I have decided to post some images of the slope every week. It is the part of the garden that changes the most throughout the year. This part of the garden has large naturalistic drifts of plants, some are wild plants that blow into the garden, like the Verbascum that are about to flower, others are plants that just self-seed and so they choose where to plant themselves.
When I started the planting the slope I intended that it should be a little bit like a meadow with lots of Stipa tenuissima. There are still lots of Stipa but other plants have made their presence felt so it is now more prairie than meadow.
In future weeks I’ll try to post on Tuesdays to coincide with Cathy’s Words and Herbs Tuesday at Two post; it isn’t a meme but it seems like a fun thing to do (I doubt that I’ll be organised enough to post at the same time of day; this is relaxed Italy after all and not super efficient Germany!
Evening Light 10th June
Evening Light 10th June
Salvia turkestanica are flowering
11th June, morning
There are still lots of Californian Poppies but their foliage isn’t looking so good now. I’m about to collect seed as the seed pods are ready to burst and I want some to give friends.
11th June, morning
Solanum jasminoides has been flowering for a while, with all the rain it has grown huge!
Tubaglia
11th June, morning
11th June, morning
Creating my own garden of the Hesperides 
Christina I love the slope garden and your pictures just reinforce it more especially that last shot with all those poppies and grasses…indeed it looks like a meadow!
thanks Donna; I think it is my favourite part of the garden, even if it really has the least input from me or maybe because of that as it consistantly surprises me. Christina
Wonderful!
So lovely! I have always liked this garden as well…. though I love your lavender beds too. The Salvia turkestanica are wonderful; so very large. What are the white flowers on the bush in the fourth photo?
Excellent planting for succession, Christina!
The large bush is Solanum jasminoides, there are also erigeron and white gaura. Christina
I just love your slope so it will be fun to follow its changing characteristics. The Salvia turkestanica is new to me–will have to look for it.
It is a biennial but I just allow it to self seed. Its common name in english is “house maid’s armpits” which gives you an idea of hoe it smells, but only after it has flowered, not before – I’ve no idea why. Christina
Christina, it looks beautiful any time of day and such lovely drifts, I love the last photo, Frances
Thanks Frances, I’m glad you like it. Christina
The slope looks exuberant and bursting with colour. The last photograph looks like a painting.
I’d like to experiment with taking images that I then played around with to make them seem like a tapestry or an impressionist painting. Christina
Hi Christina! So glad you’re joining in with the regular “view”. (And thanks for the mention too!) Your slope is so beautiful – the way everything seems to blend together with the wafts of grasses between to highlight the splashes of colour. I do find it inspiring! It will be great to see the changes through the seasons.
I hope I can be as consistant as you Cathy in making the posts. Christina
I like the evening light pictures,which is heartening because I am not much of a morning person.
In Italy the light is so strong during the day that for photographs early morning or dusk is the best time to capture the garden.
Hi Christina, you know you can schedule a draft to be published on a certain date and time, right? So you can enjoy your italian lazy afternoon and wordpress does the dirty job for you!
Love your slope, it is truly very shifting, which is a very interesting feature for those places in the garden normally considered difficult to manage.
I love that salvia turkestanica, I have a couple of ‘vatican white’ that fuss a little, my previous garden was full of seedlings everywhere and the dogs used to come in perfumed after chasing lizards under that salvias…
Thanks Alberto, yes I often schedule posts for other times, but even getting the photos taken and changing them to a size I can upload can take time! A dog smelling of Salvia turkestanica would not be a pleasant pet to have close by. Christina
Well that salvia certainly smells better than my dogs!!! (Seriously, I like that scent indeed!)
Ican’t seriously believe that Alberto; if I accidently brush by it I have to go and take a shower and even then I can still smell it. The strange thing is it doesn’t start smelling until the flowers start blooming – a pretty strange adaptation. Christina
Love your slope, the poppies make it sing! There must be lovely movement with the grasses when there is a breeze. This is the sort of planting I should have had at our last house in the north west which was built on a sand dune!
There is, as I think I may have mentioned serveral times!, almost always wind blowing in my garden so the Stipa look wonderful wafting about. I love all grasses for their movement. Christina
I particularly love the final picture where the waves of stipa roll through the fiery colours, beautiful.
The last image seems to be the one everyone likes. Christina
Gorgeous, gorgeous, and I agree that the last photo is fabulous. My own slope continues to vex me, and yours continues to inspire and give me something to aim for.
Slopes are difficult because they will always be dry at least at the top. I would suggest natives that happily self-seed as the option that is most likely to succeed. Christina
Che bella la tua scarpata Christina! Sono contenta di aver conosciuto non solo una gentilissima persona quale tu sei, ma anche una continua fonte d’ispirazione per le tante cose nuove che dovrò fare nel mio giardino!
E’ molto lunga la fioritura dei papaveri…
Sì i papaveri californiani fioriscono per molto tempo e pure si auto semina, io penso che ci siano già alcune che sono germinati e si sono cominciati fioriscono anche loro. Christina
That last photo is like an Impressionist painting. I love stipa and need to find a spot for it in my garden.
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