I am back in Italy for a couple of months. I couldn’t wait to get to Casa Debbio to see how my growing garden survived the summer.
I arrived on a glorious sunny afternoon.

My geraniums are still doing well.

The garden beside the house is looking good. Some of the plants have grown very well.



The Chinese lanterns did particularly well.

The lavender is past its prime, but still looking and smelling divine.

I took some inside just before I left.

There are still a few tomatoes, strawberries and raspberries in the garden.

The plants at the back of the house didn’t do quite as well and the mufloni (wild goats) ringbarked a couple of trees and they will probably die. They didn’t eat the bark, just chewed it off and dropped it to the ground. Perhaps they don’t like cachi and magnolia trees and just wanted them dead.

The sun always hits Vergemoli just before it disappears behind the mountains.


That was yesterday. It rained last night and I woke to heavy mist which has remained for most of the day. It is another kind of beauty.

The lavender is sodden and drooping.

 
The Chinese lanterns are covered with raindrops.


My little bird enjoyed a bath.

 
The weeping cherry is thriving, although I think its lower branches may have been trimmed by the goats.

The wisteria growing on the fence at the entrance is doing well, but the ferns around it need a serious trim as they threaten to take over everything, including the Japanese maple hiding there.

Vergemoli appeared on and off during the day.


 

…the sun finally came out late this afternoon.




I am very keen to plant lots of fruit trees and dozens more dafodils for next spring and to watch the autumn unfold in the mountains.