Lessons from a Tuscan garden
I recently returned from a week in Italy, visiting the in the tiny Tuscan hill town of . The occasion was a birthday celebration for my friend and colleague, .
The villa has a south-facing garden with an array of water features. Here鈥檚 what I learned about how water is handled in this home-style Tuscan garden:
鈥� More than one water feature sounds good. The villa鈥檚 outdoor area is not large. With patios and narrow walkways, it鈥檚 arranged more like a city space, than the country garden it is, overlooking an olive-treed valley.
Yet, tucked into one side are both a goldfish pond, where water is pumped up and falls from the mouth of a terra-cotta jar, and, right next to it, another small arching spigot that pours water into an old trough.
The different pitches in sound from those falling waters are tuneful from morning to night.
鈥� Big is not necessarily better. The goldfish pond, a raised pool, measures approximately 10 by 10, and perhaps three feet deep. In size and shape, it echoes the nearby vegetable garden plots. The water and the growing areas are compatible neighbors, without one dominating the other.
鈥� Fish protection can be beautiful. In the fish pool, a few inches below the water鈥檚 surface, lies a gridded metal table top whose legs rest on the bottom. It鈥檚 a perfect platform to support water plants such as (Cyperus isocladus) in pots, and the eight-inch-square openings give the goldfish protection from predators.
The fish can easily swim down below the metal top, but it would be awfully hard for a wily bird or other critter to balance on the grid work while trying to scoop up dinner. The metal is painted a light color, with no effort to disguise it, and the regularity of the square forms is a pleasing aspect of the pool.
鈥� Water does not have to occupy center stage to be effective. The fish pond is placed up against a side wall of the house. The sound of splashing, the flash of goldfish, and the reflecting glints of sunlight on the wall all draw you to the water from wherever you are in the garden.
And because the pool is hidden from the main axis of the villa, it becomes a daily discovery 鈥� you have to go see what鈥檚 happening.
鈥� You can repeat the look of water in other places. At the goldfish pool, the water spills from a pot turned on its side. Over by the patio area away from the pond, a similarly shaped terra-cotta pot is laid sideways on a wall. Nearby, trails over the edge of the wall, mimicking water.
The idea of duplicating the look and form of one waterfall using plants in another location is charming, and could be repeated throughout any garden, large or small.
Mary-Kate Mackey, co-author of 鈥淪unset鈥檚 Secret Gardens 鈥� 153 Design Tips from the Pros鈥� and contributor to the 鈥淪unset Western Garden Book,鈥� writes a monthly column for the Hartley Greenhouse and numerous articles for Fine Gardening, Sunset, and other magazines. She teaches at the University of Oregon鈥檚 School of Journalism & Communication. She writes about water in the garden for Diggin鈥� It.
Editor鈥檚 note: To read more by Mary-Kate, check our . Gardening articles on a variety of topics can be found at the Monitor鈥檚 main gardening page. Also see our . You may want to visit . Take part in and get answers to your gardening questions. If you join the group (it鈥檚 free), you can upload your garden photos and enter our next contest.
