Frank and Me

At last we have a plough! Well I should call it by it's correct name a motor hoe, a plough would be too large to manoeuvre up and down our steep terraces. In Italian it's called a moto-zappa, so we decided to call it Frank, after the famous 70's rock-star Frank Moto... (Frank is the one fetchingly dressed in black and red). Tried him out today and what a difference! Dug over 2 large beds, that easily would have taken me 3 days to dig over by hand. First dug over a hard clayey bed and it went like butter through a hot knife. Curiously, I had enriched this particular terrace with some of our own compost. Now, I have been trying to grow melons from seed indoors without success. I have sown some seeds out outdoors and no ressult so far either. But at some stage last year we must have been eating melons and thrown the seeds on the compost and they have now come up! Well I let them if they are happy and carefully hoed around them. The other bed I dug over was the last of the broad beans which we harvested today in readiness for some cabbages to plant out soon.

Susan's brother is over this week, but the weather has been really wet and changeable until today. A real shame for them. Just a note to a couple of questions I have received concerning the last entry. I did spray the vines, potatoes, some of the fruit and tomatoes with Bordeaux Mixture. This is one of the oldest anti-fungal sprays known to agriculture and consists of a blend of copper sulphate and lime. Both are naturally occurring substances which are perfectly allowable even in organic farming, although used excessively may poison the soil. One of it's main features is that it clings to the plant even in wet weather, therefore protects them when they are most vulnerable to fungal attact. Last year I did not spray my early tomatoes and lost

most of the during late spring rainfalls. If spraying immediately before rain, dosages should be increased, however last week we may have escaped the worst of the rain.

more spraying

There you go, as you can see, weather was permitting (although note the dark clouds gathering overhead…) and we spent a few hours up at Villa, watering the newly planted vines (23 of the 25 have definitely survived, and the two that haven’t have been damaged by some careless passing animal), strimming back a load of weeds and spraying the vines, apple and pear trees and the potatoes with Bordeaux mixture before the heavens opened. On the way back we stopped in the village of Tresana. We had long looked at something just off the road there, which looked very much like a fish farm, so I thought let’s check it out. And lo and behold, it is a fish farm mainly stocked with trout. I love fresh trout and Susan’s brother and family are coming for a holiday over here this weekend, so I asked them to put 5 fish aside for me on Saturday for a welcome dinner. Mmmh, can’t wait.

Time to spray

The weather the last few days has cooled down a bit and we had a few spits of rain. However, the forecast had been for torrential rain and storms, which have not materialized. We had let off on the watering routine a bit, only to see the ground slightly dampened. Most of the rain seems to have come down further south, only just skirting southern Liguria and northern Tuscany. At the weekend we sowed out some basil and melons outdoors (the melons I sowed indoors haven’t come) and some broccoli and some asparagus indoors. Today in full expectation of the rains we went to Arcola just to pick some peas and broad beans for dinner and found we needed to water! While we were there we decided to spray the vines, some of the fruit trees and some of the veg (toms and aubergines) with Bordeaux Mixture against fungal infections. In our shed we found an antique metal contraption you carry on your back and move a lever about to spray the blue liquid onto your target. Before that we planted a few tomato and aubergine plants out as well.

I have by the way found out in the meantime what is wrong with my peach and apricot trees. It’s peach leaf curl, which is a common fungal disease. Unfortunately I’m too late to do anything about it this year. All I can do is water and feed them well, so they survive this year’s attack. In November (remind me of this) I will then have to spray thoroughly with Bordeaux mixture, which should sort the problem. James, I know you’ve got a problem with your’s in Casola as well, so I could spray it then as well if you want.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, we’ll be off to Villa, beating back the weeds which are already knee high and spray the vines there. Did I mention the exciting wildlife on the plot in Villa? The other day I surprised two snakes in a bit of a naughty act, quite literally snaking around each other, standing up with the front third of their bodies. They were so busy they did not pay me any attention whatsoever, even though I stood barely 6 feet away from them. The trouble was they were in front of the water barrel I tried to get to, so after a few minutes I threw a stick at them so they’d disperse. I’m told there’s only one venomous snake in Italy, the viper, and their bodies are apparently not strong enough to stand up in the grass. Still, best to move carefully.