Bin With No Name” 
Big shed: Jabba the Hut
Small pair of sheds: Arthur and Jackson

Urban horticulture - Potatoes in bags

As most years we have a couple of growing bags - one with toms and one with some kind of legume. This year peas, last year french beans, the year before runners.

This year we tried something different. Inspired by our neighbors example we grew potatoes.


Three growing bags of potatoes

Mary decided that they were looking a bit scruffy so, as part of the tidy-up before the BBQ, I decided to move one down the alley-way and harvest the other two.


Ready to harvest

I laid down a garden sheet and tipped two bags out so I could rummage through and extract the new potatoes.


Emptied out

And what I got was a pretty pathetic haul - small but perfectly formed.


The final haul

So the third bag is being more scrupulously watered and being given longer to come to fruition. Let's us see what that will yield in a couple of months time.

Another MMG-style four part day

Another quiet MMG*-style four part day on Sunday.

1. Trip to the local auction house to look for sideboards for the breakfast room and claret jugs.

2. Visit the RHS garden at Wisley to check out smelly perfumed roses for May's garden in Scotland.


RHS Wisley: smelling roses


RHS Wisley: Rosa Hot Chocolate 'Wekpaltez'


RHS Wisley: 200 year old bonsai

3. A picnic in NT Hatchlands Park followed by a whistle stop tour of the Gertrude Jekyll** garden. We will have to go back for a fuller inspection.


NT Hatchlands Park: picnic


NT Hatchlands Park: Gertrude Jekyll garden

4. Afternoon tea and cake in Farnham with the Aged P's.

5. A quiet supper of picnic leftovers and an early night.

* MMG = Mary Mitchell Galashan, aka "SWMBO", aka "her indoors"

** Update: 30-Jul-09. Post edited. Do not confuse Gertrude Jekyll (garden designer) with Gertrude Stein (American writer).

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe *

The weekend was mostly spent in the garden completing the installation of an irrigation system to keep the plants watered while we are on holiday. This means we will return to a blooming garden unlike last year when absences and hose-pipe bans meant the spring planting did not survive the summer and we had a load of dead and dessicated plants.

It is also a fine example of "constructive laziness". My thighs may ache from hours hopping about in the shrubbery like a frog but that now means no more watering! At the appointed hour the hissing of summer lawns will announce the timer unleashing a trickle of drippers all around the garden.



I also realised that we now have a "wabe": The grass plot around a sundial. It is called a "wabe" because it goes a long way before it, and a long way behind it, and a long way beyond it on each side. This sundial was my 50th birthday present from the family and lived on the patio at Avon Cottage. Now it is on the Wandsworth lawn I have a "wabe". So that's nice.

* "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll

Wandsworth Chainsaw Massacre

We got off lightly in Thursday's winds. One tree down and it was one we had wanted to remove as it was three quarters dead. Ours fell sideways and landed on the garages at the bottom of the garden. I was able to wrestle it back into the garden as it was only 8 in (23 cm) diameter. Next door's was three or four times that size and took out a lamppost in the street, they were lucky it fell sideways as well.



Nature has saved us the cost of a tree surgeon but it did leave us with the problem of disposal. As luck would have it we were going down to the cottage this week end to start the rubbish clear our - better to chuck it that move it - and so I brought the chainsaw up to London. Boys', big-cheesey-grin, kind of work.



The logs will go to Bob&Lynn next time we go down to the cottage.

Wallace and Grommit watched from the safety of the shrubbery.

Four beds in four nights (2)

Like the last "Four beds in four nights" it is a busy few days. Friday was work at home at Avon cottage and doing decorating on the Saturday. Then back up to London for a meal out Saturday night. This evening it is off to Oxford for May morning celebrations at 6 o'clock tomorrow morning and tomorrow afternoon off to Zurich for three days business trip.

Yesterday Asher finished off the gardening work Nikki began two weeks ago (see "Bodges, we don't need no stinking bodges"


Shed (now green), flower bed (now planted up)


Old rose beds (now turfed over) by Asher (pushing wheelbarrow)

Bodges, we don't need no stinking bodges

"Relaxing" and "Weekend" are two words not often found cheek by jowl in Mary's vocabulary and the Easter weekend was no exception. We took Thursday off work so we could get down to the cottage early avoiding the Easter weekend traffic jams.

Thursday afternoon was spent staining twenty floorboards in the garage and Friday was spent hauling them upstairs and nailing them in place in the loft. Doing which meant removing the rickety collection of planks, shelves, doors and bits of old furniture that had previously passed for temporary flooring. I didn't manage to fit all 20 in the day because I would insist on doing it neatly: there is a level of rough and ready craftsmanship below which I will not sink. I cannot bring myself to do a bodge job.

Saturday we had Nikki down for round two of the garden refurbishment started last year helped by Mary and local lad Asher. He and I sorted out the base of the summerhouse with some planks recycled from the loft and then proceeded to paint it green with the help of Nikki's kids Ben and Rowanna.

In the evening Bob&Lynne joined us for what was meant to be the first barbecue of the year but the rain put a damper on that so we dined indoors. We baked the meats and, instead of grilled vegetables, did some cous-cous at which Bob and I simultaneously said "Ah, the first cous-cous of spring".