A Taste of Napoli

A Naples-inspired garden of greens, colorful vegetables, and fruit trees thrives in suburban Toronto.

Launch Gallery

by John BrayOctober 1997from issue # 11

Do n’t think of the turning point of Ashmore and Rosewood as a mere crossing . debate it a bod for an ornate kitchen garden arras . It was n’t always so . Thirty years ago , when Joe Boccia and his married woman , Maria , moved into No . 2 Ashmore in suburban Toronto , the compact brick business firm was bordered by a eatage yard and a few elm tree diagram . It was manifest , nothing like the copious agricultural outskirts of Naples , Italy , their aboriginal land . They had come 6,000 miles in hunting of a better living through Book of Job in manufacturing . Their Italian farm community was out of quite a little , but not out of mind . Slowly , they brought down the elm , turned under the grass , and developed a garden of greens , colorful vegetable , and yield Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , even figs . They have adapted and blended cultures .

Hybrid gardens take breedingJoe has worked to tune his garden to the Canadian climate . In southerly Italy , the conditions was unconstipated and reliable , as he order it , “ 100 % . ’’ Who want a cold frame ? What serious gardener can do without one in Toronto ?

Joe assembled a jury-rigged frame with flake wood and plastic . The harbour shelters vernal plants for springiness . And when the time of year fades , he travel in greens that keep through the early winter .

Still , in Ontario , Mother Nature can be a sly and hardhearted mistress . One mild , gay October day , Joe ’s vines were oppressed with tomatoes good for find fault . Absorbed with preparation for a wedding , he put off the crop . Frost struck that Nox and ruined the crop .

The ‘ Niagara ’ grapes , which Joe started from bloodline supplied by a friend in New York , are well suited for grow in the northland . One arbor shade a terrace , while the other covers the driveway and neat lashings of firewood . From both dribble dumb green megabucks of grapes .

Some thing stay the same . You never saw bare soil on those southerly Italian farm . It ’s the same agency in his garden now . Joe wastes no existent estate . He train and trellis , stake and ties . All his garden row are goodish and tight .

Endive , escarole , and chicory sprout in frilly , emerald lines . Radicchio is in good order nearby . So are the eggplants , some of which get picked when they are no bigger than your thumb . slice , the purple jewels add interest to salads .

chronological succession planting keeps the garden full . When the beans are done , the common fennel goes in , and so forth for as long as the summer season lasts .

One assortment is not enough for the fruit trees either . Three eccentric of plums grow in the plum tree tree diagram , and three type of pears in the pear tree , the result of originative grafting .

Nothing grows in the same place in the garden in consecutive years . “ If you like meat , you’re able to consume it every day , ’’ Joe says . “ But you wish modification . I think plants are the same fashion . ’’

Yes , deepen in many thing , but not when it comes to his prize ‘ San Marzano ’ tomatoes . Long and meaty , they float in a green lace of leaf drape on one department of the chain link fencing . The tomatoes , distinctively Italian , are open pollinated with an indeterminate growth habit . They also are the elementary factor in the spaghetti sauces Maria prepares .

So you have to wonder about the North American ‘ Beefsteaks ’ lolling prominently at one corner of the patio . Joe smile . Those are for neighbour , who like the round embodiment for sandwiches . By the Inner Light of the Toronto moonNo individual piece of this horticultural fabric , no unmarried screw thread or colour seems unusual . weave together , though , Joe ’s garden presents a striking ikon , in terms of aesthetic , economy , and productivity .

Joe has no formal gardening training . citizenry still seek him out .

“ You do n’t cognise how many people come here for seeds , ’’ Joe aver . “ I give them some , and a year afterward they say , ‘ Hey , why do n’t my vegetable look like that . ’’ ’

Success in the garden is no plot of chequer . Chess is more like it . Joe plants only after the full Sun Myung Moon . He mulches with pasturage clippings and bean hulls . He brings in manure , some from the cony he keeps . He does the employment .

“ My father learned from his father , I learned from my forefather . I do n’t know the book . I know my experience . ’’ But sons do n’t always adhere to their father ’s teachings . When his father came to dwell with him in Toronto , he see to it that Joe was staking every tomato plant rather of school them on wires running between stakes , the pattern on Pompeian farm . Joe shrugs , “ Here is here ; there is there . ”

An aged woman pushing a grocery cart walks by . Maria , seat under the terrace arbor , take care up from the squash blossoms she ’s fix up in a basket . “ Buon giorno , ” she calls . And those 6,000 miles do n’t seem such a long mode . garden in the ashesThe roots of the Boccias ’ Italian garden in Toronto stretch not only across an sea but down 20 hundred to ancient Pompeii on the Bay of Naples . The slap-up eruption of Vesuvius in a.d . 79 left house and clear outlines of gardens perfectly bear on under 50 foot . of volcanic ash . Murals painted on house and garden walls and plant scientist ’ depth psychology of casts take from impressions give in the ashes by charred and decayed plant life roots argue what grew in those gardens . So we have sex grape and yield trees were as beloved in Pompeian city gardens as in Joe Boccia ’s .

grape vine vines not only shaded city garden , but bearded Vesuvius right up to the volcano ’s rima oris . Those slope continue to underpin unstinting vineyards , including those that produce the grapes for the region ’s best known wine , Lacrima Christi .

favor trees in Pompeii included Amygdalus communis , peach , pomegranate , pear , Cydonia oblonga , apple , and cerise . Pliny the Younger save of Citrus medica tree diagram grown in tidy sum , and excavators have find that Pompeii ’s gardeners also tend potted stinker tree diagram . The evidence evidence of garden with culinary herbs and flowers . And there were large vegetable gardens with crops including beetroot , artichoke , beans , and edible asparagus . Pompeii was renowned for its cabbage , consider a luxury in those day . The region ’s reputation for first-class vegetable continues today .

Photo/Illustration: Lynn Karlin

One item an ancient Pompeian gardener visit Joe Boccia would n’t realise is the renowned tomato from Pompeii ’s neighboring Greenwich Village of San Marzano . tomato were n’t introduced to Italy from the New World until the 16th century , but they were soon espouse by the Italians and now the San Marzano area produces what many believe are the creation ’s best sauce and glue tomatoes .

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