Dearest Hive Gardeners!

I've been absent from the Hive Garden community, though in the garden intensively, due to a huge shock in losing Sergio, the man whose garden I use as my own...

His death was unexpected, though he had suffered from extreme anxiety and high blood pressure for years. He had been additionally very concerned that his work had coerced him to take the jibjab (commonly referred to as 'vaccine', but which is nothing of the sort): he had an empty aiorta when they were trying to operate on him, which is consistent with the massive artery filling with the fleshy substance that is being created by those who've been jabbed...

Suffice to say, we were all devastated; he leaves behind a distraught family and a young daughter. He was 53 years old.

I had a complex relationship with Sergio when I first came to Italy and to Guardia Sanframondi; he was abusive in myriad ways, and I was vulnerable and neurotic in a new country... but over the years we found our common ground, and he was happy with my using the garden as my own, and keeping the jungle at bay...

So being in the garden the past month or two was intense: memories spiralling upwards and outwards, lots of feeling, crying, letting go. Below is me and my partner Vittorio, making a brindisi to Sergio in the garden, after his beautiful very-well-attended funeral.

Then, methodically and intuitively, finding a new relationship with the garden - in the mystery of Sergio not being an 'owner' of the land, and the possibility that his vision might live on...

I've been very occupied now with helping the flowers proliferate: Sergio never had any flowers, apart from the chaotic jasmine hedge that I cut back aggressively in the autumn... Now there are tons of calendula/ marigolds, irises, rosemary and borage flowers, all of which I've planted, taken from wild places nearby - or just allowed to 'invade' as a gift from Gaia!

It's a joy to see the bees and hoverflies go wild all over these blooms this month; life just celebrating life.

The beds are benefiting from my having poured mulch onto them: all that Vittorio and I have trimmed from the olive trees in particular: it starts off kind of messy, but over time, the leaves all fall down in between the twigs, larger twigs or branches can be removed, and the layers settle into a protective layer over the soil evolving below. The gardens had VERY minimal soil across them, as they were reconstructed when Sergio first bought his house - it was literally rubble with no topsoil!

I invested in a few small plants to add between the ones that was grown improvisedly: this is a self-seeded bietole or chard-like spinach, next to a planted lavender. And next to that, illustrated below, are two leeks/ oniony things which seemed to grow up by themselves - what a boon!

Below is an example of the leafy parts of the epic-pruning-of-the-olives, being used to mulch some seed beds which are made out of old suitcases: the olive twigs make it all look a bit more civilised, between planting seasons. And the mulch layers keep the soil whole and hearty - they won't lose moisture or get dried out and leached of nutriment, if they're covered like this. We also cut down the big travi or beams - old wood from the house - which Sergio had used to block in areas of the garden - we've been opening it all up and simplifying the space hugely.

The bietole/ chard continue to evolve and thrive: these were a delicate spinach that I planted last year - seeds donated in gift - but they seemed to develop into much stronger leaves the next year. Now they're more like the indigenous bietole plants.

This is another wild-plant-visiting-the-garden: I think a type of Chenopodium - I step around it as I enter the garden.

The flowering piante grasse or succulents, which Sergio planted: they are huge, and don't often flower - so it's beautiful to see them having bloomed two seasons in a row.

My favourite herb! Coriander is notoriously hard to grow here - it faltered to begin with last spring, and limped through the summer, but then came into its own this WINTER, and has put out new leaves in the last couple of months: SUCH a joy, as I cannot find any coriander leaf bar in Rome - a little too far from me to merit travelling to augment my curries!

A nice wee patch of all-together plants - marigold, borage, wall flowers, and some trefoglio or sorrel-y type of thing.

The greens are flourishing after a rainy spell following a very very long dry spell.

And a final flower for Sergio: a rose from my own mini street-garden-below-my-house. It is heavily perfumed and amazing to watch unfold over a couple of weeks since I picked it - opening ever so slowly and perfectly.

... then this morning, I saw its petals dropped onto the red bedsheets, which I salvaged from Sergio's house...

Much love to you all, in everything that you are growing,

Blessings and hugs,

www.claregaiasophia.com