English conversation

[jp60]

Thank you for that Elena. Everything seems to change so fast that even the accountants don't always know (and sometimes they don't care) what we should do. It makes me angry when I read about what the politicians do and are never punished for and I worry because I've made 50€ extra!

Very pretty eggs, did you make them?

 

[elena_11293]

Yeah, it's quite crazy, Jo...

That's just a picture I found that reminded me of some of the Anglosaxon traditions for Easter, like the egg-hunt kids play Did you use to do that, too?
What I remember of my childhood is that on Easter Monday we used to go on a picnic in the country with a basket with what people usually eat here for Easter, hard boiled eggs, radicchio, asparagus, salami.. It was usually a lawn close to a river and if the weather was enough warm we would even swim.

Have serene and joyous days!!

 

[MelissaP]

Jo,
Your soil sounds similar to ours, which is a pottery-quality gray clay. I amend heavily with hay, and with compost when I can get it. The last couple of years I've been letting small herbaceous plants, including grass, grow in my beds, cutting it with shears if it gets too pushy, but otherwise letting it romp. My thinking is that this is mulch that grows in place. It protects the ground from drying out, and when it dies it becomes compost; also the roots loosen the ground while they're alive, and dying remain in the ground as organic amendment. I meanwhile haven't had to do anything. There's a line of thought that leaving the ground undisturbed after the original amendment allows the soil microlife to develop, bringing all sorts of benefits to the plants in the garden. So I'm experimenting with that.
Well....let me try to convert you to roses. Most people when they think of roses have mental images of Hybrid Teas, which are usually more or less tall, stiff, spare, angular plants with large leaves and large flowers, requiring annual hard pruning. But most roses aren't like that, though most roses aren't grown much either, unfortunately. There are varieties like the Gallicas, which make a low-growing thicket of stems rising straight out of the ground, and which have mostly bristles rather than thorns, and matte green leaves, and sticky scented buds, and glorious flowers, folded and veined and fragrant. They're extremely unlike the most commonly grown roses. Or Tea roses, from which the modern Hybrid Teas are descended. The Teas make great big leafy shrubs, with twiggy growth and small dark leaves that clothe the whole plant down to the ground. The flowers are the picture of elegance--the classic high-centered bloom form of the Hybrid Teas comes from their Tea ancestors--but the Tea roses are beautiful PLANTS, at once elegant and vigorous, and wonderfully thrifty plants to keep. "Noblesse oblige" describes Tea roses perfectly.
Melissa

 

[elena_11293]

I wish I knew more about roses, I can't tell which one is which.. But I do like them all

Melissa, only now did it occur to me that you have the name of a plant! That's nice

 

[Harma]

Thank you for the name of my rose Melissa,I will show more pictures when it's a little bit taller...I have a girlfriend who has a rose-garden,to see all the garden you need almost 2 hours,she has really beautiful and special roses,but anyhow I prefer to have a lot of different plants in my garden...And "meno male" not everyboby like the same thing..Last year I started to put a lot of "tappezzante" to cover the soil,that's a good system too.I have a verbena tappezzante very nice that's flowering all the summer and some geraniums,but they are so slowly...

Have a nice Easter everybody and a special thought for Belvedere!!!

 

[MelissaP]

Elena, I think it's nice too; thanks! One common English name for Melissa officinalis is "bee balm". The plant grows wild along the margins of our garden and I always enjoy it.
Harma, much as I love roses I couldn't grow them alone. Like you I have many different kinds of plants and enjoy them hugely.
Where's Luca? Has he realized he's created a monster (this thread) and run away in fright?
Happy Easter, everybody!
Melissa

 

[jp60]

Thanks for that Melissa, I promise I'll write down the names and keep an eye open for these roses. I think I'll have more luck when I return to GB than in our local garden centres.

In the UK we have the Easter bunny who visits children during the night and leaves them Easter eggs. We don't have a Befana after Christmas though. Easter egg hunts are popular now, but I don't remember having done any when I was small. I did create a 'tradition' for my family here though.

One year, when my children very small, we had a very rainy period around Easter and children indoors become bored very quickly! We went out and found some branches with catkins on them (you'll have to look catkins up on google!). Once back home we arranged the branches in a big vase and the children spent hours cutting out pictures from magazines and drawing pictures to decorate our Easter/spring tree. We added ribbons and even small toys such as rabbits. We don't do it now as my daughters are over 20, but we often remember our spring trees.

