The Italian Gardener

Great and ancient cities have two important things or institutions in common: fine symphony orchestras and beautiful botanical gardens. Both symphonies and gardens are rooted in history, culture, and the rhythmic life of the cities from which they evolved.   …

When mankind discovered that seeds fed him and his family, and also could be saved to insure another year of planting and survival, he achieved a great step forward for us all. All peoples save seeds, and without them we …

I have long imagined since childhood that the garden and all of its living creatures—plants and animals—is a place where the elements of earth, air, water, and fire are transformed, distilled into the gifts of life. And certainly, photosynthesis, among …

In the distant past, Laurel or bay trees covered most of Europe in deep forests. Then the last ice age wiped most of them out, and today there are only a few natural stands off the coast of North Africa …

Olive trees are the most often cited trees in western literature as evidenced by Lawrence Durrell’s poetic comment, “A taste older than meat, older than wine.” This statement places olives almost at the level of bread; as the Italian say, …

After Goethe had escaped his heavy court duties at Weimar in Germany and passed through the Brenner into Italy, he saw his first lemons growing at Limone del Garda. He knew that he was in the land of beautiful plants …

Fennel, known in Italian as finocchio, is a plant of Mediterranean origin that gives us a piquancy for the kitchen and a graceful plant for our garden.   I love the Greek myth about how Prometheus stole fire from the …

The trees of our gardens do have their seasonal rituals. Right now the blood orange tree in my garden is celebrating Christmas and The New Year with its many golden-red orbicular ornaments of blood oranges.   That tree has a …

Palms hold a special place in my gardening experience. Perhaps this is because as a boy I helped my grandfather sprout and grow coconut palms in his backyard nursery in Miami. Also, the first time I saw palms in Palermo, …

There are trees that imbed themselves in our individual imagination as well as in the collective images of our minds. I feel this way about Vincent Van Gogh’s magnificent painting of cypresses. They are the essence and soul of ‘treeness”. …