...using the logic of ecology

ecological garden design, Italy

Ecology has rarely featured very strongly in the design of Italian gardens, as the main emphasis has always been placed upon strong structure, symmetry and elegance in Italian garden design. Despite this, the roots of the authentic Italian garden have unknowingly displayed a surprising respect for the local landscape and native species within that landscape.
The suffering endured by the common people during the feudal social systems of the Renaissance period and the lack of food during the numerous wars, in particular the second World War, forced Italians to produce their own food. The introduction of the colonial system gave greedy landowners the right to receive 50% of farm produce in return for a house and some farmland. Olives were cultivated on the sunny slopes and their oil was used both for cooking and for skin treatments. The hay that grew between the olive trees was managed and collected to provide winter fodder for the animals, mainly sheep, and cows.
Essentially these grassy areas were wild flower meadows, providing a vital natural habitat for butterflies, glow worms and complicated ecosystems that provided natural predators for many garden pests. Closer to the house chickens would have been raised free-range, feeding on worms and beetle larvae that they found around the farmhouse. This would have kept populations of garden pests in check- without the need for pesticides.
Pig sties were always situated in the vicinity of the farmhouse and the pigs would have eaten the scraps from the kitchen, recycling almost everything edible within the farm. Pigs provided the early farmers with over 60 various products; from prosciutto which could be smoked and sausages made from the pig’s intestines. These would then both be preserved for the tough winters while the fat would have been used to make candles, soap. Virtually nothing was wasted from a pig’s body, showing an immense respect for the animal in my opinion.
The nearby woodland would have been well maintained by regular coppicing and thinning, providing timber for the farmhouses and prime firewood, which would have been stacked for long lengths of time, in order to season it. Even these stacks of firewood themselves would provide a superb winter shelter for natural predators, hedgehogs which are all vital in the Italian ecological garden. Woodland requires this kind of regular maintenance to prevent congestion and overcrowding, this would have benefitted the growth of woodland plants and, more importantly, edible fungi and mushrooms, so symbolic of Italian cuisine.
Vegetables would have been produced in a protected area, known as l’orto or vegetable garden. These orti would have provided the kitchen with everything it needed, from salad, onions and aromatic herbs to potatoes, tomatoes and courgettes’. The used straw and waste from the chickens, pigs and cows would have been returned to the soil in these orti, maintaining soil health and water retention qualities.

Basically, before the Italian garden designers developed the famous symmetrical Italian gardens, that stunned the world from the Renaissance to the modern day, the peasants and early farmers were already laying down the basis to the modern ecological Italian garden!