Gardening
SPRING 2020
The works in the Botanical Garden are proceeding intensively, in view of the reopening in June. Pruning the hedges, mowing the lawn, manual weeding of the weeds in the flower beds, arranging the paths in the Grove are the main activities of our three gardeners.
In the gallery of images some photographs taken during their work, in a colorful garden, with the musical background of the songs of the many birds that in this period also use it for nesting, and in the company of the animals that live there.
To go into detail on the activities and news that you will find at the reopening, our gardeners have provided us with a list of their main activities.
The plants housed in the Tropical and Multiplication greenhouses must be watered regularly, every two days (every day with increasing seasonal temperatures), and periodically fertilized.
Especially plants housed in greenhouses must be subjected to periodic checks for pathogens and parasites.
The lawn of the Garden is cut every 10-15 days, to maintain its compactness and the bright green that characterize it. From the month of May this demanding work has to be carried out once a week.
Roads and paths are cleared of leaves and branches every day. This maintenance also concerns the Grove, where the fall of branches is more abundant, given the large number of tree specimens housed.
The capsules - containing the precious seeds that will be used for the multiplication of the specimens - of the species of Orchids of the tropical greenhouse are collected monthly.
Manual weeding of flower beds (in the Botanical Garden no chemical herbicides are used!) Is a continuous and demanding job, which involves all the flower beds in the garden in turn. For now, the flower beds of the Peonies, the Alpineto, and some systematic flower beds of the garden have been involved.
In the month of March, treatments began on the plants and hedges of Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens), which like almost all cultivated specimens and natural populations of this species are infested by an invasive exotic insect species from Asia, the borer of boxwood (Cydalima perspectalis). the treatment is obviously carried out with a biological control method, with the use of Bacillus thuringiensis (a bacterium that releases toxins that poison the larvae of some insects).
The climbing species of Passiflora and Clematis have been provided with new supports, at no cost: the Bamboo canes taken from the Boschetto.
In April the South African Greenhouse underwent a more thorough rearrangement and cleaning. Succulents have also received watering and fertilizing.
The pots of the aquatic plants and the pots that had spent the winter in the multiplication greenhouse could be replaced outdoors.
The "HBT" hedge that welcomes the entrance has been pruned with the beautiful result that you can see in the image gallery.
Work has also begun to improve the Tropical greenhouse, with a new lighting and ventilation system and the laying of shading sheets.
In May the synergic garden was enriched with the planting of tomato plants.