create an italian vegetable garden

The vegetable garden often causes one to think of images of scruffy areas of wasteland under freeway bridges or by the side of railway tracks etc.The vegetable garden can also often find itself in an area of a garden that nobody else really wants- a sort of No-mans land between garden and rubbish-tip.

Luckily, here in Italy the vegetable garden has a far more important and social role in the community. Italian wives need vegetables, lots of vegetables to create wonderful dishes straight from the garden! Italian men, on the other hand, need space, lots of space from their rather intense, Catholic wives. This combination of social comets, both flying in totally different directions, coupled together with a few Wars, Papal rules and a social revolution here and there means that Italians now . GROW THEIR OWN- and really rather well!!

As a garden designer I have to study social requirements, coupled with social changes, with regards to horticulture and provide a service that is just as in tune with its environment as with its place in time. I believe that the need for organic vegetables in our modern society has to be addressed. We now insist on organic vegetables and by using intelligent garden design we can supply our dining tables with vegetables all year round , simply by basing our garden designs around the formal Italian vegetable garden.

By using the very same techniques that were once used in designing infamous formal Italian gardens such as Villa Lante near Rome or Boboli in Florence it is possible to design vegetable gardens that can make a striking feature in our gardens.

Many elegant building materials can be used to divide the soil of the vegetable border and prevent it from falling onto the pathways and this will also help highlight any formality in the design.

If we choose to plant hedges along these formal lines, we can choose from boxwood or yew, to rosemary or lavender. However, hedges, beautiful as they are, require maintenance and that word is almost a swear-word in the ecologica garden!

This particular garden was transformed from a building site into a lush vegetable garden in just one short winter, thats a few months, using the ecologica system. This system uses the logic of ecology and old Italian agricultural practises coupled with a general understanding of lunar cycles to provide both beauty and flavour in the garden, and the results speak for themselves from the visual impact to the table! Vegetable plants can be purchased using coins, as opposed to notes, as theyre not expensive. In fact the installation of a formal Italian vegetable garden can save up to 50% on initial installation!

by Jonathan Radford ww.ecologicagardens.com
CONTACT ECOLOGICA HERE TO INSTALL AN AUTHENTIC, ORGANIC FORMAL ITALIAN VEGETABLE GARDEN