About
About us: I am Alberto, a garden addicted since I was a child, I’m a big fan of Piet Oudolf and I’m definitely on the ride of the so called ‘Dutch Wave’. Grasses and perennials are my obsession now but I had my hydrangea period, the old roses period, the clematis period, the botanical roses period, the blue… Nope! The Blue period is not mine! I live with Alessandro, who likes gardening as much as me but he is more interessed on trees and hardscape. The work of we both is essential to create the garden you will find in this blog.
About the house: we bought the house in 2010 and as it seems it’s cool to give it a name we call it Cà Rossa, which means Red Cottage. The architectural style is the one used for country/agricultural houses at the beginning of last century in northern Italy. I hope we’re having the restoring finished by the end of this summer: Cà Rossa must be red again!
The garden is 3000 squared meters (about 3/4 of an acre), L-shaped and it used to be a vineyard in the past (neighborhood is rather famous for the production of very good wines like cabernet, merlot, refosco, pinot, tocai, chardonnay and others). We work on a very compact clay: tough work actually but it has its good sides too.
In the good and the bad luck we’re doing all the work on our own. Rudy helps us with the design and Mina is definitely a digger.
About the pets: we have two Jack Russell Terrier with rough fur: Mina (read meena) and Rudy, her son. Rudy is much bigger than standard jack russells but I don’t care. We also have Tigre the cat, she’s a foundling and the wildest soul of the house. Tigre and Rudy get along very well, even if Mina doesn’t approve thet much.
There are several woodpecker living in the neightborhood, sometimes they spend afternoons on the walnut tree laughing out loud. They could be very silly sometimes.
We share the pool with Raimonda as well. She’s a jay. I think she might have puppies somewhere…
AltroVerde 
Hi Alberto, I’m glad you found my blog so that now I have found yours! Our gardens are about the same size and we share some of the same inspirations (Piet Oudolf for one) and I love grasses. i think our climate is quite different even if we are both in Italy. Christina
Christina, I saw analogies between our gardens too. Odd to say but I see a french influence on that lavender bushes hedging of yours. The climate might be different, especially in winter I think. Thanks for passing by.
It is nice to meet you, Alberto. Can you say more exactly where you are gardening? Somewhere in Italy I presume?
Yeah Ca Rossa is in Stino di Livenza, in the Venice county. Livenza is the river that snakes around the town.
It’s nice to meet you too Misha you are an inspiration for roses to me.
Thanks Alberto for visiting my blog, I have just spent a good time exploring yours and will certainly be visiting again.
You are welcome. I am so bored about fairies buzzing around gardening blogs that finding a post about spider webs was a kind of relief. 😉
Hi Alberto – I wont comment about the lovely grasses in your garden (because everyone else has) and how I never thought about planting grasses outside the border of my lawn till I saw your blog.
Please tell me that you are a professional garden designer.
Hey Bag! I’m not a pro!!! I’ll take this as a compliment though! Anyway if gardening was my job I wouldn’t be very rich… I’ve planned this garden for so long, and still I see parts to be re done.
Looks like stipa gigantea on your header. One of my favourite grasses.
It’s one of my faves too but the one on the header is sorghastrum nutans (indian grass). I change the header from time to time though.
Hello Alberto. Thank you for stopping by my blog. I enjoyed touring your garden through your photos. Before I viewed this page, I tried to determine where you were located by looking at your photos. I find it interesting that you have so many plants that are native to North America. American grasses and flowers seem to find more favor in Europe than in America. I guess people consider them weeds here because they are common. Not me. Most of the plants in my garden are native to my state. Do you also grow plants that are native to your region?
Beatiful pictures and beautiful garden. Good luck renovating the house. You have many projects to keep you busy.
Hi! You are right, ‘american weeds’ are considered exotic beauties abroad. I also have local native plants, especially trees and shrubs, I keep some carex and some others but honestly there’s nothing like oriental miscanthus or american panicums around here. I liked your blog because it’s interesting for me to understand how the plants I love live in their native ground, so I can understand how to cultivate them here.
Alberto your blog is becoming quite fascinating! Love your pics, too!
Sabina
Finally you plucked your courage and commented on my blog!!! I’m proud of you Lori! Un abbraccio.
Hi Alberto, this is Angie from CdG. I’ve just sent you a message but it failed! Please could you give me your email address? Ciao ciao!!
Congratulations! I’ve nominated you for the Liebster Blog Award. For the rules andmy 11 questions, please visit the post http://nittygrittydirtman.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/and-the-liebst…-award-goes-to/
I love your blog so am very pleased to have stumbled upon it. We have clay soil too but that is the only similarity as we live in very different parts of the world. I look forward to reading more…
Hi! I’m glad you enjoyed the visit. I had a glance at your snowy garden and the other blog too. I have an aquarium too but I only keep African cichlids with no plants in ca. 250lt of water: quite different even on that! 🙂
Wow, I can imagine a single species tank one day and I love cichlids. If you haven’t already, post a photo please!
I was gladdened by your interest in our irises from their mention in Christina’s Blog. I normally don’t do blogs, nor even know how to, but wanted to say thanks for the interest in our ‘private’ garden in Lazio. I really enjoyed the glimpse of your site, especially with good friends about, like “Fruhlingsgold”. Also enjoyed your brief intro, way back when. Will happily send you more photos of the irises etc. we have here, sending to your email address perhaps. Don’t even know how to manage Facebook! Once again, thanks for the interest.
Hi Kevin! Thanks for your comment I’m going to contact you via mail, as you prefer! 😉
still waiting to hear from you. Enjoying your blog. Irises are very well past it by now, but everything else is rampant!
WOW. I just found your blog and have to say I am very impressed with your garden, the plants and photographs. I need to spend more time discovering your garden but I am looking forward to that. Congratulations.
Thank you ‘biker’! I’m always glad to receive visits and comments from people!
Well it is good to know you and will be back 🙂