Hidden Gardens
One of the things I love about Positano are the hidden gardens, some in places you might think impossible to put one plant, let along many! While tripping up and down the stairs, one glances through a garden gate or a crack in the wall and there beyond is a tiny marvel of botanical joy! Vegetable gardens are supported mid-wall with milk crates, laundry baskets or whatever will contain the heavy squash or zucca the plants produce so lavishly. And peaking out between the vines you see rosemary, arugula, hot peppers and mint. Of course there are still the large gardens, either tended in neat rows or growing down a hill or wall in a crazy quilt of basil, tomatoes, eggplant and oregano.
Shading these Italian beauties you will find lemon trees and fig trees, huge flowering Datura plants and the silvery and delicate olive trees. Hanging over stone pathways and stairs grow huge prickly pears and pomegranates, dropping their overripe fruit on unwary hikers like luscious grenades. Our garden at Calipe has two kinds of tomatoes, (cherry and San Marzano), eggplant, hot peppers and herbs such as basil, parsley, mint, and rosemary. We have a lemon tree, a mapo tree (a small sour orange) a fig and a huge laurel tree. It’s a pretty big and well ordered garden but just out of sight around the corner and under the stairway is a tiny hidden garden filled with miniature cacti and succulents! It is so well hidden that it took me several visits to find it. That is where our plastic flamingos spend there time when we are not there, peaking out through the lower gate at passersbys, inviting them to steal a glimpse of our own hidden garden!