 

[Harma]

That's nice Jo....an Easter tree .Me too I never create a real Easter tradition,I only colored some eggs..This year I had a "lot" of zaffran so I'll colored them with that..Do you have crocus sativus in your garden?It's very nice and easy .Please continue to correct my mistakes please....
Bye.....have a nice day

 

[MelissaP]

We had Easter egg hunts in our yard when I was a child. We children boiled and dyed the eggs the evening before, then our father got up early Easter morning and hid them--we had a big yard, not very tidy, good for hiding eggs--plus a bought Easter basket with chocolate eggs in it, one for each child. We children had our hunt, then we went to church, at least for a good many years; then we had Easter dinner which always included deviled eggs, as it was about the only thing we knew to do with the hard-boiled eggs.
Now we don't do anything to celebrate Easter, and I don't consider it an improvement. Those are happy memories, though.
Jo,
You can find the once-blooming old roses I spoke of in the U.K., though all the rose classes I spoke of are more or less specialists' kinds. The Teas, not so likely. Though Tea roses are not strikingly tender plants (U.S. gardeners cultivate them successfully as far north as USDA Zone 6), they need summer heat to ripen their wood and so be able to survive a chilly winter. They were traditionally greenhouse plants in Great Britain, though possibly warmer temperatures there in recent decades may have made them a better bet for growing outdoors. Peter Beales has a serious collection of Teas. There's at least one Italian nursery with a good selection of Tea roses: S'Orrosa, in the neighborhood of Rome. I haven't purchased from them myself, but have seen their catalog and seem to recall hearing good things about them. My own Tea roses come from various sources: some from cuttings from plants originally from Peter Beales; some from the old nursery Walter Branchi; a few from La Campanella and from Schultheis in Germany; many from Le Roseraie du Désert in France, which since it was founded not too many years ago has been putting together a serious collection of warm climate roses. Some of my varieties come from other gardeners, and I may have a couple from Nino San Remo, but of that I'm not sure. I haven't been keeping up with the latest developments concerning Tea roses, and don't know what the offerings are in Italian nurseries. There was a period of a few years after Walter Branchi closed when Tea roses were hard to find in this country, but I believe they're becoming more widely available and better known.
My Tea roses took a serious beating (canker and root rot) during the very wet and cold winters of 2009-10 and 2010-11 and I got discouraged about them, but my interest is beginning to recover. I know I need to amend our soil better and also work on small-scale terracing, making flat spots for each rose with a slope below it. This both collects water during dry periods, and encourages drainage when it's wet. Also Tea roses hate being out in the wind, and unfortunately most of our garden is located in an open windy field. So I'm planting companion plants, shrubs, and trees, and in ten years may be seeing results. Gardening is not for the hasty. Tea roses love a wall at their backs, and my best Teas are the few close to the house, at the foot of the terraces. Most Tea roses when they're happy make big plants: 1,5-2 meters high and wide. They're frugal roses, happy with an armful of mulch annually and not much more, and they don't require hard pruning, and in fact suffer if cut back hard. And they are beautiful, both the plants and the flowers.
Melissa

 

[LucaXY]

Hello everybody,
I have been absent for a while, so I couldn't read all the posts.
For Easter we painted eggs, than we hid them and than just like the tradition we looked for them.
In this period of time roses are starting to blossom, but in the hills, where I am now, they are slightly late, so I didn't proon them so much (or anyway, I'm not a specialist, tell me if it's wrong).
During this Easter, the weather has been very unpredictable, it also hailed, which is very rare in this area.
My vegetable garden is almost abandoned since I don't spend much time here on the hills; there are only some trees remaining.
Talking about traditions, I've always been fathful to Pasquetta's lunch, in fact last year I've been in a place in the middle of nowhere, close to Italy's border with Slovenia, where not only we ate, but we also played soccer and we also saw historical monuments of the location. Unfortunately, this year, we limited outselves eating pizza.
I'm looking forward to see and work in my vegetable garden, in an other house. I'll keep you informed, maybe I'll even show you some pictures.

I enjoy seing you writing here and Melissa, don't worry, I won't vanish!

Happy Easter everybody!
Joieuse Paques a tout le monde! :hands13:
Frohe Ostern für alle! :ros:
Buona Pasqua!

 

[elena_11293]

Good to see you here, Luca
Out of curiousity: of which place in Friuli were you talking about? As you'll know, I live just in that region so maybe I know it (the hills in the Cividale's area, perhaps?)

For those who have never been here, here's a slideshow with some beautiful pictures, it's just from the school where I used to study English: http://www.keeptalking.it/kt/slideshows/kt-area.html

Enjoy your Easter... and also your 'pasquetta'!!

 

[LucaXY]

Hi Elena,

we live there just five months every year, we're between Latisana and Torviscosa, in the "Bassa Friulana" area, but I perfectly know Cividale, Cervignano... what else..
I really love that zone, full of green, birds... and I'm even glad that you've let me know you're living there.
What's the weather now? Is it a lovely day and warm? :froggie_r

 

[Harma]

Hello everybody,
I have been absent for a while, so I couldn't read all the posts.
For Easter we painted eggs, than we hid them and than just like the tradition we looked for them.
In this period of time roses are starting to blossom, but in the hills, where I am now, they are slightly late, so I didn't proon them so much (or anyway, I'm not a specialist, tell me if it's wrong).
During this Easter, the weather has been very unpredictable, it also hailed, which is very rare in this area.
My vegetable garden is almost abandoned since I don't spend much time here on the hills; there are only some trees remaining.
Talking about traditions, I've always been fathful to Pasquetta's lunch, in fact last year I've been in a place in the middle of nowhere, close to Italy's border with Slovenia, where not only we ate, but we also played soccer and we also saw historical monuments of the location. Unfortunately, this year, we limited outselves eating pizza.
I'm looking forward to see and work in my vegetable garden, in an other house. I'll keep you informed, maybe I'll even show you some pictures.

