Finally, finally, our plants are in the orto, or vegetable garden. We waited two weeks later than last year due to cold weather and are so happy we did. We have some friends who planted in April and now need to replant due to frost and a recent 0° night. In fact, we know several people whose fruit trees suffered a lot of damage and now won’t produce fruits like figs, apricots, cherries, etc. this year.
It’s hard to believe this small bunch of plants will populate Fernanda’s orto…
12 tomatoes (4 varieties); 12 red onions; 4 zucchini.
©Blogginginitaly.com
As you might recall, four of us, all novices, planted a vegetable garden last spring at our friend’s home in the country. And here’s a reminder of last year’s success!
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Having set the bar pretty high, and wanting similar results, some advice was sought (“offered”) from more skilled neighbors. It’s a funny thing about “orto rules”…there seem to be as many as there are vegetable gardeners. In addition, Italians who live in the country are known to have superstitions about doing things on certain days of the week – but we didn’t let that bother us.
First step was for Len and Loreno to count off the space needed for the tomato plants.
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Once measured, building of the cane structure commenced. There was some “debate” this year about teepee style (last year’s) vs. box style, but after much consideration, box style won.
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Looks like a tying lesson is going on here.
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Tomato plants were added, water troughs dug, and once completed, the perfectly aligned tomatoes looked like this.
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Then the onions and zucchini were planted in the rear of the garden where there are also garlic and artichoke plants, hardier plants which had been planted earlier in the season.
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After a very productive afternoon, Fernanda treated us to a delicious dinner and the day treated us to a beautiful sunset.
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When your daily view looks like this…
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how can you not want to plant your own orto?
Here’s to our orto trio, our hard-working contadini (farmers)…can’t wait to enjoy the fruits of your labor!
Loreno, Carlo and Len©Blogginginitaly.com
Ciao,
Judy
Blogging In Italy 
Looks absolutely 100% perfection!! Hopefully we’ll get to sample in September!! As usual looks like of events going on in Cortorna 💜
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The guys did a great job!
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I’m glad I picked the perfect depiction of you two as farmers. See you for the fall harvest!
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Who knew?
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Lovely to see you in that summery weather already !! I can just imagine how the fruits of your hard work will taste!!! Buen trabajo!!!
Complimenti!
Hilary
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The weather is a bit deceiving…it was warmer in April than now, but we had a glorious day to plant!
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So you really now are a farmiole!
Sent from my iPhone
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My kind of farming!
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