I enjoy seing you writing here and Melissa, don't worry, I won't vanish!

Happy Easter everybody!
Joieuse Paques a tout le monde! :hands13:
Frohe Ostern für alle! :ros:
Buona Pasqua!

and in Dutchrolijk Paasfeest..

 

[elena_11293]

Hi Elena,

we live there just five months every year, we're between Latisana and Torviscosa, in the "Bassa Friulana" area, but I perfectly know Cividale, Cervignano... what else..
I really love that zone, full of green, birds... and I'm even glad that you've let me know you're living there.
What's the weather now? Is it a lovely day and warm? :froggie_r

Of course I know also that area (I had thought of that around Cividale because you said hills near the Slovenian border..)

Today we had some sun, but it was cold (last night it was 0° again!).

Wherever you were, I hope you had a nice 'pasquetta'

 

[jp60]

Harma zafferano is saffron in English.

Well we had a rainy Sunday and a bright and sunny Monday. It is cold again and we even had a little frost last night! I hope my apricots won't be spoilt yet again.

Melissa I've heard of Peter Beales, I know that Graham Thomas is also highly considered, but perhaps these are the roses you say aren't too good for the Italian climate.

Luca do you speak French and German? I've been looking on Youtube at learning German, but I'm a bit too lazy! Perhaps I'll just learn a few useful words.

 

[Diletta]

ele, my daughter Viola said "wow!" to your video!!

 

[elena_11293]

ele, my daughter Viola said "wow!" to your video!!

Hi Which video? (sorry, I can't remember now.. but I'm glad if she enjoyed something )

(wait... perhaps you mean the slideshow of pictures of landscapes in Friuli Venezia Giulia?)

 

[LucaXY]

@Jp60*
I'm still working hard to learn English well, but my aunt teachs German in Switzerland, so she usually tells me something about it, for example some easy sentences as "Ich heisse Luca und lebe in Italien".
You know, to be a "perfect" person that lives in Switzerland you MUST know all three languages that are spoken in each location: Italian, French and German.
My aunt lives near Geneve, so she either perfectly know French, and by listening them speaking I'm practicing to speak French too.
I've even studied French at middle school, beginning from easy sentences as "Je m'appelle Luca et je vis en Italie"; than some more difficoult.
To be honest, it's not too long learning French, less than German, of course!
But I'm not already able to have a serious speech, grammaticly correct in those languages.

Here's a windy day, cold, cloudy and even rainy. It's 8 degrees.
I wish tomorrow it's going to be better.
Yesterday we had a nice journey here in these areas.

@Diletta: is that link in your signature the same of Elena's one? Sorry, I'm connecting with my phone... so I can't check it :storto:

Have a nice monday afternoon you all guys

 

[Harma]

This morning I knocked down a squirrel....Omg,I felt so sorry.When you live in the country you really have to drive always very slowly especially in the dark...Here are a lot of rabbits,"caprioli",wild boars and that animal with the long thorns,I don't remember the name....How is the situation where you live?? It can be really dangerous....I remember in America there are always a lot of incidents on the high-road because of the "caprioli"....The natural system is completely gone,the poor animals don't know anymore where to go

 

[MelissaP]

Jo,
The Peter Beales nursery has a very large collection of rare and old roses. Some of them will be suited to Italy, some not. Graham Thomas was a famous gardener and rosarian who had an important part in collecting, cataloging, and popularizing the at that time largely neglected and forgotten old roses in the middle of the 20th century. His 'The Graham Stuart Thomas Rose Book' is still an inspiring introduction to old and species roses. David Austin, the rose breeder who hybridized the group of roses he named 'English Roses', named one of his first great roses 'Graham Thomas'. It is a most beautiful yellow rose, shrubby, fragrant, and reblooming, but too thirsty for my garden. There are a lot of wonderful English roses (also called David Austin roses), but those I've tried in my garden haven't taken kindly to the summer drought, the wind, the blazing sun, the excessively heavy soil, and I've given up on almost all of them. Also I have protective instincts toward the once-blooming roses, which, however beautiful, interesting, and gardenworthy they may be, don't produce flowers month after month, and so nobody wants them. So I put them in my garden to prevent them disappearing off the face of the earth. Somebody needs to be preserving these roses.
Harma,
We have a large, destructive wild boar population; hares (no rabbits that I've ever seen), and are now beginning to see roe deer (caprioli), to my dismay as I've heard what damage they can do to a garden. Actually, in our part of the northern Apennines, wild animals are enlarging their territories. Wolves are returning, and about time: we need predators. People have been moving out of the mountains and hills since the end of WWII, and as they've left the animals have moved in. With the current budget situation and the new IMU, I think that the exodus will only accelerate. I don't know how it is in the mountains and in the hills in the area where you live, but a good portion of the communities in those parts of the province of Piacenza are in difficulty. We live only five miles from a good sized town, but it's still hard at times, and I can thoroughly understand why anyone who has to work in town or who has school-age children wouldn't want to live here.
Melissa